THE MOVIE

This story takes us right back to the beginning of the series, where we see how Lisa (Lara Jean Marshall), Carole (Keenan MacWilliam) and Stevie (Sophie Bennett) became best friends and part of the Saddle Club. Things don’t start so well, Lisa’s mother almost runs over Stevie and Carole and their horses on the first day at the stables. It also doesn’t help that Lisa’s mother gives her a mobile phone, which rings during class, startling Stevie’s horse Comanche and causing her to fall off. However, things do improve and when Lisa helps foil a plan by the nasty Veronica to hurt Stevie, a friendship soon develops between the trio.

In the second part of the feature, the girls from Pine Hollow Stables go camping in the bush on the mountain trail overnight. Kristi (Kia Luby) feigns illness so she can stay back at the stables and be close to Red. Meanwhile, on the trail, the girls meet Phil Marsten (Glenn Meldrum). He’s more interested in Stevie than Veronica. So Veronica tries to attract his attention by pretending to fall off her horse, but she really does fall off her horse. The other girls must therefore go and search for her before it gets too dark.

Based on the best selling novels written by popular children’s author Bonnie Bryant, The Saddle Club also stars Heli Simpson as Veronica, Brett Tucker as Max Regnery and Nathan Phillips as Red O’Malley, Catherine Wilkins as Mrs Regnery.

THE TRANSFER

Video:

This is the first Saddle Club DVD to be presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 widescreen. It is also 16:9 enhanced. However, the level of detail isn’t all that amazing and there is quite a bit of background noise during certain scenes. This is especially noticeable during the dream sequence during chapter 8 (45 minutes), although it looks as though this scene is intentionally blurry. Colours are great, especially the bright red riding jacket worn by Veronica and Carole’s purple jacket. Flesh tones are also realistic. I didn’t spot any MPEG artefacts or aliasing, and there is also no layer change on this disc.

Audio:

The Saddle Club: The First Adventure, like all of the previous Saddle Club adventures, features an English Dolby Digital 2.0 channel soundtrack. It is a satisfactory soundtrack, with dialogue being clearly audible throughout. There were also no noticeable audio synch problems. The DVD also features English subtitles for the hearing impaired.

THE EXTRAS

This DVD doesn’t come with any extras I’m afraid. The main menu is 16:9 enhanced, but does not feature any animation, it does have a looped audio though. The only options from the main menu are a scene selection menu and to play the feature. Subtitles can also be enabled/disabled from the main menu.

SUMMARY

Now you can go back to where it all started and see how Lisa, Carole and Stevie became best friends and part of the Saddle Club. This long-awaited prequel is a must for any Saddle Club fans out there. This is the first Saddle Club adventure to be presented in widescreen, the visual and audio transfer is satisfactory, although there are no extra features.