Review of Egypt Mania

Introduction

In Cairo`s Tahir Square stands the beautiful Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, colloquially the Egypt Museum. Established in the early 19th century with the purpose of preserving and protecting national artefacts and to reduce theft from historical sites around the country, the jewel in the museum`s crown are the objects found in the tomb of the Pharaoh Tutankhamun, discovered during the excavation of the Valley of The Kings in the 1920s.

`Egypt Mania`, produced for DeAgostini - they of the collectable periodics - is a tour around the magnificent objects housed there with narration from Charles Webster.

Video

4:3 full frame, the visuals unfortunately don`t belie the DVDs budget origins. While for the most part the picture is sharp and colourful, there`s a fair bit of noise and compression-based pixellation, with a couple of nods to poor authoring, most obviously with the picture being streaked with digital artefacts on a couple of occasions.

Audio

A perfectly fine Dolby Digital 2.0 track, although Webster`s nasal narration and the odd mispronunciation is a little grating.

Features

None.

Conclusion

There`s nothing quite as interesting as a trip to a good history museum. Surrounded by important relics, monuments and exhibits dedicated to cultures old and ancient, they create a real connection to the past and, if you`re willing, can utterly immerses you in a time gone by. On the other hand, there`s nothing quite as dull as pretending you`re on a trip to a good museum by watching a DVD in your front room. Strike one for `Egypt Mania`. In an attempt to counter-balance this, the disc displays shades of a half-hearted lesson in Egyptian history, presented documentary-style in order to lend context and explanation to the often exquisite items on display; using a mixture of simplistic, Amiga 2000-type CGI and stock footage, the DVD attempts to re-create the experience of seeing Egypt as it once was, and gives a brisk, skimming overview of one of the world`s oldest civilisations. The problem is it`s tied to particular objects and artefacts, offering no real insights into the ancient cultures of the Pharaohs and their kin bar what`s inscribed on the side of a vase.

`Egypt Mania` isn`t a million miles away from the sort of video presentation or virtual tour that might be part of an actual museum visit. So just who this DVD is aimed at, its appeal as home entertainment, is a bit of a mystery. Those with a burgeoning interest in Egyptology will probably find something of interest even though no amount of back story and detailed interpretation of the relics can make up for actually being there in person, not to mention there is an easily available plethora of well written books on the treasures of Egypt and their significance. The most obvious use - as an educational tool - too seems somewhat flawed due to the rather muddled, amorphous presentation and the distilled nature of the bluffer`s guide to Egyptian history spliced into the presentation and examination of the antiquities. To put it simply, `Egypt Mania` just isn`t that interesting, certainly not as interesting as it perhaps could have been with a more rigid structure to the documentary aspect. Some of the objects the museum houses are fascinating and beautiful, but in the age of a multitude of dedicated history and documentary channels on cable and satellite television with Ancient Egypt as a popular staple, there really isn`t much of a place for lopsided, unpolished, hybrid edutainment.