JAKERS! - DVD review

"Jakers! Treasure Hunt on Raloo Farm" is the latest release of the PBS computer animated series, "Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks." This compilation features four episodes from the series. The first season of "Jakers!" is represented with "Our Dragon's Egg." The second season's lone selection is the title episode of the DVD, "Treasure Hunt." Finally, two episodes from the third season complete this compilation with "Growing Pains" and "Dannan Does a Jog." The show features the voice talents of Maile Flanagan, Tara Strong, Russi Taylor, Mel Brooks, Joan Rivers, Charlie Adler and Fernando Escandon. Based in Ireland, the computer animated series is currently in its fourth season and over fifty episodes have been created.

From the DVD packaging, the episode summaries are as follows:

Treasure Hunt: Mr. Winks paints a treasure map for Piggley and his friends, but this is a map with a difference! The trio set about their tasks on the treasure trail and are having so much fun they don't realize they're doing their chores at the same time.

Our Dragon's Egg: Piggley, Ferny and Dannon rescue an errant egg – which they decide must be a dragon's egg. They hatch all kinds of plans to keep the egg safe, but when the creature inside emerges, it turns out to be a not-so-sweet swan chick. That's when the real work begins.

Dannon Does A Jig: When Dannan's grandma teaches the class to dance, Dannan proves an enthusiastic student of the art. When Dannon realizes that she isn't a very good dancer, however, she becomes afraid that she will let her friends down and doesn't want to dance anymore.

Growing Pains: After griping about his parents' rules, Piggley wishes he were a grown-up so he could do as he pleases. When dad sprains his ankle and puts Piggley in charge of the farm for a day, however, Piggley finds being a grown-up is a lot harder than it looks.

The show's general structure finds each episode beginning with an elder Piggley Winks living in America. He lives with his daughter and grandchildren. After some short interaction with Grandpa Winks, the children are treated to Piggley Winks reminiscing about his childhood in Ireland and the show moves towards the adventures of the young Piggley as various lessons in life are loosely taught to children as Piggley plays with his younger sister Molly at Raloo Farm. During the course of a day, Piggley runs into his friends Dannon O'Mallard and Fernando Toro. Each story surrounding the young Piggley involves his parents Padrig and Elly and a sheep named Wiley who happens to be voiced by veteran funnyman and director Mel Brooks. Grandpa Winks stories tend to be a little grandiose, but he entertains the children and teaches them morals through his stories.

The four episodes of "Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks" is entertaining enough. The Irish setting that takes place during the 1950s is unique among animated cartoons. It gets tiring to hear the Irish expression "Jakers" so many times in one twenty-two minute spell, but watching this animated series is far less grating than watching "Cat-Dog" or some of the other below average offerings on American television. There is perhaps a little "Animal Farm" creepiness about some of the situations on the show. When Wiley realizes that Shirley is having a baby in "Growing Pains," it felt a little over the top for a children's show, but there are definitely morals to learn in that regard.

The animation of "Jakers!" is of decent quality. It surely cannot compete with any of the modern Pixar films, but for a children's cartoon, there are hardly any reason to complain. I enjoy the rural setting of Raloo Farm and there are some beautiful scenes throughout each episode that looks quite spectacular. The characters are nicely animated and the anthropomorphic animals move smoothly and cleanly with the lips doing a decent job of keeping up with the voice actors' words. Some textures look quite detailed, while others are flat and the only moving objects are typically the characters. The world of "Jakers!" is quite static aside from a few flowing puddles. I still thought it looked quite good.

Mel Brooks provides comic relief and is the only character that doesn't speak with an Irish accent. I was surprised when I first heard a sheep talk in the familiar voice of Yogurt and so many other wonderful characters portrayed by Mel Brooks over the years. The other actors put forth a good effort and I enjoyed listening to the Irish accents throughout the episodes. The talent did a fine job of not laying the accent on too thick, as younger viewers would certainly have had a difficult time understanding some of the words thrown their way.

"Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks" is a fun little show and for children it can be educational and teach them valuable life lessons with strong morals while being entertained by a family of talking pigs, a duck, a cow and a Mel Brooks voiced sheep. I grew up watching "Transformers," "G.I. Joe" and the classics like "Looney Tunes" and "Tom and Jerry." I've never enjoyed today's animated shows featuring bikini underwear donning sponges and animals that are half dog and half cat. I feel "Jakers!" is superior to many of the cartoons I've had to painfully sit through on Nickelodeon and is far more entertaining and watchable than things such as "Barney" and the "Teletubbies." It isn't the "Great Space Coaster," but parents may want to give this PBS broadcasted toon a chance.

Video:

"Jakers! Treasure Hunt on Raloo Farm" is a computer animated feature that surely comes from a digital source and is presented in full anamorphic widescreen that completely fills a 16x9 television set. Colors are quite strong, but the palette used for "Jakers" doesn't seem as rich as it could have been. Detail is strong, although I discovered that playing the show through an upconvert player resulted in some shakey visuals. The visuals are on par with most cartoons produced today as far as coloring and detail goes. It cannot rival more mainstream computer animated features, but I'm sure that the show's creators have no intention of going after Pixar. The image is clean and clear. Aside from the minor line breakup I saw, the picture was steady and "Jakers! Treasure Hunt on Raloo Farm" is a good looking collection of four episodes.

Audio:

Three languages are supported with this DVD collection of "Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks." English, French and Spanish Dolby Digital Stereo are provided. The soundtrack is clean and practically a dialogue-only experience. There are a few sound effects here and there and plenty of animal noises, but the static backgrounds of the show are rivaled by the almost complete lack of ambient and environmental sound effects. On THX processing, most of the sound came through the center channel, but with THX turned off, the left and right speakers contained all of the information for the show. It is hard to grade a child's television show on the impact of its audio tracks. These things aren't meant to sound spectacular, but "Jakers!" is an underwhelming mix that is quite clean and features intelligible dialogue, but the sound design is incredibly limited.

Extras:

The bonus materials on "Jakers! Treasure Hunt on Raloo Farm" are geared towards younger children, but should keep them busy for quite a bit. Piggley's Storyteller Playhouse is a collection of four vignettes pertaining to art of storytelling and featuring live action footage. Who What Where (3:26) finds Piggley in the live action world as a host raps about Who, What and Where. Parents will want to avoid this one. Pourquoi Stories (3:28) has Piggley returning to the Storyteller Playhouse to hang out with a man with very long dreadlocks. Pourquoi is ‘Why' in French. Stories Without Words (3:27) has Piggley again hoping he isn't late and features two people called the ‘Chameleons' and they are akin to mimes. Heroes (3:27) is the final of the four segments.

Meet the Grandparents is another collection of vignettes. These particular bits feature children talking to their grandchildren. They are short and points children towards asking their family to tell stories. A good lesson. The first, Ol' Bill (1:03) features two young ladies talking to their grandma and asking about a mule named Ol' Bill. Can Walkers (1:03) has grandmother Terry talking about living on a farm and making toys. Sneakers (1:03) has three young boys talking about English grandma Audrey. This discusses sowing and a mishap with sneakers. The final of this set is The Book (1:03) and has a young girl sitting down with her grandmother Alisha and looking at a book about migrant workers. These are short segments. The final supplement, The Great Fairy Test Read Along is an interactive read along for a Piggley Wink story. Some Previews are also included.

Closing Comments:

The four episodes of "Jakers! Treasure Hunt on Raloo Farm" are entertaining and provides good morals for children. The show features talking animals and a pig who occupies both present day and the 1950s when he was growing up in Ireland. Mel Brooks as a talking sheep who is the only one of his species with the ability to talk is both funny and surprising. The computer generated animation is effective and looks decent enough on DVD, but the stereo soundtrack is quite mundane. The supplements are mostly comprised of vignettes that were likely attached to the television show in some manner and will entertain some children. I found "Jakers!" to be a little more entertaining than most of the recent animated shows I've watched on Nickelodeon. It is not perfect and it is definitely geared towards younger and more impressionable audiences, but this is a very good little show for younger children.