marytara's Full Review: Wiggles, The: Wiggles Dance Party
Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.
Dance Party by The Wiggles was one of the earlier additions we added to our collection of Wiggles videos for our toddler son. He's the #1 Wiggles Fan in the household, but truth be known, I'm moving in on him. The Wiggles have lately become a bit of an obsession for me.
The Wiggly, Wiggly Background
If you are not familiar with The Wiggles, they are a group of four Australian grown men with backgrounds in Early Childhood Education who sing and dance around and perform children's tunes. Each member of The Wiggles (Greg, Murray, Anthony, and Jeff) wears their own color (Yellow, Red, Blue, and Purple) and has a distinct performance personality. The Wiggles are joined by a few of their friends which include: a pirate (Captain Feathersword), a dog (Wags the Dog), a green dinosaur (Dorothy the Dinosaur), a purple octopus (Henry the Octopus) and a few other friends - which add to the fun. Their biggest appeal is the 6 and under crowd with a strong toddler contingent making up quite a large fanbase in Australia, US, and Canada.
About The Wiggles: Dance Party Dance Party came to video in April 2001. It is a compilation of 15 song and dance numbers adding up to 40 minutes of wiggly fun for kids.
Dance Party Song List
1. Can You Point Your Fingers and Do the Twist?
2. Wags the Dog
3. Five Little Joeys
4. Di Dicki Do Dum
5. I'm a Cow
6. Do the Flap
7. On Your Holiday
8. Hat on My Head
9. The Magic Bag
10. Brown Girl in the Ring
11. Georgia's Song
12. Our Boat is Rocking on the Sea
13. Nicky Nacky Nocky Noo
14. Dorothy's Dance Party
15. Big Red Car
Highlights Dance Party is a fun program all around. One of my favorite parts is the Irish dancers in Di Dicki Do Dum. I love Irish dancing and did this type of dancing as a child, so I have fond memories of it. By far, however, a favorite part is the song I'm a Cow. In this number each wiggle is wearing a cow overshirt complete with spots in their appropriate Wiggles color. The costumes are so ridiculously silly on these four grown men that you cannot help but laugh. These same cow outfits are worn also in a more recent tape of theirs, Wiggly Wiggly World. Ok, and last but not least I also really like the Hat on my Head song and the lesson that it teaches (us with pasty skin) to remember to wear a hat on your head on sunny days! [The Wiggles can be educational too!]
Wiggly Woos
My first reaction to this tape when I saw it was to say, "Yuck!". I was very taken aback at the quality of it, overall, being much lower than ANY other tape that I have of theirs (read: all of them). Words to describe Dance Party would be cheesy, corny, and amateurish. The stage sets are lame, very lack-luster and cheap looking. The sound quality is not crisp and the video quality is enough to make you a bit sea-sick if you concentrate too hard on it (bumping up and down). In fact, my first couple viewings of Dance Party had me quite disappointed and baffled. It seemed as if it was out of sequence from the rest of the Wiggles tapes in relation to the progression of their work.
Guess what? There is a reason for this, and I feel much better now that I know it. Don't be fooled as I was at first by the 2001 release date on this video. The performance was actually filmed in 1995. That puts a lot into perspective, doesn't it?
Dance Party is a piece of Wiggly History
Wiggly Woes
My biggest "beef" with Dance Party is
Anthony
...What is up with Anthony on this tape?
First off, Anthony needs a haircut and a shave. Handsome Anthony looks like a shaggy dog on this tape. I much prefer the cleaned up version of Anthony that I know from the rest of the Wiggles tapes. I can't believe his mother or significant other let him out of the house like that.
Secondly, Why is Anthony wearing green?. I dont get it. Did he try to be a green Wiggle? All good Wiggles fans know that Anthony Wears Blue (or at least he is supposed to). At first I thought it might be our VCR but then my husband pointed out that Anthony is the same color as Dorothy the Dinosaur. So, he is definitely green for this program. Oh dear... Anthony - was the blue shirt in the laundry that day?
Update: Some digging around on the Wiggles website I found out that Anthony started out as green but switched to blue because Dorothy the Dinosaur was green. Ok, that makes sense. But Jeff is purple and Henry the Octopus is purple... so.....
And third, Anthony is Captain Feathersword! No, that is just wrong. Captain Feathersword happens to be my favorite (ok after Greg..he's so handsome!). So, I was quite taken aback to see Anthony decked out in our favorite pirate gear and answering to the name of Captain Feathersword. Later on it appears that Anthony is the Captain again in this tape but we see Anthony on stage. After doing a bit of wiggly research I learned that this is actually Anthony's brother. The Captain Feathersword that we know and love today (Paul Paddick) didn't join The Wiggles till later.
Overall Dance Party has grown on me. As a Wiggles fan, I have a lot of appreciation for this earlier work. Sure, its not my favorite production of theirs, but I don't hate it either. My son does enjoy Dance Party very much and like other Wiggles programs it encourages him to get up and Wiggle, dance and move to the beat. So, for that reason alone, Dance Party is a success. Parents may not enjoy the more "crude" production aspects of Dance Party but kids don't require fancy computer animation or a high budget in order to be entertained. You may find that while "Dance Party" is not as "nice" as most of their other work that does not mean it is not enjoyable. I do wish that The Wiggles had been clearer about this in their marketing. It wasn't a "new release" and the appearance of "current-day" Wiggles on the cover, etc lead you to believe that this is new content but instead its "ancient history".
My recommendation: Dance Party is for the Wiggle Die-hards (that would be me) and for those interested in a watching a silly bit of Wiggles history. After seeing Dance Party and comparing it to their most recent DVD release Hoop-Dee-Doo, its hard to believe these are the same Wiggles!
When Dorothy the Dinosaur decides to throw a dance party, she knows just whom to invite to get things movin --Greg, Murray, Jeff and Anthony, and her ...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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