The Wiggles Movie was released in Australian cinemas on 18 December 1997, distributed by 20th Century Fox. It hasn't been seen in its original form since then!

Fox Home Entertainment released the VHS in 1998, where its original widescreen presentation was understandably exchanged for a partial open matte/pan-and-scan treatment. Internationally, The Wiggles released it on DVD and VHS through HIT Entertainment (USA & UK), and later Warner Home Video (USA again), as "Magical Adventure! A Wiggly Movie". The movie was slightly re-edited, with the first few scenes reshuffled, in addition to the title change. It was also a very poor transfer, with a soft image, sometimes garish colours and framing even more butchered to fit 4:3 televisions. The movie has not been available since Fox's Australian DVD (which bafflingly used the international cut, HIT Ent. logo and all) seemingly went out of print within the last couple years. That DVD, though poor quality, was a top seller, ranking in the top 20 of yearly Australian DVD sales as recently as 2011!

In honour of its 25th anniversary in 2022, we request the theatrical cut make its way into the hands of fans. We propose that it finally receive its overdue HD upgrade, in widescreen as exhibited in cinemas, for home release on digital, DVD and/or Blu-ray. We'd also love to see some extensive extras, like new and archival interviews, behind the scenes footage, trailers and promos, a high-quality photo gallery and whatever else they can come up with. But hey, all we really need is the movie itself, and at the very least we will settle for that alone!

We're a bit unsure of the rights situation; therefore, it's a bit confusing trying to figure out who to point this petition at. It was produced independently (the only film credit of The Wiggles' Gladusaurus Productions), and it appears that 20th Century Studios, now part of Disney, retains distribution rights in Australia and New Zealand. But, by all appearances, the film itself should be owned by The Wiggles, with international distribution seemingly in their control. After all, The Wiggles were apparently able to hand the movie off to their former North American and UK distributors along with the rest of their video catalogue. The copyright of all images in books and merchandise were always attributed to Gladusaurus Productions Pty Ltd (i.e. The Wiggles, we think), with no credit ever given to Fox except for the poster art. In 2007, The Wiggles archived the movie's 35mm film reels and its digital audio on disk at Australia's National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA).

Whatever The Wiggles have the power to do, we hope they will at least actively get the ball rolling for a newly remastered release. If they can't do it in Australia, hopefully they can give it an international release, perhaps in conjunction with a distributor like Shout! Factory (who were responsible for the fan-petitioned Thomas and the Magic Railroad Blu-ray) or Kino Lorber (The Wiggles' current US distributor). Best case scenario, maybe Disney can even come on board for a release in the movie's homeland. This beloved film, a labour of love from some of Australia's biggest icons, certainly deserves it!

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