Customer Reviews

Playmobil: The Secret of Pirate Island

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

The toy line known as Playmobil produced by Germany-based company Brandstatter Group has been a popular toyline in the United States and other countries since 1975. The toys have been one of the most innovative toylines for children as kids can buy toys based on modern jobs or athletes to pirates, knights, princesses and more.

An example of the popular playmobil toyline toys in the market

And to celebrate the popularity of the toyline, the first major DVD release titled "The Secret of Pirate Island" based on the toyline will be released under the playmobil interactive name.

In this DVD, the film revolves around a family which includes seven-year-old Jack and his older sister as they visit their grandparents. Of course, the area where their grandparents live leads to a portal where the children can experience adventures. In this latest release, the playmobil theme revolves around the pirate characters.

But in this case, using your remote control, the viewer can select which adventure to participate in. The decision can lead to an early ending to the film or a further continuation to the story. Of course, since this is a children's DVD, even if a child choose a short ending, the child will get another chance to select the other ending or if they choose not to choose anything at all, the film will automatically select the longer, continuing version. But what's so fun about this release is that there is 27 story combinations. So, for the most part, children will enjoy the chance to choose their storyline and possibly see the toy characters that they may be familiar with.

For parents, there are two versions that you can select on the menu. The interactive version of "The Secret of Pirate Island" which is more or less 90 minutes long depending on the combinations selected or "Captain Gruff's Favorite Movie" minus the interactive combinations and the movie is about 50 minutes long.

VIDEO & AUDIO:

"The Secret of Pirate Island" is a 3D CG film featuring vibrant colors and captures the toyline in CG format quite well. The kids looks like the toys and the hands are like the toys but they are animated to show expression and also designed to show the characters like it's plastic counterparts. Granted, this is not a high-budget CG film, so don't expect hyper-detailed backgrounds or environments but for the most part, the animation for this title is well-done. Video is featured via anamorphic widescreen at 1:78:1.

As for audio, the film is presented in English 5.1 Dolby Digital and French Dolby Surround. For those with home theaters, the film is front and center channel driven as the movie is dialogue and music-driven.

Subtitles are in English, French and Spanish.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

"playmobile interactive - The Secret of Pirate Island" comes with only two special features:

* Pirate Sing-a-Long - (1:53) One of the songs used on the film featuring the band (on the pirate ship) performing a song with the lyrics ala karaoke sing along at the bottom.
* Previews - Previews for Sony Wonder releases

JUDGMENT CALL:

As a guy who grew up with playmobil toys and my son having quite a bit of a collection for himself, I found this DVD release to be quite wonderful.

The world of playmobil and the characters and the look of the characters is animated quite well and for parents looking for an interactive film, "The Secret of Pirate Island" was absolutely fantastic as there are many scenes that require the children to make a decision (there are 27 story combinations) and thus, works quite well for the child or for parents watching along with their children.

For families wondering if the film can be scary, not at all. The theme is adventure-based and there is a scene with an octopus, a mummy and skeletons but for the most part, it's never scary at all. They are animated in a way to be not offending whatsoever. So, parents shouldn't worry at all. It's a family friendly film. My 6-year-old, wasn't scared at any of the scenes and for the most part, he was really getting involved with the interactive segments.

If there is anything that I do recommend is that if you have a DVD player that has a remote that needs to be closely focused towards their player, have your child positioned in a way where the signal is clear, so he/she doesn't complain about the remote not working correctly. The interactive version of the film does give adequate time to make a decision but it's important that a child holds the remote correctly and that the remote has a clear signal.

For the playmobil collectors or parents wondering if the film is only pirate-themed, there are combinations that takes both Jack and Amelia to a medieval time or playing in their grandparents yard but those scenes are very short. The film is definitely pirate-themed and since I typically see the pirated-themed toys at the stores, I'm guessing it's a big seller for playmobil but I do hope there are more playmobil interactive releases that reflect their other toylines, which would definitely be wonderful.

There's really nothing bad I can say about this DVD, for parents who are looking for a children's interactive film on DVD, this is one of the better ones that I have seen thus far. I wish there were interactive games included on the special features but overall, for its low price and what is included on this DVD, "playmobil interactive - The Secret of Pirate Island" is highly recommended!

Saw this in a Red box and noticed that it said "Interactive" so I got it for my son 3.5 yrs old. He was really excited to see it and had fun with the pirate theme. Even though the theme was pirates there was nothing too scary in there to make him nervous and the colors and animation were simple but not cheap.

It took him a bit to understand that when he watches it again it can change but once there he really got into it and was excited to try choosing which way to go. We do wish there was even more of the branching stories in the middle. My wife and I even got pulled into the branching story trying to figure out how many diverse paths were put on the DVD. We found ourselves trying to convince our boy to do a certain choice so WE could make sure we saw everything there. For him he just got really excited everytime a choice came up. He would scramble up off the couch standing in front of the TV and he didn't care if he chose the same one again.

Good family fun. Hope there are more to come for all sorts of age levels.

Good work!

Summary: This DVD surpisingly turned out to be one of the best buys. It's lots of fun, for all the whole family. Our 5yo is singing,... something he didn't like doing before, and he's learning a lot of new words and even to our suprise using these new words in the right context at several other moments during the day or in the week. Which at times gives us a lot of laughs, since they will come out so totaly unexpected,.. you can't help to burst into laughs. This DVD is his current favorite. And we suspect it's going to be for a long time. So yes, at first, the animations do seem to lack some detail, and it does look a bit too simplistic, especially at the beginning, but in the end, all that doesn't really matter, you won't even notice it anymore, and it's lots of fun for the kids and the whole family.

If at 1st you don't like this DVD, give it a 2nd chance. Let the kids decide wheter is't good or not. The kids age probaby is also a big factor. Our son is 5, he loves it, and is learning from it. He doesn't care for the less detailed animations at times during the movie. I'm not sure how 7 or 8 year olds will like it. Probably a bit, or a lot less, then 4, 5 and 6 year olds. But our 10 year old daughter also enjoyed it.

And now for our experience:
Bought this movie for our 5yo because he was showing interest in pirates everytime he saw a toy pirate ad on tv (or any ad with a pirate in it). So I wanted to suprise him. At 1st I Wasn't quite sure because the pictures seemed a bit simple. We don't have any playmobil toys, for the same reason. They seem a bit (too?) 'simple', so we never bother to get him playmobil. But I decided to take a risk and get him this DVD. Simply because I wanted him to experience other toys, and dvd's then, trains, cars, caterpillars, ect.

Well, ... the 1st time I put the DVD and start watching the movie with our 5yo,... I was immediately concerned that that this was not such a good buy. I found the animations simple, especially at the beginning of the movie thankfully it gets a bit better after a while, but still to me it seemd just too 'simple'. The animations looked sketchy (?), blocky (?), basic primary colors,... I'm not sure how to describe it, but to me at 1st glance all seemed just too simple, and missing some or a lot of details. Our 5yo was watching it quietly, and wasn't really reacting to it. But he was watching it. I shooked my head, and went to do other stuff left him watching the movie. I was thinking, this one is probably going to end up in the drawer to never come out again! He'd probably go back to his favorite old time Thomas the engine DVD. Thomas & Friends: Thomas' Trusty Friends or he'll get a new favorite in the new Thomas Hero dvdThomas & Friends: Hero of the Rails we got him together with this pirate one.

To my surprise, after a day or three, I caught him singing tunes, I wasn't familiar with. Also he seemed to have a new "lines",... like "show's over", "you're getting sleepy", "after them", things on bones and skeletons??? and several others. After checking with mom and our daughters I came to learn that he has been watching this DVD constantly!!! So I watched the DVD with him during the next wk-end from start to end. I realized that after the 1st 15 minutes it gets much better and interesting. I still find the animations, simple at certain times, as mentioned before, especially at the beginning, but my 5yo seems completely unawarre of this, it doesn't bother him. And I got caught in the story and the songs, he wants me/us to sing with him. So it turned out to be a lot of fun for the whole family afterall. It has been four weeks now, and this is the only DVD he wants to watch. He's only now starting to experiment with the interactive option, which gives severel other scenes, which is also great, and a smart idea of playmobil. He's also experiemtning with the langauge option, he's putting on French, and surprisingly loves the songs in french! Really cool!

He likes this DVD so much, we are considering getting him one of the playmobil playsets Playmobil Large Pirate Ship or Playmobil Red Corsair (which is why palymobil made this DVD in the 1st place, very smart of them, but I'm happy they did). I'm also considering the Matchbox Mega Rig Pirates Ship (Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging).

Update (11-apr-2010): Guess what. Just after I finished writing this review, our 5yo ask to watch Cars (Pixar Disney) and after that Madagascar. These are two of his old time favorites (another favorite is Thomas). Ha, so he is still interested in his 'old' favorites. So maybe the craze for watching only pirates and skeletons, is abit over. But it's clear this Pirate DVD has become part of his favorite selection.

MY 5 year old son and 3.5 year old daughter love this movie-it really looks like playmobil people!You use the dvd clicker to chose which direction the story will move-It really keeps thier attention! 5 stars!

My 3 year old loves pirates and I got him this movie for Christmas since we only have 1 pirate movie. He watched it 5 times in a row and would have watched all day long if I let him. He loves it! He's too young to control the remote so I put it on the non-interactive version for him. He always wants to watch this movie. Just because it's not the most entertaining for adults doesn't mean it's not a good movie. He has more words in his vocabulary already from watching this over and over. It's cute and the characters look just like the toys.

You can make your own decision about how to continue the story line. Good fun music for dancing and singing for young children. My three and five-year old grandchildren, along with their Dad, love it!

I looked for this movie for my grandson. This seller had it at a great price and it arrived in great condition and faster then promised. I will def use this seller again.

This video is cute and fun for kids and adults. The kids loved the interactive choices, and I loved seeing the toys I used to play with come to life. There are several really funny parts that made us laugh out loud, and a really funny scene with a dancing octopus (my favorite part!) My kids watched it 3 times the first day, making different choices each time for a different story. A silly rock band appears and sings songs throughout. Cute sing-along option too. Highly recommended!!

My son loves this video. He plays it over and over. He loves the options to choose your own path.

Great fun! This movie is fun for kids and parents.

I've already recommended it to friends!