The Dreamstone

Bump.

What if the Dreamstone aired in the US?

There were some early marketing plans I believe, and a VHS was released in America, but for some reason it never came to be. Truthfully even in it's home country, the show wasn't exactly heavily promoted, hence it fading into obscurity.

I suppose exposure in other countries might have made push for a rerelease more likely (Monster Entertainment have apparently pulled the plug on remastering the show, due to lack of fan demand).

edited 11th Apr '17 12:14:05 PM by Psi001

Ugh, that sucks.

Technically it sorta got released in the States, years and years after the fact. There was a now-defunct kid-friendly streaming service called Jaroo that ran the first two seasons.

I'm kinda surprised in retrospect that I've never heard of any merch for this show. It feels in a lot of ways like it was *meant* to sell toys, what with how plush-friendly everyone looks and all the crazy Urpgor inventions.

Yeah, I know about Jaroo, but in terms of airing and promoting the show on TV, it got nothing in the US from what I know.

There was a board game and a very brief running comic series that adapted episodes from the first season. Creator Mike Jupp also added to his other line of work and made some Dreamstone related jigsaw art. That's all I know of.

It did seem odd it didn't churn much merchandise I admit, especially since ITV kept it on air for so long so did at least seem to consider it a popular investment. I wouldn't even doubt it's the reason the heroes were billed so much more on concept and promo art than the Urpneys since their cutesy designs were extremely marketable.

edited 11th Apr '17 7:47:33 PM by Psi001

Get yourself a plushie of a working class middle aged english man!

In fairness, Mike Jupp made it cute. I mean look at Frizz.

I've seen plushies of snakes and spiders that actually look huggable, why not?

Then again the whole show ran on What Measure Is a Non-Cute? (what wasn't an "occupational abuse hierarchy" gag anyway).

edited 12th Apr '17 8:28:42 PM by Psi001

I meant Urpneys are working class english men.

I know. That's why I used Frizz as a counter example.

Pin a lizard tail on the back end though.

edited 13th Apr '17 9:31:33 PM by Psi001

Something tells me Dreamstone would've gotten an English re-dub were it released in America.

That might have been a bit awkward given how British a lot of the humour and snark tended to be (similar to how a U.S. redub of Wallace and Gromit was ultimately canned).

Americanizing british humor?? OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!

Kind of bumping for the sake of obscure analysis, but I have just noticed one amusing pattern in The Dreamstone (and most of Martin Gates Productions' works for that matter) in that nearly any shred of substance in the dynamic came from the 'deadbeat job' formula, with a character stuck doing tasks for someone (usually an idiot or a Bad Boss or both) and someone else on the chain ruining it all for them.

Sgt. Blob, Frizz and Nug were the most clear cut cases of this, but usually whenever another character weaved their way into this formula, they seemed to 'click' with the writers and evolve from a Flat Character into a witty self aware underling (eg. Urpgor, the Noops, Mr Blossom, who gained jobs that in some way made them a Butt-Monkey, usually because of the Urpneys' collateral damage). Anyone else just sort of ended up an unrelatable priggish aristocrat type that the writers couldn't fathom proper humour or pathos for, even characters that were supposed to be the good guys (probably the reason the show started Growing the Beard when they got at least some hero aligned characters into the dynamic to balance out the Urpneys' Designated Villain role).

It's actually a shame they didn't just go all the way with this setup from the start, this rather cynical British formula of hierarchies and underlings trying to do their ungratifying job without someone else (usually in the same situation) ruining it or scapegoating their load onto them, even stuff that was made of magic and rainbows ultimately involved someone being kicked around to make it all. It could have made for a very funny fantasy parody, instead of trying superficially to be this high brow 'good vs evil' epic that they never really developed properly.

edited 27th Apr '17 6:49:32 PM by Psi001

I just started season three this week! Hopefully the Urpneys will get less whiny

Every time this thread updates, I hope that new episodes are officially released.

Or maybe all of them are released at all.

And I keep getting disappointed.

Is it true that Monster gave up on it?

There was this nice little label, Renascent (killer choice of name), that was specializing in reissuing alternative bands from Britain. They were mostly done with Comsat Angels, but suddenly went under before finishing. It took almost 10 years for a different label to pick up the catalogue, and re-re-issue the band's material again (they aren't doing as great of a job, but most people aren't going to notice a 5% quality decrease, so it's okay I guess). They are halfway done.

What am I even talking about? Even if the current company gives up (they seem to have given up already), somebody else will pick it up and finally release the whole thing.

edited 7th Jul '17 3:21:25 AM by KlarkKentThe3rd

Apparently Monster recently made a comment on Facebook saying there will be SOMETHING coming up in the future.

Season Three bulks up a few elements of the series and drifts from the formula a little, though the Urpneys never really change (Really? You're moaning about the Urpneys? At least they have a personality and a proper reason to be Wangsty (or at fail are comically so). Zordrak and the heroes just moan the same Serious Business exposition every episode. I swear if I heard the Dream Maker go off about how they 'must protect the dreeeeeams!' one more time...).

edited 7th Jul '17 7:20:45 AM by Psi001

I suppose it is funny when Urpgor complains about everyone not taking their jobs seriously.

As said before, the most developed part of the show was the 'chain of employment abuse' gags. Season Four's probably the best since it starts to shift the non-Urpney characters into it more, making them far less boring (all the cutesy dream making is more tolerable when they add a deliberate cynical tint to all the gratuitous work that goes into it too).

I do admit the show overused the Urpney banter, but prior to Season Four, not much else was made interesting anyway. Even Zordrak was losing steam after Season One.

edited 7th Jul '17 4:47:36 PM by Psi001

Looks like the wait is about to end. Germany is getting a release. IF there is an english track, then the wait IS over.

Sources claim it has an English track, but is only Season One. Either way it's a step up in accessibility.

Monster Entertainment has also recently had all fan uploads of the show deleted on Youtube which has left some suspicion.

edited 29th Nov '17 10:07:52 AM by Psi001

I will buy from Europe, because NTSC blows (unless you really want the 100% correct playback speed).

Apparently Monster have confirmed they were involved in the German DVD release, just they are not the DVD distributors.

https://www.pidax-film.de/Kinder/Jugend/Der-Traumstein-The-Dreamstone-Staffel-1::1248.html

According to the publishers site it will be in both German and English, neat.

edited 30th Nov '17 4:15:06 AM by Kiefen

I WILL BUY IT THEN

(in a few months)