Hi-5 Collection



Synopsis

There are three volumes under review here: “Color Craze,” “Music Magic,” and “GameTime.” Imagine a kids’ show taken over by a co-ed version of the Backstreet Boys, and you’llhave some sense of what these shows are like. A group of 5 young people sing and danceenergetically, and then, in individual segments, each host focuses on a different specialty (onedoes shapes, another movement, and so on). Other segments consists of more song, storytelling,activities, and so on. I won…t pretend to be properly qualified to judge these offerings, but theydo strike me as rather condescending when compared to Sesame Street.

Audio

The sound is 2.0, which is all you need here. Only the songs (which I confess had the rightcombination of poppy bouncy, sugar, and inane lyrics to really put my teeth on edge) require anysurround, and the mix here is good. Otherwise, the sound design is extremely simple and clear,and surround would be out of place.

Video

There is some pixelation present here. The colours are very bright, but the reds are out ofcontrol. The brightness of the image will appeal to the target viewers, who won’t worry too muchabout screen flaws, either, but this is generally a pretty standard TV transfer.

Special Features

Most of the special features consist in different viewing options of the same material: do youwant to watch the shows in their entirety? just the stories? just the songs? all the segments witha particular host? The same goes for the music extras. You can play the big production numberon each disc either straight, in sing-along form, or in karaoke form (lyrics on the screen, butvocals turned off). The menu is scored throughout, and there’s some limited movement on themain screen.

Closing Thoughts

Something tells me that your young’uns aren’t going to disappear for hours into this material,but I could be wrong.

Special Features List

• Viewing Options
• Karaoke/Sing-Along Options