Dom Robinson reviews

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Cert:

Cat.no: KK 41001

Running time: 195 minutes

Year: 1976

Pressing: 2000

Region(s): 2, PAL

Chapters: 13

Sound: Mono

Languages: English

Subtitles: None

Fullscreen: 4:3

16:9-Enhanced: No

Macrovision: Yes

Disc Format: DVD 9

Price: £9.99

Extras : Scene index

Producer:

David Yates

Creator and writer:

Julie Holder

Music:

Paul Reade

Narrator:

Gay Soaper

The Complete Flumps is, as the title would suggest, a complete collection of every episode of the fantastic children's TV series featuring an animated family of puppets known as The Flumps: three adults (Father Flump, Mother Flump, Grandfather Flump) and three children (son Perkin, daughter Posie and baby Pootle).

Currently, children's TV is defined as a bunch of over-rated actors jumping about in coloured suits somewhere in Teletubby land, but nearly 25 years ago puppets were still the answer and anyone who grew up watching The Flumps will snap this one up before they've finished reading the review.

Those of you who have children should buy it, not only to educate them, but also to re-educate yourself as you get to know all thirteen episodes created :

1. Secrets
2. The Cloud
3. The Magnet
4. Get Your Skates On
5. Moon Shot
6. Balloons
7. Keep Fit
8. Something Different
9. Lend A Hand
10. Quiet Please
11. Grandfather's Birthday
12. What a Carrot!
13. Where's Grandfather?

Of course I could say plenty more about the contents of each episode, but... SSH! Keep it under your hat - it's a secret!

If there's one thing that, sadly, has to be said it's that the picture quality isn't perfect, by a long shot. Presented in its original 4:3 ratio, there's plenty of scratches on the print, it's occasionally a bit too dark, it flickers at times and it moves very slightly left and right so doesn't sit still as you'd expect. The average bitrate is 5.50Mb/s.

The sound fares a bit better. There's some background hiss throughout, but Gay Soaper's narration comes across clear and Paul Reade's twee music, particularly the theme tune, brings the memories flooding back.

Extras :

Chapters :

Languages and Subtitles :

Menu :

Perkin resisted his Grandfather's urge to blow on his horn.

When I first heard that The Flumps was to be released on DVD it made my heart race. To learn afterwards that we would be treated to all thirteen episodes ever made and that it would come for the same price as the VHS release, £9.99, it sounded like the DVD bargain of the year.

I dare you not to laugh out loud in scenes such as those in The Cloud. Mother asks a sick Perkin if he's feels alright. He replies with the sort of wild-eyed innocence that can only be found these days in Homer Simpson :

After complaining further and being asked by Mother if he got out of bed on the wrong side this morning :

Later as Perkin's siblings attempt to rid him of his cloud, Posie suggests a "Go away cloud" song. Pootle replies :

Ok, so the picture and sound quality aren't all that they could be in the days when DVD can provide Hollywood films in a high-quality anamorphic widescreen standard... but then this isn't the latest Arnie blockbuster, this is something that dreams were made of.

And forget about the fact that there are no extras and that for some reason, Kult Kidz have disabled the bookmark feature so you can't save your favourite moment, I have yet to see another disc released so far this year that can make me smile constantly for over three hours (apart from a Ben Dover double bill :) as I personally recall every last detail of each episode.

So stuff George Lucas and his "Episode I", shell out a tenner today and get episodes 1-13 of The Flumps. Simple arithmetic below gives an overall score of half-marks, but for this price go by the score for film content.