Customer Reviews

Sailing Around the World [VHS]

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(23)

 

 

I can't help but wonder if The Wiggles are about to pass the baton completely to Capt. Feathersword. The Wiggles barely bother to show up in this DVD, and half the time are only represented by silly cartoons. This DVD comes across as chaotic and just plain bad. What worries me is that we have 5 tickets to see this "Sailing Around the World" show that we'll be driving 2 hours to see in only 6 days. After watching this DVD, I can't help but wonder if it will just be a huge waste of time and $$. My 2 year old is an absolute Wiggles freak, and he only stayed interested for about the first 15 minutes. He loves Capt. Feathersword, but the Capt. just isn't the same in this DVD, he's being expected to practically carry the whole show, and it's obvious he's not comfortable with it. (Was he ever really meant for that?? I thought he was just supposed to be a goofy sidekick.) We should keep in mind that The Wiggles are getting older...although they really only made a splash here in recent years, they've been at this since at least the mid-90's. However, rather than to keep spitting out worthless DVD's like Cold Spaghetti Western and this one, I'd rather they just bow out altogether. For anyone wanting a truly worthwhile Wiggles DVD collection, we recommend Wiggle Time, Wiggly Play Time, and even Dance Party. Stay far, far away from their last several releases.

This is not a video for younger fans. There is a lot of dialogue and too much time between songs. We're big Wiggles fans here, but this movie isn't suitable for under 3's and parents with short attention spans. You might want to borrow this from a friend or rent it before you buy. Be sure that your child is able to sit through an hour of the Captain and his ramblings before you commit to the purchase.

For anyone going to the live show, don't worry. They play a nice mix of songs, lots of old favorites and a few stand outs from this video. Even if your little one doesn't like this video, they'll still have a blast at the concert.

They're almost nowhere to be found on this DVD, except for a few odd snippets here and there. Captain Feathersword, usually a witty favorite, seems to be struggling to carry this entire show on his shoulders, as he and the Wiggly Dancers are the main focus of this video. One of the worst things on this video is that Captain Feathersword's crew fall asleep, and are then woken up with 1...2...3...WAKE UP CREW! Hmm...where's Jeff? The songs are not the catchy tunes that we are accustomed to, and one of them isn't even sung by Greg. The whole thing seems to have been thrown together without the Wiggles even knowing about it. Maybe that's why Captain Feathersword looks so jittery! The extras are just as bad. The Wiggly Postcard from Mexico only shows two of the Wiggly Dancers being shown around Mexico city by Fernando, Fernandito and Juan. We are going to see The Wiggles Sailing Around The World Tour in August, but after this we are worried that the Wiggles won't be there at all! Overall, I'd say don't waste your money on this DVD. And it really pains me to say that, being the rabid Wiggles fan that I am.

Our daughter is a huge Wiggles fan, and a huge fan of the Sailing Around the World CD, so imagine our dismay when we watched this DVD and realized that most of the songs on the CD are not on the DVD. Most of the DVD is "acting" by Captain Feathersword and his crew, and, lets face it, they were not meant to be lead characters! The acting is bad and the dialogue between songs too long and too boring. It will not hold the attention of a young child (our daughter is 22 months) or the parents who will be forced to watch it with them. I had been warned against this DVD but hoped for the best when I bought it. Don't waste your money like we did... get "Wiggly, Wiggly World" instead.

I have 3 kids ages ranging from 2 to 6 and they all love The Wiggles so we have been looking forward to an all new around the world adventure starring the family friendly fab four. Unfortunately this DVD fails to shine from the get go. The Wiggles are only seen sparingly to intro a bunch of tediously long sketches featuring Captain Feathersword and his crew. Then the only other time we see them it's as some cool looking flash animation or preforming in a cheesy looking undersea studio for some of the tunes. Other than that this project seems to be hanging everthing on the premise that the captain and his huge new crew of humorless stiffs are way more entertaining and funny than The Wiggles. It's a bad idea that painfully sinks slowly right in front of our eyes.

First of all the captain's traditional pirate ship is replaced with a very small modern yatch and has a few garishly ugly lime green and brown pirate props attached to it. It doesn't act as a good fascade for a pirate schooner; in fact, it looks completely out of place and ridiculous. To make matters worse the ship spends most of it's time anchored in dock or in Sidney bay. I thought we were supposed to be sailing around the world in this video adventure? I'd rather they had used some high schoolish props with enough ample space for all the actors and a well written scripting of events than to try to impress us with something more realistic, but makes absolutely no sense.

Then to make matters worse they crowd 6 or 7 really bad actors onto the tiny deck to play the captains supposedly wacky subserviant buccaneers. The sketches just aren't funny even to kids as there are no real jokes present and rely way to much on these meatballs trying to make silly contorted faces overeacting to everything or attempting some really bad ablibbing. My boys really love the captain, but this video has proven to me that a little Captain Feathersword goes a real long, long way. Given too much of the character in a clumsy unstructured presentation and you'll want to make the annoying pirate walk the plank. At some places on the DVD kids and adults alike will be begging for his pointless rambling to end and for the singing to commence.

Then there's the issues with the music. Now I'm an adult who finds a lot of The Wiggles music to be highly addictive but this project was a huge step backward for the largest part. Some of the best songs on the program were from previous shows. There's quite a few songs from different locations around the world, but most of them are uninspiring. Most of the new tunes just fall flat and The Wiggles as musicans it seems are now starting to to fall into a rut to which many of their songs are sounding similar to older tunes without the charms or catchiness of the older gems. The only two new songs that were worth their sea faring salt were Hiccuping Chicken and The Captain's Wavy Walk. The rest of the new dittys were well below The Wiggles past watermark of excellence.

I'd hate to see their next new project (The Big Red Car) stall and sink like "Sailing Around The World" has. I hope the group and their creative crew rights this ship soon because if not I can see the whole Wiggles franchise sleeping with the fishes in Wigglebay in the near future.

My son absolutely loves The Wiggles and this video he wont even watch for a couple of minutes. Where is the fun from Murray, Greg, Anthony and Jeff??

As you've read in other reviews, this DVD features primarily Captain Feathersword frolicking with the crew of the SS Feathersword. The Wiggles are sporadically featured during the songs as if they are the Captain's backing band! There are some great songs, particularly "Elbow to Elbow" and "Do the Captain's Wavy Walk," but most of the runtime is spent on rather boring "comedy" sketches with Captain and Co. My 4-year old has enjoyed the Wiggles since age 2, and he also seemed unenthused/nonplussed by this venture (though he did get up and dance to the "Mop Mop" song, much to my surprise).

The only way I can justify the existence of this DVD in my mind, is to think that this must be some overlong promotional video for an upcoming or perhaps existing TV series about the Captain and his crew. There are some cute animated videos for favorites "Driving in the Big Red Car" (from "Wiggly Wiggly World") and "Fly Through the Sky (from "Top of the Tots"). The resemblance of animated Greg to real Greg is truly uncanny!

Even the bonus feature "Postcard to Mexico" is Wiggle-free, as it features Fernando, Fernandito (with moustache) and Julio showing us around Mexico. Really makes me feel like the Wiggles are checking out and planning their retirement! I would definitely get the CD, but the DVD is not so hot.

The Wiggles Around The World was a huge disappointment. It rarely shows the actual Wiggles, and mostly focuses on the Wiggles "dancers" and Captain Feathersword telling a story that is difficult, at best, to follow. When they do show the Wiggles, it is in flashback songs. Don't waste your money on this video!!!

What happened to our beloved Wiggles? My son is a huge Wiggles fan, and I think they are so great for kids, that they are worth every cent they make. However, this DVD hardly includes them. Captain Feathersword is the main character, BY FAR. He and his dancers are featured predominantly on the previously described ship in Sydney Harbor. I agree that there are far too many dancers, and they actually SPEAK in this video. Who cares about the dancers? And their acting is pretty bad. They should stick with their mediocore dancing.

The Wiggles phoned this one in. They obviously showed up at the studio for a one day shoot, to sing some of their songs, in the studio, NOT on location. For more than a few songs, they didn't even bother to appear to perform them, CARTOON versions of the Wiggles sing. I love the Wiggles because they are a live action act, my son can watch lame cartoons anytime!

I am honestly so disgusted at myself for purchasing this (and ignoring the other reviews here), that I am considering sending it back to Hit Entertainment and telling them to just keep this awful DVD.

Listen to these reviews, and go buy a Wiggles DVD in which they actually sing AND perform!!

To start, the following list of Wiggles productions (minus live videos and material compiled from Wiggles TV shows) in approximate chronological order represents A Brief History of Wiggle Time:

Dance Party
Wake Up, Jeff!
The Wiggles Magical Adventure (movie)
Wiggly, Wiggly Christmas
Wiggle Time
Yummy Yummy
Toot! Toot!
Wiggly, Wiggly World
Hoop Dee Doo! It's a Wiggly Party
Yule Be Wiggling
Wiggly Safari
Wiggle Bay
Woo Hoo! Wiggly Gremlins! (much material from TV show)
Space Dancing
Top of the Tots
Cold Spaghetti Western
Santa's Rockin'
Sailing Around the World

Here are some comments from both the adult and juvenile points of view. It's appropriate to include adult perceptions for two reasons: 1) adults watch the videos with their children; and 2) over the years the productions have incorporated increasingly mature elements such as adult dancers, more sophisticated music, and sketches based on humor that, while low or vaudeville, is over the typical toddler's head.

Although there are a few bright spots in later videos like Top of the Tots and Santa's Rockin', except for Wiggle Bay the productions have declined in entertainment value. The early videos built to a peak achieved in Wiggly, Wiggly World. In that video the songwriting, choreography, and even the friendly, mellow sketches with various guest stars are all first-rate. It's superior family entertainment. After that, Wiggle Bay is the only first-rate video, largely because the songs are so well written.

In Sailing Around the World the best songs--like Let's Go (We're Riding in the Big Red Car), taken from Wiggly, Wiggly World or even the recycled Barcarolle from Santa's Rockin'--come from earlier videos. New songs Sicily and San Francisco Trolley Car feature dreadfully boring repetition ("Si-ci-ly...Si-ci-ly...Si-ci-ly...Si-ci-ly..." or "San Francisco trolley car ...San Francisco trolley car ...San Francisco trolley car ...San Francisco trolley car ...") that recalls Bruce Springsteen's Born in the USA, which is surely the least interesting musical composition in human history. Also, the copious amount of non-Wiggles dialogue really weighs on the sense of Wiggly fun in this video.

But one of the most curious elements of Sailing Around the World is that it drastically ends the trend, established in several previous videos, of highlighting Wiggly Dancer Larissa Wright in close-ups. That's not necessarily a flaw, even if children and more than a few fathers have taken notice of Ms. Wright's blonde beauty. After all, she's very appealing and clearly a talented dancer. The camera loves her, so why not highlight her? But in this video it's as if she's deliberately stuck in the very back of the crowd, and there's not one close-up of her. It's almost like she was intentionally demoted for some reason. The point here is not to insinuate dark motives or sling innuendo, because there are many possibilities as to why the producers might decide to stop showcasing a supporting player, including the performer's own wish to downplay her role. The point is, it's a blatant change that can pull the regular viewer--and as the father of two toddlers, I'm definitely so--right out of the entertainment groove. In no other Wiggles video would such a thought even cross my mind.

Which wouldn't be an issue if not for the reaction from my children (ages 1 1/2 and 2 1/2 at this writing). Normally they dance and sing to Wiggles videos. They show a marked preference for the older ones (up to Wiggly, Wiggly World), but the more recent videos still hold their attention. Not so with Sailing Around the World. My younger daughter turned away from it (luckily we only borrowed this one from the library), and my older daughter's comments were, "I want The Wiggles," "I don't like those pirates," and, worst of all, "Where is the lady with yellow hair like me?" So if a toddler can spot the differences, it's fair to say that the producers miscalculated here. Meanwhile, we can hope for a future Wiggles production that captures all the breezy sense of fun that infused the earlier videos.

Two stars because it's still The Wiggles, and The Wiggles will likely never put out anything that's all bad.