The Wiggles (partially lost widescreen versions of children's videos; 2002-2004)

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TheWigglesLogo-FlatSparkled.png

The group's logo from Series 3.

Status: Partially Lost

The Wiggles is a popular children's group that formed in 1991 in Sydney, Australia. They are known for their hits Hot Potato, Get Ready To Wiggle, Fruit Salad and many others. Between 1991 and 1998, they mostly released albums and videos and toured heavily and would gain popularity in Australia. By the turn of the century, the group gained global popularity and their albums, videos, television shows and tours would become hugely successful. From 1991 to 2001, a lot of their videos and television shows were filmed in 4:3 aseptic ratio and for their next videos and television shows starting in early 2002, they would shoot a lot of them in 16:9 widescreen. But their first few videos shot in widescreen were released on home video in 4:3 and have largely remained unseen.

On July 22nd, 2021, Anthony Field addressed the unreleased 16:9 videos in a comment on an Instagram post by user wigglesenthusiasts2. Field said "I’ll have the good Sir Leslie look@into this when I find him!!!", meaning the 16:9 videos could see a release in the future.[1]

Wiggle Bay

Wiggle Bay was the first video to be shot in widescreen and is their fifth video shot on location. The first trailer for the video was released on the Wiggly Safari VHS and Queen of the Damned VHS in Australia. The footage in the trailer is in widescreen but squished to 4:3 and showcased different shots that weren't used in the final video. The video would be released in Australia on September 26th, 2002, and in North America on May 6th, 2003. The footage used for these releases is in the 4:3 ratio except for the Australian VHS, which is cropped to 14:9 instead. When Series 3 premiered in Australia (which was the same day Wiggle Bay was released on VHS in Australia[2]), it was shot in 16:9 widescreen and songs from Wiggle Bay were used in the series and the footage used for the series is in 16:9 widescreen. The video also aired a few times on ABC-TV in Australia and the footage used in the airings was in 14:9 based of two VHS Recordings done on a 4:3 TV, It was later used for the TV broadcast on ABC TV, iTunes download, HappyKids, The Wiggles (AVOD app), The Roku Channel, Tubi, Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Freevee, Pluto TV, FilmRise, Peacock (streaming service), and OG Wiggles YouTube upload of the video.[3]. When the video was uploaded to The Wiggles official YouTube channel in fragment parts in August 2020, the 14:9 Master used for the ABC-TV airings and VHS release was used. When the same master uploaded in full length in November 12th, 2023, It was squished to 4:3[4]. As of now the only footage from the widescreen version of Wiggle Bay is the trailer from the Australian releases of Wiggly Safari VHS, Queen of the Damned VHS, and various episodes from Series 3.

Video

Wiggle Bay video (14:9 master)

Trailer

Wiggle Bay promo (as seen in Australian releases of Wiggly Safari and Queen of the Damned VHS).

Songs

Wiggle Bay.

Dancing In The Sand (with an extended scene).

Swim Like A Fish.

C'est Wags, C'est Bon.

Dance A Cachuca.

Rolling Down The Sandhills/Running Up The Sandhills.

Let's Make Some Rosy Tea.

Zing Zang Wing Wang Wong.

Watching The Waves (with an extended scene and deleted scenes).

Let's Have A Barbie On The Beach.

Swim Like A Fish (Instrumental Reprise).

Whoo Hoo! Wiggly Gremlins!

The second video to be shot in widescreen is Whoo Hoo! Wiggly Gremlins! and was filmed during production on Series 3. Many songs from Series 3 were carried over into Whoo Hoo! and were previously in widescreen. The first trailer for the video was released on the Australian release of Space Dancing! and was in 14:9 But when the Whoo Hoo! video came out, the footage was cropped down to 4:3 for All VHS and DVD releases, HappyKids, The Wiggles (AVOD app), The Roku Channel, FilmRise, Amazon Prime Video (from FilmRise), The Wiggles (FAST channel), and Peacock (streaming service). Additionally, like Wiggle Bay, the video aired on ABC-TV a few times.[5] However, no recordings of these airings have surfaced. It was later used for iTunes download (in Australia), Amazon Prime Video (from Warner Home Video/NCircle Entertainment), Vudu, Netflix, The Wiggles DVD Sampler, and OG Wiggles YouTube upload of the video (albeit with 4:3 colored borders), All of video streaming services removed in 2016 (except for YouTube upload). In May 2021, two minutes and fifty-three seconds of the video in 14:9 widescreen surfaced on YouTube by user WigglesFan12347. In the description, he alleges the cropped version was on iTunes for a short time but has since been removed[6]. This claim remains unconfirmed. On August 23rd, 2021, the group uploaded a compilation of songs about Dressing Up. Among the songs shown was the song Hats from Whoo Hoo! from the 14:9 version of the video that has never been seen before. Four days later, another song from 14:9 print, Dressing Up was uploaded as part of another compilation of songs dedicated to Dressing Up. In 2023, it was discovered that a book based on the video that was released around the same time used screenshots from the video (two of them show sections of two shots in the video that are not present in the released video)[7].

Trailer

Previews from the Australian Space Dancing VHS (Whoo! Hoo! promo at 1:10).

Songs

Camera One.

Gulp Gulp (with an deleted scene).

Testing, One, Two, Three (with alternate angles).

Bit By Bit (We're Building A Set) (with deleted scenes).

Vegetable Soup (with deleted scenes).

Hats (with deleted scenes).

Music With Murray.

Lights, Camera, Action, Wiggles! (with an extended shot and edited scenes)

Dressing Up (with alternate angles).

Where's Jeff? (with deleted scenes).

Anthony's Workshop (with an alternate shot and ending credits of various 22-minute episodes).

Dressing Up compilation video with Hats in 16:9 at 11:23.

Second Dressing Up compilation video with Dressing Up in 16:9 at 53:50.

Top Of The Tots

Top of The Tots was the third video to be shot in widescreen. The only trailer for the video that can be found is for the North American release and the footage used in the trailer is in 4:3[8]. The video was released in both Australia and North America in the 4:3 format and was later uploaded to The Wiggles' YouTube channel in the same format in October 2023[9]. The same 4:3 master was used for iTunes download, Vudu, Amazon Prime Video, HappyKids, The Wiggles (AVOD app), FilmRise, The Roku Channel, The Wiggles (FAST channel), and Peacock (streaming service). The same widescreen master was used for the songs from the widescreen version were used in Series 4. Unlike before, the video did not air on ABC-TV and it's unknown if it ever did.

Songs

Bow Wow Wow.

Central Park, New York.

Cowboys and Cowgirls.

Fly Through The Sky.

I Wave My Arms And Swing My Baton.

New York Firefighter.

Picking Flowers. (NOTE: the scenes of Marie Field and her grandkids picking flowers at her garden are stretched from 4:3 to 16:9)

Say Aah at the Doctors.

Feeling Chirpy.

Lettuce Sing (Fresh Fruit And Veggies).

Let's Go Swimming.

The Bricklayers Song.

Calling All Cows.

Tick Tock (All Night Long).

Can You Dig It?

Knead Some Dough.

Open Wide Look Inside At The Dentist.

Santa's Rockin'!

Santa's Rockin'! is the next video to be shot in widescreen only that it wasn't used for series 4 and the video's widescreen status was unknown until the Hot Potatoes! The Best of The Wiggles compilation DVD was released in 2010 and the song Rockin' Santa was used and the footage used in the compilation was in widescreen[10]. The widescreen version of the video was confirmed to be on iTunes in Australia but got removed in 2016. However, a recording of the widescreen version when it was on iTunes surfaced on Dailymotion on September 25th, 2019, the same master was later uploaded to The Wiggles' YouTube channel on December 1st, 2023 (albeit without This Little Baby is Born Again due to copyright issues and the entire credits *as it shows on iTunes in Australia*) and used for FilmRise, The Wiggles (AVOD app), HappyKids, Tubi, Amazon Prime Video, Pluto TV, The Roku Channel, Amazon Freevee, The Wiggles (FAST Channel), and Peacock (streaming service). As of the writing of this article, it is the only video to have its widescreen version released to the public. In fact, this is the only uncropped widescreen version that had been preserved in the archives of Hot Potato Studios.

Santa's Rockin'! (Widescreen; albeit without the credits)

External Links

See Also

TV

Concerts

Videos

Music

Miscellaneous

References

  1. ↑ https://instagram.com/p/CRo0MgiHC8c/
  2. ↑ https://wiggles.fandom.com/wiki/Lights,_Camera,_Action,_Wiggles!_(TV_Series)
  3. ↑ https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/wiggles/images/f/ff/WiggleBayAspectRatioComparison.png/revision/latest?cb=20161128032331
  4. ↑ https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/wiggles/images/0/07/EA0F6268-F9DF-4556-B54D-699F7015EF00.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20240210034305
  5. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20040205094215/http://www.abc.net.au/tv/guide/netw/200402/highlights/223049.htm
  6. ↑ https://youtu.be/T4qslCogv1Q
  7. ↑ https://wiggles.fandom.com/wiki/Whoo-Hoo!_Wiggly_Gremlins_(book)
  8. ↑ https://youtu.be/hV9MYxRQ0Dc
  9. ↑ Full-length video on the channel Retrived 10 Oct '23
  10. ↑ https://youtu.be/NEW5Eab_IYE
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