I received an email from a reader a month or two back saying they were having trouble with the time-base correction (TBC) functionality on the Snell and Wilcox TBS-185. Thinking back to my review, I actually always tested with Laserdiscs, and generally played through players with integrated digital TBCs. I didn’t think much of this at the time – after all a TBC should, you know, correct timebase errors.
‘Little Orbit the Astrodog and the Screechers from Outer Space’ also known as ‘Pluk, naufragé de l’espace’ and ‘Arago X-001‘ is an animated feature from French director Jean Image.
The feature was originally created as a 22 episode television series titled ‘Arago X’, with each episode lasting around 5 minutes starting in 1972. It tells the story of ‘Terry’ a billionaire, and his girlfriend, talking-dog and an alien robot who bounce around the cosmos together on a series of adventures.
Screenshot from the feature DVD.
The series was originally shown on French television in October 1973, it was re-shown several times during the 1970s. The film was first aired in 1976. In 1979 it was dubbed into English and released on videotape. It was this version that I saw, as a child a fell in love with.