The Dream Stone [DVD]

Originally shown on CiTV beginning in 1990 this show was a gem and was my favourite cartoon as a child. Standing the test of time it is just as enjoyable to watch today.

The combination of a cast of weird and wonderful characters, wonderfully illustrated backgrounds, fantastic voice work and imaginative animation, made this a gem. Add in music (created by Mike Batt) from all corners including the London Philharmonic Orchestra to Ozzy Osborne, make this cartoon something that can be enjoyed by all generations.

It does appear that this DVD release came about due to a small group of very dedicated fans making their voice known across the internet and to the copyright holders. A DVD release was certainly more than anything I could have hoped for having only got a handful of the original official VHS releases.

Alas the current distributor has seen fit to edit the first episode and also split it back into two episodes, and not kept as the hour long mini-film that it was originally. It is also a shame to only see a few episodes per disc and to also only have the first few released. As with the original VHS release of this show, it appears that no more are due to come out. As it would be wonderful to have a box set of all 52 episodes as this show just gets better and better!

Overall I would recommend that anyone who has children or a sense of humour should purchase this, the fun characters and animation will amuse the younger viewers while the dialogue will amuse anyone of any age! :)

Meanwhile the creator is still creating fun things for all the family to enjoy Gibsons Puzzle - I Love The Country - 1,000 Piece Jigsaw. :)

While browsing on youtube I found the intro to this old cartoon I remembered well, Zordrak in paticular. I looked it up on the net and there while the community is small it is very dedicated and I was pleased to hear that this dedication bought a DVD forth.

As the description says this is an award winning series and its easy to see why, great smooth running animation (especially the the first two episodes included on this DVD) set in a fantasy world with amazing creatures that could've came straight out of Tolkein or C.S. Lewis book and brilliant orchestral music like the "Better than a dream" song and "War song of the Urpneys" sang by Brit celebs like Billy Connolly, Frank Bruno and even rock god Ozzy Ozbourne!

Now the good things about this DVD are that it contains the first three episodes of the first season so you can get intoduced to the whole story whether you're a newcomer or watched the show as a kid but don't remember where it all started. The opening two part special has the better animation and what can be a good point is that unlike other cartoons, Death is always a constant threat paticularly at the start when Zordrak throws an unfortunate Urpney to his pets in the pit of no return, now I might state here that this scene is quite distressing to watch because you know the poor creature is devoured by the monsters in the pit (you don't see it happen but just be careful when showing this to children) and when Pildit is almost crushed to death by falling rocks.

Other than that it does have a lighter side especially at the expense of Sgt. Blobb and his two privates who provide comic relief while not being stereotypical blundering henchmen, no, you can actually name the main antagonists because they succeeded in stealing the dreamstone twice on this DVD. Other characters like Rufus and Amberly are the Protagonists in this story. Rufus a Noop who likes to do nothing else but dream during both night and day (and this lands him in trouble with his work) but eventually becomes the apprentice of the dreamaker because of his wild imagination makes him perfectly qualified for the job but he is also very brave, a typical hero but underestimated by his adversaries, Rufus however has proven he's more than capable of going to the land of Nightmares itself and retrieving the dreamstone.

Ameberly is Rufus' best friend, she is also a fellow Noop. So far on this DVD she's really nothing more that a typical damsel in distress, getting captured by Sgt. Blobb in the first episode, turned to stone in the second and then getting possessed by Zordrak himself in the third. But she's proven that there is more to her than meets the eye because she's just as brave as Rufus in every way, so much so she even entered fisticuffs with the three Urpneys!

Lastly the main villain Zordrak is a towering Anthropomorphic Dragon/reptile like creature and is known as 'The lord of Nightmares' his only goal in life is to steal the dreamstone and destroy it so that Nightmares may rule over dreams, innocents forever haunted by their worst fears and forever deprived of sleep. His voice is very good and very evil sounding, very much like Megatron from Transformers or that one horned guy from Dungeons & Dragons but definetly a lot more sinister.

Now unfortunately this DVD is not without its faults, trust me there is NOTHING wrong with the cartoon, it was just presented in a poor package. First off there are only three episodes and I don't think they've even been digitally remastered, you can see the ageing of the animation. Also there are no special features, obviously this DVD was released to purely see how it would sell. However I will give the DVD this; the cover art on the box and CD are very nice, probably drawn recently my Mike Jupp (the Dreamstone creator) for the DVD.

Also speaking of how well this DVD sold, while I haven't seen it in shops (maybe because I wasn't looking for it then as I didn't know it existed) the sales seem to have prompted the DVD company to release another volume (sadly still only a meager three episodes) but I haven't seen it on Amazon yet despite several fan sites stating it was released on the 05/03/07 and there is no information about it on the distributor's site (in fact there isn't any info about the first volume!) but I do urge you to look for it as I will and I also urge you to get this DVD, a must see for animation and fantasy fans! Who knows maybe one day we'll finally get a season 1 box set!

I thought I would never have the chance to see this wonderful cartoon again since I live in France, and this is completely unknown here. I discovered the Dreamstone back in the early 90's when I spent a few years in England.
I'd been hoping it would be released to DVD one day...and to my surprise, I accidently came across a release date on amazon a few weeks ago...did'nt loose a second to order it, and this day has finally come!! The DVD came through my letterbox in southern France this morning.
Seeing this again at lunchtime brought my tears out, and I can only recommend this to everyone, big and small! I can't think of another cartoon that can compete with this: quality, excitement, adventure, humour, music... Everythings pefect!This has always been my favourite cartoon, and will always be...please release some more volumes ;-)

Strange enough I've been having dreams about this film- certain things like the "Dreamstone" (looking like a diamond) and weird little green people as well as the song.
I woke up one morning after a dream and began singing the Dreamstone song and couldn't for the life of me remember the name of the film- that was until a couple of months later a friend of mine showed me her recent purchase from Amazon- and it was the "Dreamstone". Needless to say it was put on the DVD player immediately and i was brought right back to my youth. Strange eh?
Anyway, I would definitely recommend this film, for all ages alike :)

Yes its brill.and arrived very fast very happy.

I literally just bought this DVD because I wanted to feel a bit of nostaglia by listening to the awesome theme tune "better than a dreeeeeam....". For some reason they've cut the song and opening sequence of out the dvd. The cartoon itself is meh.