Review of Oswald: Hats Off To Oswald

Introduction

I guess part of the fun of being a `staff reviewer` is never really knowing what will end up in the disc tray of your favourite DVD player. Of course we get to request the discs we would most like to review but occasionally we get it wrong and request a disc that sounds like one thing but turns out to be quite another. (See my recent review of `The Green Ray` which turned out to be anything other than a 1950`s B-movie about a giant alien laser beam burning up the earth`s surface…). So just for starters I may as well tell you now that `Hats off to Oswald` is not a charming 1950`s British comedy about life in the upper crust. What kind of fool reviewer would have supposed it to be in any case?
Anyway, duty calling I placed the disc back into the player and steeled myself for 90 minutes of pre-school age entertainment - and was astonishingly charmed by the whole affair.

Oswald (as any viewer of pre-school television could probably tell you) is a blue octopus who, according to the producers of this series, "…gently guides (the viewer) through a crazy, off kilter and sometimes whimsical world." Which I guess is pretty much the case, though the world that Oswald occupies (Big City) is a wonderful one - simple, calming and colourful. Of course not all goes to plan, but problems are easily solved with simple lessons learnt on the way. Again to quote: "The stories focus on experiences and dilemmas that young children face…" which according to the episodes here must include chasing an endlessly unravelling ball of wool, and being one marshmallow short of a full set.

The characters are charming. Oswald is a likable and well-meaning octopus who sports a tiny black bowler hat upon his enormous head. His sidekick, Weenie Girl, is a likable dachsund and his other friends include an incredibly formal penguin, and a pumpkin headed sweet shop owner. Pretty standard fayre for the average 3 year old.

The soundtrack uses wonderful musical punctuation and atmosphere with various combinations of piano, flute and cello which gives the programme a reassuringly calm pace and atmosphere. There are four episodes included here; Ball of wool, One more Marshmallow, Cloud Collecting and The Sniffles.

Video

Standard 4:3 Ratio, this is a very clean digital transfer to DVD. The colours are vibrant and the images delightfully crisp.

Audio

Dolby Digital. This is a charmingly simple soundtrack with the use of natural acoustic instruments for musical punctuation. The voices are excellently recorded and the mix is very satisfactory.

Features

There are a couple of reasonable `books` in the form of pictorial slide-shows for parents to share with their children. One is entitles `Counting with Oswald` and is essentially just that. The other is curiously entitled `Photo Gallery` but is really a slide-show of captioned stills that sometimes include an observational question. There is a section entitled `Your Child and Oswald` but this turns out to be a mere two sentences of text and hardly registers on the `Extra Features` Richter scale. There`s also a link to the Oswald website (www.oswaldoctopus.com) and subtitles on or off options.

Conclusion

`Hats off to Oswald` is a charming animated series for the under fives. It`s vibrant, colourful, engaging and creative. Having had two children of my own pass through this pre-school age I`ve viewed many programmes targeted at this age group. Some of it has been positively inspiring; some has been engaging but `sickly`, and some downright awful. Oswald definitely fits into the former-most category and I would have no hesitation in recommending it as essential viewing for the under fives. It`s also worth remembering that this age group thrives on repetition, and watching `Hats off to Oswald` fifty times could be a lot less painful than Barney.