Review of Pingu And The Toyshop

Introduction

Pingu is the mischievous penguin whose antics have entertained younger children for many a year now. The icy home of the young rascal is presented in clay animation, as are his friends and family. In five-minute short stories, he invariably gets into some sort of trouble, resulting in an important lesson to be learned. It`s entertaining and educational, and a great deal of fun too, a combination much aspired to by the pre-school market but rarely achieved.

This disc from HIT Entertainment contains nine more adventures with everyone`s favourite penguin.

Pingu and the Toy Shop
Pingu and the Paper Mache
Sore Tummy Pingu
Pingu Gets Carried Away
Pingu and the School Pet
Pampering Pingu
Green-Eyed Pingu
Pingu Wraps Up
Pingu and the Fish Flute

Video

Pingu`s adventures are presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen. The image is perfectly fine and will satisfy even the most discerning of toddlers. The animation is dynamic and effective, making Pingu`s antics particularly appealing. Everything moves at a swift pace, cramming a fair bit of story into a brief five-minute running time.

Audio

The sound is presented in DD 2.0 Penguin stereo. You won`t be surprised to learn that there are no subtitles for this release. There is a little bit of separation in the audio, with a few of the effects having some directionality to them. It`s also amusing to hear Pingu speaking with a French accent in Green-Eyed Pingu.

Features

Some pleasantly animated menus feature the characters from Pingu`s world. If you leave a sub menu open without making a choice, it will eventually default back to the main menu screen.

Primarily there are twelve minutes of trailers for other young children`s titles from HIT Entertainment. Pingu specific extras include a memory game where you have to find a missing crab. There is also a photo gallery with 20 images, and finally a weblink.

Conclusion

I`ve come to a rather reluctant conclusion. I have outgrown Pingu. After all, I`m hardly in university anymore. There is something utterly charming about Pingu as it is ideal pre-school entertainment. Pingu manages to tell entertaining and funny tales, which have an important moral without ever talking down to an audience, or becoming self-important. It`s the best sort of kids` TV in that it teaches without ever being obvious about it.

Much of the charm is in Pingu himself, the mischievous character always seems to get into the worst sort of trouble, but ends up learning a valuable lesson anyway. In these episodes, his greed causes more than one problem whether it`s pestering his mother for a toy, or overeating. His naughtiness causes trouble at a Penguin Beauty Salon, or at school. Perhaps the most surprising of all is when he competes with a friend for the attention of a girl, an episode with the dramatic elegance of an Eastenders script.

Pingu is great pre-school entertainment that even us big kids can occasionally chuckle at. It certainly makes watching with the little ones easier to do if you`re entertained as well. Parents should be aware that there are only 45 minutes of Pingu on this disc, so they should spend accordingly.