The Dreamstone

Since a lot of retro toons are being brought up, I thought I'd make a topic for this rather obscure show, The Dreamstone. It's a Disney-esque British cartoon made in the early 90s.

I kind of grips me since not only is it so rarely known, it's a very polarizing show, I can chat about it all day in both a negative and positive sense (I've bloated it's trope page with a ton of crap as a result). It's something along the lines of magical adventure cartoon, though it's core dynamic is largely as a slapstick Villain Protagonist show, with the Big Bad's Mooks, the Urpneys trying to steal the title MacGuffin, Sam Sheepdog and Ralph Wolf style, so nightmares can reign.

As a result the true draw appeal of the show is almost certainly the Urpneys, who have at least one Crowning Moment Of Funny each episode. The heroes however, much less so.

Anyone else remember this show?

edited 4th Apr '13 5:51:44 PM by Psi001

I swear this was one of my favourite cartoons when I was younger...

Yet apparently I seem to have only the vaguest memories of the actual show, instead only able to recall those to do with the villains.

Same, except that I can't even remember the villains. I just kinda remember that I watched it.

Other way round for me, I had vague memories of the show before looking it up again, mostly of the heroes though, due to how over the top cutesy they are (at least Care Bears and Winnie The Pooh have a bit of Weird Al Effect to owe to this but those Noops...).

I didn't really appreciate villains until I was older, as many say, kids are often moral driven, they like cute animal heroes and think baddies are unlikeable meanies. Then as you get older you realise the villains are often the more developed and entertaining parts of the show compared to the goodie goodie heroes. The Dreamstone is basically that trend taken to it's extreme.

Having watched a lot more of the series (such as more of the obscure third and fourth season episodes) I might take back a few things I said about it in my review. It did seem in later episodes they expanded on new concepts a bit more and were at least trying to develop the rest of the show, it just never quite worked out. Their heart and wit didn't really seem to be with anything except the Urpneys, so even when they tried to wane them out a bit and make others the drawing point, they were the main appeal and so the show was ultimately little more than a slightly awkwardly done Kafka Komedy for them.

Zordrak was pretty much The Artifact by the second season however, which was a big shame.

edited 28th Sep '12 9:23:02 PM by Psi001

I actually didn't discover this show until recently, and absolutely love it. Yeah, the Noops can be a bit boring (though I am fond of Amberly's rare...aggressive moments), but I still found myself liking them...

But really, the Urpneys are just hilarious. Loved Frizz and Nug's comments about the potential side effects of Urpgor's inventions. I mean, how often do characters ever worry that a science potion will prove a long term hazard?

I do recall seasons 3 and 4 being pretty good, as well. I've rewatched all of seasons 1 & 2 recently on Jaroo, so maybe I should finally give the rest a look.

My main problem with the heroes is that not only were they boring, you actually ended up kind of resenting them winning due to how over the top pitiful and un-evil the Urpneys were, especially Frizz and Nug who were drafted unwillingly into everything. I tend to like sympathetic villains, but not when done to the extent of making the heroes look like jerks for punishing them.

It was also kind of annoying since the pilot did a perfectly good job making the Urpneys likeable but still making Rufus and Amberley seem like sympathetic resilient heroes (though it helped they more along the lines of real personalities in the first episode). The later seasons at least tried to make them more comical so they weren't outright Hero Antagonists, but they were still the far less sympathable side and they lacked much on the lines of character establishment or even basic aesops or conflicts (I agree they should have done more with Amberley's "pompous brat" side, along with Rufus' original more eccentric persona). I do actually really want to like them at times, but ultimately I usually end up wanting the Urpneys to take them down a peg in the end (The Dream Beam Invasion and The Spidermobile are almost disturbingly cathartic to watch for this reason).

The Urpneys were brilliant characters, though I guess that's part of the problem really, they are such witty and complex characters they are obviously going to steal the show (though it helped they were also high order Butt Monkeys). It just seemed odd how they put so much life into these guys and everything else was so boring and unsympathetic (unless that was actually the point, but still seems like a waste of potential).

I'm sort of along the same line, I watched the show when I was young but only have very vague memories of it, I only rewatched it about a year ago. Some of Season Three and Four is on Youtube if you want to see it.

edited 29th Sep '12 11:26:43 AM by Psi001

For anyone interested in a rerelease of the series:

https://www.facebook.com/dreamstonefanpage

Quote from Youtube:

"Hi There! Great news guys, Monster are extremely excited to announce that we will be re-releasing The Dreamstone! MIP is a TV Market where we had meetings with broadcasters to get it back on the television! We'll need the support of the fans to drum up support, so spread the word and find The Dreamstone fan page on facebook for updates. it's early days and these things take time but it's happening and we're as excited as you are!"

edited 16th Oct '13 9:08:25 PM by Psi001

Okay, after a couple of years something has finally picked up with the rerelease, Monster have started uploading remastered episodes onto Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLG4FWKZXOJeC2cWYyTV-YPXyHBjj_kxiy

They'll upload more episodes the more watches and approval fans give.

It's not a bad idea, sadly though, some of the episodes aren't in best condition. The audio quality for some of them is pretty poor, especially the second part of the pilot which is out of sync.

edited 22nd Dec '15 5:33:00 AM by Psi001

So is this being released or not?

It's being put on Youtube officially, so no physical release so far, but something at least. But unless it gets enough fan support, it's only six episodes on there right now.

So eh....sorta...

edited 22nd Dec '15 5:33:09 PM by Psi001

Im sorry for saying this but you are a bit obsessed over this show. Everytime I see you, you are talking about it. And the bumps in the thread you just made dont give me faith that you arent.

Maybe Psi just has really high hopes that this show will suddenly become very popular just by spreading the word enough.

Well, that is way better than nothing. When I am done with 2 shows I haven't finished yet (Mystery Incorporated and Storm Hawks), I will switch to this right away.

No they're right, it's my Single-Issue Wonk, and I know it. The show's page is bloated with crap thanks to me and I keep Youtubeing it over and over despite my annoyances with it. The fact it has been teasing a rerelease for two years doesn't help soothe my obsession.

Granted I think it's exacerbated by the fact it's a very obscure show from the 90s rather than anything recent relating to ponies, sponges or sociopathic bumbling dads, in which case my obsession wouldn't really stick out much more than for anyone else.

edited 23rd Dec '15 5:47:52 AM by Psi001

I used to run the TVTOME guide for this back in the day, and I struck up a friendship with the show's creator. Haven't kept in touch with him for years though.

@Psi.No,I do notice when people are obsessed and it would be just as bad if it was any of those shows...but I have to admit you are on a whole other level. Only Superboy's Ash obsession is on par.

I can't deny it. I try to tone it down, but that show was really polarising for me. It had such an erratic quality that it appealed to both my preferences and my Berserk Buttons in a very extreme manner.

If you want me to simmer down about it on the board I'll give it an effort. I can do things better with pressure.

Well thanks to your obsession, I've gotten back in touch with an old friend, so thanks very much for that

Well, I suppose something good came out of it.

Mike really digs guys with encyclopaedic knowledge of his shows, I'm sure he'd love to read all the stuff you've done

But most of it is pretentious fan wanking that nitpicks all the show's flaws.

There is a better structured and more matter of fact wiki for the show (I've contributed to that too though so beware).

edited 26th Dec '15 5:56:15 PM by Psi001

Okay, watching finally. First 2 episodes, then do nothing, rest, do something, rest more, and continue from there.

I'll warn you now, I haven't seen the last seven episodes of the first season in English online yet, but if you turn the volume way up on the Russian dub, you can faintly hear the original voices behind it sometimes. You should also try to find the first two episodes as the "Opening Special" if you can, because as regular episodes they had a few scenes removed.

Problem solved:

Most of the Season One episodes missing are pretty formulaic and don't have important continuity except "Megattack", the season finale, which there are currently no English videos of. To a lesser extent "The Daydream Bubble" has Zordrak's origin and "Too Hot To Handle" also explains why Zordrak keeps Blob around (he found turning Urpneys to stone counter productive).

Hopefully Monster might upload some of those three next.

Just a quick note, but expect the episodes after the two part pilot to change tone a little. It's not a climatic action series with Rufus battling Zordrak that often.

edited 19th Mar '16 5:07:16 PM by Psi001