In a surrealistic new adventure (warning to parents prone to flashbacks), the Wiggly 4 Inhabit Jeff's dreams, becoming 3D animated characters and fly off into space on a visiting alien ship. Since this is a dream, anything goes, and while the cute teletubbie styled aliens say "how do you do" to Earth's cows, the Wiggles fly over to Planet Rockstar where they meet "The King" - King Mondo and join in for a little intergalactic R&R. Well known eagle rocker Ross Wilson has released a new single of his most famous song with input from the Wiggles, which will appeal to fans and create a few new ones ("we're still listening"). The Wiggles and their companions Captain Feathersword, Wags and Dorothy the Dinosaur also visit Planet Teenie Weenie, where the little Irish accented people love to dance, Gloomworld, where they teach the gloomy inhabitants to dance their gloomies away and laugh. The suspense is provided by the WIggle's need to fuel their rocket ship and get back to Earth.

The CGI animation is very clever, and what this video loses in plausibility (kids don't care about that anyway) it gains in good natured fun, an interesting imaginative setting and lots of catchy new songs. The different planets are great fun, and the wild trip will stimulate your child's imagination. The Wiggles have a tendency to be a little over enthusiastic for parental tastes - with the usual finger rolling, cliches, eye popping antics and jokes "as corny as Kansas in August," but children just love it. This new adventure may appeal to some older children who felt they'd outgrown the "in person" versions. The space theme and fancy animation makes this quite different from other Wiggles videos. The songs are familiar enough in flavour though to appeal to fans. Move over Star Trek and Thunderbirds. The Wiggles are go!

The video also contains a rather interesting bit at the end which shows how Space Dancing was made, including Storyboards, animation and "backstage" segments. This will also appeal to older fans, like my 5 year old (who, before watching this one, was very clear that he had outgrown The Wiggles), who decided to make a complete book of "Space Dancing" after watching the video, complete with animations and words.

The DVD also contains a Space Dancing interactive game, a "King Mondo" feature and closed captioning for the hearing impaired.

For more information visit: www.thewiggles.com.

Space Dancing: An Animated Adventure
The Wiggles
G, RRP Video A$19.95, DVD $A29.95

Magdalena Ball is Editor of The Compulsive Reader, Preschool Entertainment, and is the author The Art of Assessment: How to Review Anything. Her fiction, poetry, reviews, interviews, and essays have appeared in a wide range of on-line and print publications.

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