THE MOVIE

Who is Brum, I hear you ask. Brum is a super-brave superhero! He’s a little yellow toy car who has all sorts of interesting adventures. Brum was designed by Bob Berk and Rex Garrod, the series is produced by Chris and Anne Wood. In Brum’s world, the people are often silent, but their actions speak louder than words. It’s always obvious who the bad guys are and kids will love the way he chases them and saves the day again and again. This DVD features five adventures from this wonderful children’s television series. Each episode runs for around ten minutes. Here’s a quick look at each episode.

Brum and the Airport Adventure
The jewels of a celebrity are stolen by two crooks at the airport and Brum has to chase them down, but how is he going to stop their plane…

Brum and the Naughty Dog
A naughty scruffy white dog has escaped from his owner while being taken for a walk and when he falls down a hole after chasing a flying hotdog, Brum abseils down and saves him.

Brum and the Pizzeria
Brum visits the pizzeria where the waiter is making lots of money. Two crooks dressed as cooks steal his money and Brum has to stop them.

Brum and the Gymnast
A young girl loses her hoop at the big town gymnast competition and it bounces through town causing all sorts of trouble. Never fear, Brum is there to return the hoop to the girl before the competition starts.

Brum and the King of Thieves
Brum visits the museum with some school children, and while they are there, the Big Town Crown is stolen by a master jewel thief who is also a master of disguise. Can Brum spot his disguise and save the day yet again…

THE TRANSFER

Video:

This DVD is presented in 1.85:1 widescreen (16:9 enhanced). Visual quality on this DVD is excellent, it is very crisp and detail is wonderful. You only need to look at Brum’s front grill and tyre tread during the up close shots to see what I mean. The transfer is also basically free of film grain, although there is some minor aliasing. Mind you, I don’t think the kids will be overly concerned by this, they’ll probably be too busy enjoying the show. Colours are nice and bright, Brum’s duco being bright yellow and his interior a rich red. The colours of the clothes worn by the actors in this series are also nice and vibrant, skin tones are also realistic.

Audio:

Brum – Airport and Other Stores has a Dolby Digital 2.0 channel soundtrack. Audio quality is very good. This soundtrack contains some great sound effects (boings, bonks, splats and dings) which should appeal to the kids. Narration and additional dialogue during each episode is clear and highly intelligible. The Music by Paul Honey and Howard McGill is also excellent, and the lyrics are clearly audible during the closing song, which is featured at the end of each episode. Unfortunately there are no subtitles on this DVD.

THE EXTRAS

Bags of Gags
Selecting this option loads a submenu where you view three small mini episodes; Brum and the Grapefruit Grab; Brum and the Knicker Rescue & Brum and the Camera Caper. These three mini episodes are presented in 1.85:1 widescreen with Dolby Digital 2.0 channel sound. Total running time is around 5 minutes.

Brum Quiz
Answer the questions to collect special Brum sounds. The more questions you get right, the more Brum sounds you get to make noise with at the end of the quiz. There are ten different questions in the quiz, which are based on events that occur in the five episodes on this DVD.

Top Secret Files
Here you can find some more video and fictional information regarding the likes, best friend and/or ambitions of three recurring characters in Brum episodes on this DVD, those being Scruffy the dog, the Visiting Man and Granny Slippers.

SUMMARY

Brum has finally made it to DVD. Brum – Airport and Other Stories features five 10 minute adventures from this wonderful children’s television series. This DVD is bound to keep the kids entertained and the short running time is perfect for children with short attention spans. Technically speaking, this DVD is very good, with a nice visual transfer, plenty of great sound effects and a couple of fun extras as well.