Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Yes, this is for the most part a remake of the decade old Wiggles Dance Party. Some people will contend that this is a good thing because that video shows the children's group early on without the advantages of a big budget for fancy sets and costumes. However, that video has a few things going for it that this stale and plodding remake doesn't: Charm, Wit and Enthusiam. There's just no Wiggly magic in this DVD.
As with the last few Wiggles DVD releases (Cold Spagetti Western and Sailing Around The World) this project just feels slapped together to make a quick buck. A remake of old tunes where the aging Wiggles quickly sleepwalk and lipsynch through some of their older tunes in a halfhearted effort to milk a cashcow. Yes, now the Wiggles can drive down a crowded Austrailian freeway in their fancy Big Red Car golf cart on the back of a flatbed truck but how cool is that when nothing feels inspired about the effort? The extensive touring these guys have been doing around the world of the last few years have made then wealthy and may prohibit them from having the time of turning out a good collection of new tunes/a descent DVD as you can tell the kiddie fab four are overworked these days and just aren't enjoying the gig like they used too. It's the kids entertainment and parents wallet that suffers as a result.
Missed is the peppy interaction of the 4 wiggles with one another in their wiggly world, the campy wiggly settings are gone, the young kids who interacted and danced with the wiggles have been majorly scaled back, officer beeples is MIA, the waggettes and AWOL, and the overall charm the group used to be shrouded with is dissapating. Now we get the feeling that the wiggles are more interested in touring, putting in quick appearences in their features, and turning more of the entertainment duties to the bumbling raspy singing tone deaf Captian Feathersword.
Now My kids love the good Captain when he's a secondary player that compliments the Wiggles. They quickly lose interest when he's the spotlight character though. He gets boring fast when thrust into that role with his way too large, wooden and humorless crew. The dozen or so crew members try their best to but funny but only come off robotic, overly corny and irritating. All of their scenes are poorly written, seem forced, and majorly dumbed down to even pre-schoolers. When the Wiggles were at their best they didn't treat their young audience like they were stupid. If the creative force behind these DVD efforts wants to spin the Captain off into his own series then I wish they'd get along with it; My kids and I want to see the Wiggles featured when we buy a Wiggles DVD. A little Captain Feathersword is an enjoyable thing; when he carries the show it's con job and an annoyance. I'll skip over the whole sequence where the crew keeps saying that the new pointless admiral character "Really is a good bloke!" everytime we watch this DVD in the future (thankfully it won't be often).
The two all new songs are a mixed bag as well. I don't like the captian's raspy sandpaper voice and it's best used is small quanties when propped up by Dorothy's and Greg's beautiful singing. No such luck here... "I Want To Wear The Jacket" is as repetitive as it is abysmal. The remakes of his other classic Feathersword tunes aren't too bad but the dancing sequences are uninspired. The other only other new tune is also a Captian lead song called "Sorry Again". It's got a good morale message and is propped up by some good backup vocals.
Overall "Here Comes The Big Red Car" is another poor tossed together buffet of past Wiggly classics with a huge side helping of overcooked Captain Feathersword. I hope whoever is managing and directing the Wiggles careers gets their act together because they are ruining a once great property with their poor DVD efforts. Almost all of these songs have been done several times on DVD before and pulled off with more enthusiam, panache, and sincerity.
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The Wiggles: Here Comes the Big Red Car (2006)
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