Release Name: The Adventures of Woosh
Release Year: 200?
Identifiers: none
Language: English
Runtime: 25 minutes
Topic(s): Road Safety, Educational
I found this tape while I was visiting Norwich a good few years ago. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to get it – why? Because it appealed to two of my interests: weird old educational video and car related media.
The Adventures of Woosh is a 25 minute road safety video created by French automobile manufacturer Renault. Intended for UK schools the 25 minute video features a CGI alien named woosh who teaches the children about road safety. Almost all the vehicles featured in this presentation are Renault marques including Megane’s, Kangoo’s and Scenic’s.
The video is clearly intended for classroom use with various pause points scattered through the film; where the teacher could stop the video and ask the children what the answer to the question is.
The film is no marvel, and doesn’t really contain anything more than amateur level dramatics to get its point across. The CGI alien was probably a bit creepy at the time of creation and (like so much early CGI animation) hasn’t aged well. Along with this add an awfully cliché nasal voice for the little bugger and there you have it, early 2000’s irritation at its finest.
I have to refer to this film as early 2000’s. Understanding that Renault are going to want to showcase their latest vehicles (which at the time Renault were boasting about their Euro NCAP ratings) it can be assumed this video was created possibly anywhere between 1999 (when the Megane received a facelift) to maybe as late as 2003 (when production of the Megane Scenic stopped).
Albeit rather boring in subject matter, this is one of my favourite lost media finds. Many of these road safety videos that were around when I was a lad have been lost to time. It is unusual to see one produced by a car manufacturer and not a government body such as Think!. As with any video which features younger children, I do wonder where and what they are doing now. I’m sure someone with more time than I could easily locate Jade and Aaron on the various social media platforms that currently exist. (Full credit list exists on Filmogs).
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