Review of World of Beatrix Potter & Friends (Box Set)

Introduction

I remember the original little books featuring Peter Rabbit as being some of the earliest (and most loved) stories I had as a child and I was therefore both excited and worried about these episodes when they were first released.....

Featuring an excellent voice cast and some lovely animation, these were deservedly popular amongst children and adults alike when first screened on the TV.

The stories themselves started as letters that Beatrix Potter wrote to the children of friends and relatives when they were ill and grew from there into the series of little books we know today.

Video

The video quality on all three discs is excellent. Presented in the original TV resolution of 4:3, all three discs have been digitally remastered - but not excessively so.

Each episode is wonderfully animated and coloured, the characters looking just like the drawings from the books, come alive. The episodes start with `Beatrix Potter` wondering around her house, or the counrtyside, or performing some job or other and she gently leads you into the animated world of her tales.

The digital remastering hasn`t been performed too harshly, there is a slight edginess in some cases but it`s not intrusive. Colours are all presented very well and there are no obvious signs of digital artefacts. There are some slight analogue marks and scratches but these never intrude.

The DVD menu is easy to navigate, indeed the whole set is designed with children in mind. When you `choose a tale`, you get a list of animated chapter headings - or you can choose to view the whole tale in one go.

Audio

The episodes (and the DVD menu) are all in stereo. The menu has a nice piano accompaniment.

The voices are all very well presented, not harsh or muddy and incidental sounds are never intrusive.

Features

Lots :)

There is a lot of information here, a lot of it especially interesting to both children and adult fans of Beatrix Potter. Spread over the three discs are such things as a featurette on the letters that Beatrix Potter actually wrote, giving the history behind them and specifically the history of the original Peter Rabbit book, many stills (a gallery on each disc), a biography, some fun nursery rhymes and more.

These are all well worth the time to explore and really add some extra value to each disc.

Conclusion

An excellent series. Whether you are a fan, your children are fans or you just need something to keep them quiet on a rainy day, these discs are excellent. Each tale has a nice moral behind it too, so you don`t even have to feel guilty :)

Whilst they don`t feature cutting edge sound and vision, they make up for it with decent content!