Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.
View MoreGo in cold, and you're likely to emerge with your blood boiling. This has to be seen to be believed.
View MoreI think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.
View MoreMostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.
View MoreAs a child in the early seventies I loved The Clangers. Made at a time when space was the big thing and we all "knew" that there would be people living on the moon before the end of the century this was made to meet the interests of the youngest of space fans.Living on a distant planet which looks like a small version of the Moon the Clangers are a family of small mousy creatures who live in caverns under the surface, The don't talk as we do but are voiced by a Swanee whistle with the narrator explaining to us what they are saying. They have many adventures which are always gentle in tone they often feature other creatures such as the Soup Dragon and my personal favourite the Iron Chicken.The characters are all fairly simple, the Clangers themselves are knitted soft toys and the Iron Chicken is made of Maccano. The narration by the creator, the late Oliver Postgate, couldn't be better, he has a gentle tone that feels almost like a grandfather telling a story to his grandchildren. While a little Jerky the stop-go animation is charming, I'm sure this series will appeal to younger children today as well as too their parents and people who watched it when they were children themselves.
View MoreOnce more we have a highly inventive piece of television from the golden age of originality. And this time it's for kids.Gosh; why do we have so much cheap, unimaginative computer-generated crap from America when we can produce wonderful things like this? The Clangers were a functional nuclear family. Remember them? Nowadays the feminist fascists would have such a politically-incorrect piece of propaganda burnt. But in 1969, when sanity still had the upper-hand, this was top TV.Clangers are tiny mouse-like creatures that function by stop-go animation. They live on a small, seemingly arid moon. Their homes are in craters that are covered by dustbin lids. No explanation is offered for this incongruity, and none is required. They share their world with a soup dragon, which appears to be the only one of its species. No explanation is offered for this either. Take it or leave it.Each of the few episodes entails some simple, but interesting adventure. They speak with the voices of tin whistles, whilst mellow-voiced Mr Postgate translates and explains. It's a simple, well-worn British television formula dating back to 'Watch With Mother', and it works a treat. The story often entails some sly little social comment that probably went over the heads of most tots, but raised a grin from the parents. It was very much like the narration from 'The Magic Roundabout'.All's well that ends well, and The Clangers went to bed. Imagine 'The Wombles' on the moon and you're not far out. Then again; maybe you are.A classic, original and well-loved series that had a typically short run, but is at least available on DVD. Young kids couldn't be bought a better present.
View More'The Clangers' is quite rightly looked upon as one of the greatest ever children's TV programmes. Created at the time that man walked on the moon for the first time, it benefited both from the interest in the space age, and the new availability of colour on television.Therefore the series is loud, inventive, colourful, and fun. The family, Father and Mother, and Small and Tiny Clangers, are inquisitive, sweet, and talk in strange whistling noises (sometimes putting in little jokes to irk the paymasters at the BBC!). Below them deep in the ground, the Soup Dragon stirs an ever-boiling, never-ending, supply of green gloop, while Mother Clanger makes her blue string pudding.Visitors to Clanger land never stay long, and always leave bewildered! The series was different to any which had gone before and has quite rightly become something of a cult.
View MoreFar from Earth on a distant planet live the Clangers a strange, mousey form of alien life that sound uncannily like a load of penny whistles being played. Each episode, the Clangers face a different story on their quiet little planet and none of them are ever straight forward. This series ran for less than 30 episodes but its influence runs deeper and it is telling that everyone knows the noise a Clanger makes and they are still sought after toys that are produced all these years later.The stories are never that amazing but, narrated by Postgate, they have a sense of humour and unique wit that is often associated with Smallfilms cartoons and things like Magic Roundabout it is hard to put into words but it is unmistakably British and not something that you see repeated often. The narration works wonderfully and really helps the shorts work but it is the imaginative animation that makes it stand out as one of those short animations that stay with children for decades. How I pity the generation that grow up the Saturday morning computer-generated serials that all involve robots and guns and constant action they all look the same and do nothing to encourage imagination or invention in their minds.The movement of the characters is jerky of course but it is not the quality that is important, rather it is the unique feel to it that works and the imaginative characters etc. It looks good and many people would be able to identify the series just by a single frame so distinctive is it. The overall effect is a classic British animation that is funny, imaginative and distinctive with silly stories blessed with a touch of absurdist wit. Well worth seeing and well worth getting kids now to watch.
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