New Zealand Adventure/Secret Series

[Dick Kirrin]

Wasn't Piggy a boy?

I don't know if anybody's already mentioned it, but typing in "enid blyton adventure series" at youtube will get you three episodes: River, Mountain, and Circus.
As I said, apart from the accent, the series is quite well made, and worth watching.

Cheers

Dick Kirrin

[Wolfgang]

Wasn't Piggy a boy?

I don't know if anybody's already mentioned it, but typing in "enid blyton adventure series" at youtube will get you three episodes: River, Mountain, and Circus.

Cheers

Dick Kirrin

And if you look for "Woods of adventure", you will get "Castle of adventure", shortened to about 2hours length.

[Dick Kirrin]

The Castle of Adventure is on YouTube. I've just found it. I don't know if it's the version Julie meant, but it definitely isn't the cloud9 version. From the parts I have seen I'd call it great.

Just type in: Castle of Adventure enid Blyton, that's how I found it.

Cheers

Dick Kirrin

[George@Kirrin]

Being in the position of having seen both the 90's versions and the TWO adventure films - Castle with Brian Blessed et al and Island with Hunchy from the '78 version of Five get into trouble, I can say that whilst I enjoyed the NZ series enormously, the British classic Castle is, for me, The best Blyton feature length film made ever... The acting, the setting, the animals, just everything works fantastically - marred for me only slightly by the villains being a little too thick and not evil enough, except for... no, I'll not spoil it for you.

If anyone would like a more detailed review of it I'd be happy to write one...

[Moonraker]

the British classic Castle is, for me, The best Blyton feature length film made ever...

I'll second that, old bean!

[Naureen]

I've found this site which claims to be selling the 1990s adventure series on DVD: http://www.bigwentertainment.com.au/pro ... 20398.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I haven't bought from there, but they ship internationally AND accept paypal, so I suppose someone can check it out? I'm interested in getting it but I only need disc one, and they don't have them released separately!

[Moonraker]

I've found this site which claims to be selling the 1990s adventure series on DVD:

The blurb says: "From ENID BLYTON, one of the most successful and celebratedchildren's authors of the 20th century, comes THE ADVENTURE SERIES. The flagship of Blyton's impressive and extensive literary career, it has been lovingly updated for a modern audience-"

Aaaarrrrrrgggghhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!

[Naureen]

I've found this site which claims to be selling the 1990s adventure series on DVD:

The blurb says: "From ENID BLYTON, one of the most successful and celebratedchildren's authors of the 20th century, comes THE ADVENTURE SERIES. The flagship of Blyton's impressive and extensive literary career, it has been lovingly updated for a modern audience-"

Aaaarrrrrrgggghhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!

Haha, I didn't even read the blurb!

I just posted about the Secret series as well!

[dsr]

It's a strange update, really. The children have all modern electrical equipment (computers, scanners etc.) but no mobile phones. Presumably because mobiles would make it all too easy.

I've ordered mine from BigWEntertainment - AU$40.34 including shipping. I've already got the bootleg version, but I make a mental rule that on occasions when I do buy the bootleg, I really ought to buy the original when the true rights-holders release it. (Assuming it's not too expensive, that is.)

[Horace_Tipperlong]

I have ordered the Adventure Series from EZYDVD website in Australia. Here is the link: http://www.ezydvd.com.au/item.zml/815723" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It was 39.97 AUS Dollars, and is a 4 disc set, with 2 episodes per disc, plus a 40 min making of the series on the 4th disc. Was released by umbrellaent as mentioned in Tony's post. Although it is a Region 4 DVD (Australia) it played fine on my DVD player. The disc arrived in approx 1 week from ordering too!!!

I really enjoyed the series. Although set in modern 90's, so that the Jack has a pocket computer and adults have mobiles etc, and though the storyline was often different from the books, I enjoyed the kid's performances, and I really liked Bill Cunningham.

[Moonraker]

I really enjoyed the series. Although set in modern 90's, so that the Jack has a pocket computer and adults have mobiles etc, and though the storyline was often different from the books, I enjoyed the kid's performances, and I really liked Bill Cunningham.

Hmm; maybe I need to open my mind a little bit more.....

[Wolfgang]

I really enjoyed the series. Although set in modern 90's, so that the Jack has a pocket computer and adults have mobiles etc, and though the storyline was often different from the books, I enjoyed the kid's performances, and I really liked Bill Cunningham.

I recently read the TV-Novelization of "Ship of adventure", and it's amazing what a Laptop in the mid-90ies could do - scan a picture of an island and compare it with an Atlas to find out the name of the island, plug a bug somewhere and get a written protocol of a discussion - even with censorship . I wonder if those programs are still available... Programs like Dragon Natural Speaking still rely on clear speech, and comparing pictures to find out if they're similar is also quite a tricky task.

[Wolfgang]

Yesterday my DVD-set arrived, and surprisingly it was cleared for all regions. No German track though , so I had to live with the pathetic German in two episodes . There are quite a lot of logic holes, but at least some of the scenes make much more sense than with the German dubbing I used to know.
"Lovingly updated" describes it accurately , especially the comic relief many of the baddies (Terry Small, Igor, Count Horatius, Ray Uma) provide. But I can understand Moonraker's disappointment that the actor portraying Bill Cunningham doesn't fit Blyton's description...
All in all I'd say it's not too bad a children's series and closer to the book than the "Five on the case" adventures apart from "Woods of adventure" which is my personal highlight of the series - maybe because it has nothing to do with any books and leaves much more room for character development.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Yesterday my DVD-set arrived, and surprisingly it was cleared for all regions.

That's good to know, Wolfgang. Did you order it from one of the Australian sites, or from elsewhere (if you don't mind saying)?

All in all I'd say it's not too bad a children's series and closer to the book than the "Five on the case" adventures...

It would have a job to stray further from Blyton's originals than the "next generation" Famous Five cartoon!

[Wolfgang]

Yesterday my DVD-set arrived, and surprisingly it was cleared for all regions.

That's good to know, Wolfgang. Did you order it from one of the Australian sites, or from elsewhere (if you don't mind saying)?

I checked out German Amazon, they didn't offer it any way, so I looked at ebay, and the cheapest offer was from the USA for about $53, postage included. There's ony one set available. Maybe someone has also misunderstood the 4 on the frontcover, taking it as region 4 because it was labelled as that on ebay. I hope this helps.