Review of Teletubbies: Happy Birthday

Introduction

Uh-oh. Has it really been ten years since the Teletubbies first hit the screen? Apparently. I saw it mentioned on political programme this week when discussing the ten year reign of New Labour. That`s a long time. Too long for the latter in my humble, but that`s for another day.

Despite, or maybe simply because, of its popularity amongst parents and toddlers alike, Teletubbies has not been without its controversies over the years. There`s been the furore in the US Bible belt over Tinky Winky`s handbag in 1999. Evangelist Jerry Falwell decided it was his duty to warn parents that Tinky Winky could be a hidden homosexual symbol. The reasoning? The colour purple is the colour apparently adopted by Gay Pride and his triangular antenna is the same shape as their emblem/logo. Wow. I didn`t know that, but then I`m not obsessed with finding strange links like that. That wasn`t the only one though. A year later, a childrens Tinky Winky toy was reported as saying `I`ve got a gun`, which you would have thought would have gone down well with the NRA and their ilk, but no. Actually it supposedly was saying `Again, again` which may well sound like the reported quote if you listen hard enough to sampled speech through cheap tiny tinny speakers and have an active adult imagination. That Tinky Winky, eh? Always trying to start something…

Neither of these incidents or the News Of The World expose of one of the people in the suits (as I dimly recall, my mind may be playing tricks on me though), has even come close to denting the popularity of the show though. They even conquered the charts in 1997 with a number 1 hit of Teletubbies Say Eh-Oh. Eh-Oh, indeed.

The BBC have, in their wisdom, decided to celebrate this anniversary of possibly their most commercially successful childrens programme with a special anniversary DVD release. A two disc set, this collection brings together the ten best episodes across the years as voted for by Mother And Baby magazine. Guess they`d know if no one else, eh?

Video

Nice bright and vibrant colours with picture in 4:3. The computer animation used is a bit rudimentary but we`re not talking Hollywood budgets here, so it`ll do.

Audio

Dolby Stereo soundtrack, as with most things BBC there`s been a lot of thought gone into the sound design of this series. Yeah, it`s just for toddlers (and students…), but you could argue that that makes it more important. Nice bouncy soundtrack that`s also well sub-titled.

Features

Top Ten Teletubby Moments - can you guess what`s at number 1? Luckily this is not an excuse to get some Z-list has-beens in to wax lyrical over their favourite moments, that would have been too much to handle.

Weblinks - to the Teletubby and CBeebies websites.

Conclusion

The Beeb have put some thought into this release, right from the bright shiny shiny gold artwork design, which near blinded me when it caught a piece of the sun, but hey that`s the danger of being a DVD reviewer. You just never know what you`re going to be faced with when that package arrives from Reviewer Towers.

This is a very toddler friendly release. Nice menu design, big subtitles with a kid friendly font. Whilst I couldn`t watch more than one episode by myself, I think that the choices made by the voters of Mother and Baby magazine have probably done their thing and made a decent choice of episodes that they can watch with their toddlers. And that`s the thing about things like Teletubbies, it`s not there just to be watched like so many other things; unless you`re a student, obviously. Teletubbies is something that parents sit and watch with their young ones and interact together. There really isn`t that much going on over the course of any episode, and some of it is repeated as well, but that just gives the parent the time to talk and listen to their children.

There are elements of Teletubbies in both style and presentation that link to the long legacy of childrens programming from the BBC, right back through the likes of Playschool. It`s predictable, sure, but it helps toddlers and helps the bonding process between parent and child. That`ll do for me.

This release doesn`t need selling. You`ll know if you want it or not.