Customer Reviews:
Another great collection of episodes!.......2007-03-29
I definately recommend picking this DVD up as it features another 3 episodes in excellent quality (despite the masters not cleaned up) Really enjoyed watching them on DVD and thoroughly look forward to (and hope) for a volume 3 release fairly soon.
My only criticism is that I think the DVD's should contain a couple more episodes per volume (say 5-6 episodes instead of just the 3)
The second volume of a superb series!.......2007-03-09
This second volume of The Dreamstone does indeed contain the 3 episodes; The Invisible Blob, The Voice Of Zordrak and Albert Is Fishnapped, the next 3 episodes of Series 1. There are no extras however on this disk, apart from the same Tempo TV Classics range advert that's at the beginning of this DVD. The menus though look really nice and colourful. Overall a very nice budget title.
Customer Reviews:
A true classic!.......2007-07-02
I used to love watching this show on CITV in the early '90's. I have this DVD on video already, but the DVD is superior in terms of clarity. However, it shows up the original master of the cartoon, as you can see the scratches on the surface of the tape if you look closely at certain intervals. Dpesite its age however, it remains an outstanding cartoon, as Zordrak ruthlessly pursues his quest to steal the Dreamstone from his half brother the Dreammaker and let his Nightmares rule the Land of Dreams as well as his own Land Of Nightmares.
The piano music on the menu is repetitive, and you can tell they use this on all of Abbey Media's childrens' DVD, but nevertheless, it's great just to see a DVD release of this classic cartoon.
A classic UK animation with good animation and better music........2007-03-08
While browsing on youtube I found the intro to this old cartoon I remembered well, Zordrak in paticular. I looked it up on the net and there while the community is small it is very dedicated and I was pleased to hear that this dedication bought a DVD forth.
As the description says this is an award winning series and its easy to see why, great smooth running animation (especially the the first two episodes included on this DVD) set in a fantasy world with amazing creatures that could've came straight out of Tolkein or C.S. Lewis book and brilliant orchestral music like the "Better than a dream" song and "War song of the Urpneys" sang by Brit celebs like Billy Connolly, Frank Bruno and even rock god Ozzy Ozbourne!
Now the good things about this DVD are that it contains the first three episodes of the first season so you can get intoduced to the whole story whether you're a newcomer or watched the show as a kid but don't remember where it all started. The opening two part special has the better animation and what can be a good point is that unlike other cartoons, Death is always a constant threat paticularly at the start when Zordrak throws an unfortunate Urpney to his pets in the pit of no return, now I might state here that this scene is quite distressing to watch because you know the poor creature is devoured by the monsters in the pit (you don't see it happen but just be careful when showing this to children) and when Pildit is almost crushed to death by falling rocks.
Other than that it does have a lighter side especially at the expense of Sgt. Blobb and his two privates who provide comic relief while not being stereotypical blundering henchmen, no, you can actually name the main antagonists because they succeeded in stealing the dreamstone twice on this DVD. Other characters like Rufus and Amberly are the Protagonists in this story. Rufus a Noop who likes to do nothing else but dream during both night and day (and this lands him in trouble with his work) but eventually becomes the apprentice of the dreamaker because of his wild imagination makes him perfectly qualified for the job but he is also very brave, a typical hero but underestimated by his adversaries, Rufus however has proven he's more than capable of going to the land of Nightmares itself and retrieving the dreamstone.
Ameberly is Rufus' best friend, she is also a fellow Noop. So far on this DVD she's really nothing more that a typical damsel in distress, getting captured by Sgt. Blobb in the first episode, turned to stone in the second and then getting possessed by Zordrak himself in the third. But she's proven that there is more to her than meets the eye because she's just as brave as Rufus in every way, so much so she even entered fisticuffs with the three Urpneys!
Lastly the main villain Zordrak is a towering Anthropomorphic Dragon/reptile like creature and is known as 'The lord of Nightmares' his only goal in life is to steal the dreamstone and destroy it so that Nightmares may rule over dreams, innocents forever haunted by their worst fears and forever deprived of sleep. His voice is very good and very evil sounding, very much like Megatron from Transformers or that one horned guy from Dungeons & Dragons but definetly a lot more sinister.
Now unfortunately this DVD is not without its faults, trust me there is NOTHING wrong with the cartoon, it was just presented in a poor package. First off there are only three episodes and I don't think they've even been digitally remastered, you can see the ageing of the animation. Also there are no special features, obviously this DVD was released to purely see how it would sell. However I will give the DVD this; the cover art on the box and CD are very nice, probably drawn recently my Mike Jupp (the Dreamstone creator) for the DVD.
Also speaking of how well this DVD sold, while I haven't seen it in shops (maybe because I wasn't looking for it then as I didn't know it existed) the sales seem to have prompted the DVD company to release another volume (sadly still only a meager three episodes) but I haven't seen it on Amazon yet despite several fan sites stating it was released on the 05/03/07 and there is no information about it on the distributor's site (in fact there isn't any info about the first volume!) but I do urge you to look for it as I will and I also urge you to get this DVD, a must see for animation and fantasy fans! Who knows maybe one day we'll finally get a season 1 box set!
DVD that brings back joyful memories.......2006-03-14
I thought I would never have the chance to see this wonderful cartoon again since I live in France, and this is completely unknown here. I discovered the Dreamstone back in the early 90's when I spent a few years in England.
I'd been hoping it would be released to DVD one day...and to my surprise, I accidently came across a release date on amazon a few weeks ago...did'nt loose a second to order it, and this day has finally come!! The DVD came through my letterbox in southern France this morning.
Seeing this again at lunchtime brought my tears out, and I can only recommend this to everyone, big and small! I can't think of another cartoon that can compete with this: quality, excitement, adventure, humour, music... Everythings pefect!This has always been my favourite cartoon, and will always be...please release some more volumes ;-)
A British classic finally on DVD!.......2006-03-10
I've loved the Dreamstone since I was a young boy (aged 5 to be technical), but this show IS superb.
Mike Jupp's brilliant characters and originality, great voice work and brilliant animation, and of course an exellent music score and theme tune by Mike Batt and the London Philharmonic Orcestra.
The sound quality is great, the picture quality is the same as it was on the VHS copy, but that's better then watching a taped version from the TV with even less in quality, but it dosen't matter, this show is still as exellent now as it's always been.
After Abbey shows you more of their TV Classics titles (with Dreamstone being the last one, but the best one) it goes onto a very basic but very bright and cheerfull menu.
There's no extras but there is easy to access episode menu, with a picture from each episode.
If you want to re-live your childhood memories of this show, then buy the DVD now, and hopefully more will follow.
If you're new to Dreamstone then it's still worth the buy, if you don't fall in love with the characters then the music will surely get you, it's one beautifull piece of music after another.
This show is 10/10 a true British classic.
At Last! The Dreamstone is coming to DVD!.......2006-03-01
The Dreamstone is a fantasy cartoon set in a magical world where a battle is on between good and evil. The good Dreammaker and the evil Zordrak's powers lie in the dreams of the sleeping world. The Dreammaker produces pleasant dreams from his castle tower to protect inhabitants of the Land of Dreams (Noops and Wuts) from Zodrak's evil nightmares (which are called Argorribles) The Dreammaker is assisted by two Noops named Rufus and Amberley. The Argorribles are no match for the magnificent powers of The Dreamstone. Zordrak must steal the Dreamstone and dispose of it, so his Argorribles have a free path to invade peoples dreams and turn them into nightmares. In each episode Zordrak sends his incompetent troops (Urpney's) to steal the Dreamstone for him as he cannot physically leave his black mountain (Viltheed) himself. In particular 3 troops named Seargent Blob, Frizz and Nugg are sent on each mission, always aided by a wacky invention created by Zordrak's scientist and inventor, Urpgor.
The Dreamstone is a fun and wacky cartoon created by Mike Jupp. It's wackiness lies in the excellent comedy curtesy of the 3 incompetent Urpney's and there half hashed attempts at stealing the Dreamstone, which always end in disaster.
The voice acting on this series is excellent, especially the booming and frightening tones of Zordrak (voiced by the excellent Gary Martin) and the comedic voices of the Urpney's with Frizz in particular (voiced by Melvyn Hayes, who you might recognize from him doing the voice of Skeleton on Superted)
The excellent music for the series was composed by Mike Batt. Most people will likely remember the theme song "Better Than A Dream"
The animation itself stands up to other cartoons produced in the 1980's and early 1990's and in my opinion stands the test of time. It's a shame that these days, well thought out and entertaining cartoons like this are no longer produced. This is an entertaining cartoon that will have you in hysterics at the exploits of Sgt Blob and his Urpney army and their sheer incompetence along the way. Adults and Children alike of all ages will love this cartoon.
In this first DVD, you get the FULL length pilot episode that introduces us to the Land of Dreams and the Land of Nightmares. Rufus begins work as the Dreammakers apprentice and we experience the evil of Zordrak, the lord of nightmares. Also included is episode 3 of the first series, "The Knitted Balloon"
The DVD has a total running time of around 74 minutes and this DVD is indeed a region 0 encoded disc (like this listing states) which means it will play on any DVD player in the world! So no matter where you are (whether it be USA, Canada, Australia etc..) you will be able to play this disc! I can 100% confirm this as I have asked Abbey Home Media directly. Unfortunately the disc doesn't have any extras, but for a niche series like this which has a smaller fan following compared to cartoons like He-man, Thundercats, Transformers etc... it would be pretty hard to justify extras under such a tight budget that this release will obviously have. Hopefully future volumes might include something simple such as a poster or postcard.
At just over a fiver I believe this DVD is definately well worth picking up. If you've never seen this cartoon before or you have hazy memories from watching it on CITV I recommend you pick it up as you will definately enjoy this DVD. Be sure to order your copy now!
DVD:
- The Jungle Book [1968] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
- The Lion King 1 1/2 [2004] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
- The Little Red Tractor - Let's Go/Happy Birthday
- The New Adventures of Pippi Longstocking [1988] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
- The Simpsons: Christmas 2 [1990]
- The Story of Ruth [1960] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
- The Three Lives of Thomasina [1963] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
- The Wiggles: Hoop-Dee-Doo! - It's a Wiggly Party [2002] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
- The Wiggles: Whoo Hoo! Wiggly Gremlins! [2003] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
- The Yards [2000] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
DVD List
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The Dream Stone
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