Today, February 4th 2003, marked a special day for Wiggles fans young and old all over the United States.

What’s so special about February 4th? , you might be thinking. You see, today, The Wiggles Magical Adventure – A Wiggly Movie was officially released to North American audiences. The Magical Adventure was released five years ago (1997) to Australian theatres and then to video under the name of The Wiggly Movie and is yet to be released in the UK. Oh yes, a very happy day for Wigglers all over the US and Canada, was today.


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. My family has been very lucky to have seen the Wiggles perform live two times now, and we look forward to seeing them again! The Wiggles are a class act and enjoyed by the whole family. If you have a child who is 6 or under, I recommend you and your children check them out. You might just find you have a little Wiggler too. If you are curious to learn a bit more about The Wiggles, you can check out this Wiggles Primer that explains more about who The Wiggles are, and why we love them so much.


About The Wiggles Magical Adventure – A Wiggly Movie
What sets this Wiggles release apart from all others is that this is actually a full length feature. Most other Wiggles videos are simply conglomerations of themed live song and dance with a few skits in between. Of course, The Wiggles Magical Adventure has the live song and dance that the Wiggles are known best for – but its also got a plot. The entire running time is just over an hour, 70 minutes and its recommended for kids from 1 to 8 years old. My two year old was able to sit (and Wiggle) throughout the entire program and follow along with the plot to the best of my knowledge. Little Wigglers will probably not be able to follow the plot or hold attention the entire time but they will enjoy the bright colors, familiar characters and Wiggly song and dance. The movie is available in both VHS and DVD and the DVD version contains a video storybook extra called the Lost Joey.

The Wiggly Cast of Characters
The Wiggles play themselves, of course – Greg, Murray, Anthony, and Jeff. The Wiggles friends, Captain Feathersword, is none other than the silly and crowd-stealer Paul Paddick known as Paddy to Wiggles fans. I was quite surprised to see that Paddy also plays Wags the Dog and Henry the Octopus in this movie. Dorothy the Dinosaur is played by Leeanne Ashley, the usual Dorothy we know and love. The other main character in this movie is named Wally the Great (a magician) he is played by Tony Harvey. For a full listing of the cast of characters visit: http://www.thewiggles.com/VIDEO/movie/cast.html


Wiggles Magical Adventure Song List
Hey There Wally
Dorothy (Would you like to dance?)
Can you Point Your Fingers and Do the Twist?
Rock-a-Bye Your Bear
Captain Feathersword Fell Asleep on His Pirate Ship
Rockin’ and a Rollin’ Sea
Boom Boom
Mrs. Bingles Theme
Tap Wags
Ballerina, Ballerina
Ooh It’s Captain Feathersword
Hot Potato (Young Wiggles)
Romp Bomp a Stomp
I’m a Cow
Nya Nya Nya
Let’s Have a Party

Embarking on a Magical Adventure with The Wiggles

The Wiggly Plot
Today is Dorothy the Dinosaur’s birthday and The Wiggles are planning a surprise birthday party for her. But Shhhhhhh It’s a secret… zip your lips! They don’t want Dorothy to find out about their big party plans. They’ve even invited a whole classroom of school children and their teacher, Mrs. Bingle, to help them celebrate. Imagine their surprise when during their performance for the schoolchildren someone makes off with Greg’s magic wand. One of Greg’s friends, “Wally the Great” who is not really great at all, a failed magician, makes off with Greg’s wand in hopes of winning a magic contest. Dorothy chases after Wally and catches him but the magic wand breaks! Together Wally and Dorothy spend the day trying to get the wand fixed and returned to Greg , and visiting Wiggles friends (Wags the Dog and Captain Feathersword) and competing in a magic competition . Poor Dorothy is convinced that even her friends have forgotten her party but forms a friendship along the way with Wally who learns a few lessons too. Meanwhile The Wiggles are planning a fabulous surprise party for Dorothy but are quite saddened because they cannot find her.

Will the Wiggles find Dorothy? Will Wally win the magic competition? Will the Wiggles friends be able to keep the party a secret? Does Greg’s magic wand get fixed/returned to him? Well, this ia a kiddy movie – so what do you think?

Our Wiggly Thoughts
I admit that I had my doubts about this movie beforehand because I wasn’t sure that The Wiggles would be able to pull of a full length feature! I didn’t know really what to expect, except I knew that it would be silly and a bit on the cheesy side before-hand. Also knowing that it was at least 5 years old and most Wiggles movies are not done on incredibly high budgets I was just hoping for the best. My son and I loves Wiggles and on top of him having a rough day, watching this movie was a highpoint for both of us.

The movie begins with a catchy tune Hey there Wally!, that is absolutely infectious I am finding myself “wallying” now over and over.. As if that wasn’t bad enough the song is played in instrumental versions as background during several parts of the movie. It’s a cute tune though, and very wiggleable. While I love the song about Wally, I was less impressed with the character of Wally himself. First off, he is this disheveled kind of freaky looking long frizzy haired magician and one of the first things we see about him is him stealing from the The Wiggles. To top it off he also makes a horrible hand gesture (you know the one where you put your thumb on your nose and wiggle your fingers) that I wasn’t so pleased with. Wally did not make a very good first impression with this mom, no he did not. My son wasn’t so thrilled with Wally at first either. During the first 5-10 minutes of the program he put his sleepy blanket OVER his head as if to cover his face. Oh dear, I think that Wally is a bit scary, kind of clown-like and he may be intimidating to some little Wigglers. Thankfully, Wally pretty quickly redeemed himself in the eyes of this Wiggly mom and kid by showing that he is sorry for his bad deed (stealing Greg’s wand), as well as befriending Dorothy the Dinosaur, and saving one of Captain Featherswords mates when they fall off the pirate ship. He even wins a special award from the Captain.

The Wiggles are their usual happy, silly, positive, and entertaining selves throughout this movie. Anthony is as obsessed with food as ever. Jeff falls asleep many many times and Greg and Murray continue to entertain from start to finish. There are a few very cute scenes featuring the kids in Mrs. Bingles’ classroom dancing along to The Wiggles. I do think that the kids looked a little bit old to be Wiggling along (i.e. Rock a Bye Your Bear) and having such a grand ol’ time, they were gradeschoolers – it might have been cuter (and more accurate) if the kids were a bit younger.


Also "fun" in Wiggles Magical Adventure is that the movie takes place all around the Wiggles world. You get to see where Wags the Dog lives and go inside his doghouse where he and the Waggettes perform a tap dance. The Wiggles also visit Henry the Octopus and go under the sea with Henry’s Underwater Big Band. Particularly hilarious is the fact that to get to Henry they jump down into a kiddy pool which is being watched over by a gentleman wearing a shirt that says LifeSaver aka a Lifeguard. There’s a great scene at The Wiggles house where each Wiggle goes in their room (marked by the appropriate door) searching for Dorothy and when they reappear they are wearing the wrong colored shirts. The Wiggles house is guarded by a talking door, but not Flora the Door that you might know from Wiggly Play Time – this time it is a male door.

A possible "blooper" in the movie, is that Dorothy is turning 5 years old. At one point Greg recounts how he promised to celebrate Dorothy's birthday in a special way each year. The Wiggles reminisce about Dorothy when she was just a baby and they show a dreamlike sequence of Dorothy's first birthday where she's in a baby buggy, and The Wiggles as kids. But if Dorothy is just turning 5, and the Wiggles are all grown up.. well, the math doesn't add up. Unless of course Dinosaur years are something like dog years - which I suppose is quite possible...

Overall
This Wiggly Mom and kid give The Wiggles Magical Adventure a wiggly thumbs up. Though this movie got off to a bumpy start with us, in the end the positive messages are heard loud and clear. My little wiggler and I find the movie to be entertaining (both the music and the storyline) and have already watched it multiple times. I don’t think this will be a new favorite in the house when compared to their other tapes but its something new (to us) and different from the rest of The Wiggles material. I recommend The Wiggles Magical Adventure to all Wiggles fans. In particular, I think this movie will appeal to older Wiggles fans who will enjoy the plot, longer playing time, and be able to take in a bit more from the morals of the story.

Wally, Wally, Wally!

Reviews of Other Videos from The Wiggles
Wiggle Time
Yummy Yummy
Wake Up Jeff
Dance Party
Wiggly, Wiggly Christmas
Yule Be Wiggling
Wiggly, Wiggly World
Toot Toot!
Wiggly Play Time
Hoop Dee Doo Its a Wiggly Party!
Wiggly Safari
Wiggle Bay

The Wiggles website:
http://www.thewiggles.com.au


Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children up to Age 4