Review of Danger Mouse: Who Stole The Bagpipes?

Introduction

Another eight adventures for the wily, one-eyed rodent and his Cricetidaean (hamsterish) sidekick. As usual, these consist of improbable situations, terrible puns and voices supplied by the great David Jason, Terry Scott and Brian Trueman.

This time around, Dangermouse and Penfold face live bagpipes, giant spiders, giant chickens and ghosts. Even the perils of cloning are investigated in one episode that more than proves you can have too much of a good thing.

A word of caution if you have Dangermouse fans in the family - check the titles you already have against the episodes on this disc. There is an Easter Egg (accessed through highlighting the bagpipe in the main menu), of the second pilot episode. This "The Mystery Of The Lost Chord" has already been available on the "Tower of Terror" aka "The Great Bone Idol" disc, although it is the first time it has been available alongside its "remake" "Who Stole The Bagpipes?".

Video

The eight episodes on the disc come in a variety of conditions, not necessarily anything to do with the age of the episode. There are two distinct title sequences employed, indicating that the episodes come from different years of production. Some episodes show print deterioration, others are as clean as their original broadcast, although some of the artefacts visible were obviously present in the original production. The animation also varies from episode to episode, with some scenes developed in the most minimalist animation where others have been executed with the care of genuine character animation.

Audio

Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono

Features

With the exception of the bonus episode mentioned above and a series of "Cast" screens about DM and the other characters, this is a very bare disc, not even including subtitles.

Conclusion

Fun for all the family. I particularly enjoyed "Tiptoe Through The Penfolds", but I am troubled by Pearsons` (now Fremantle Media) habit of rereleasing titles under different names. It may pay to find some learned work on the Dangermouse cartoons to avoid needless repetition.