I can still remember watching this on ITV when I was really young. Once a week, it was my favourite thing to watch. I never missed it, and I never wanted it to end. For a long time after they stopped showing it I had hoped they'd bring it back one day, but they never did and I eventually almost completely forgot it... But alas, thanks to the blessing that is Youtube, I recently came across it once again completely by chance after not seeing it for over twenty years, and as I watched all the seasons straight through(minus one-and-a-half episodes) as I had never been able to as a child, I realised to my delight that "The Dreamstone" was an even greater show than I had remembered. I was amazed by the endless dazzling variety of the art, witty humour, and sheer imagination on display. The animation is so rich, and still holds up incredibly well even today, with tons of enchanting little touches to be found in any given episode. It really has some uniquely fascinating artworks and striking visuals to it, from the sunny utopia that is The Land of Dreams to the Mordor-like volcanic barrenness of Viltheed, to the heavenly radiance of the crystalline Planet of Dreams beyond... I love how the entire voicing cast was done by British actors of all kinds, that helped make the show so different and unique and is part of what made it so memorable to me. Zordrak was such a magnificent villain. Much more than a mere generic dark lord, I love how the show wasn't above making him look a buffoon and fallible every now and then. His low grumbling voice was so menacing, and his thunderous bark was just scary! And his Urpney underlings were so hilarious. The only things about the show that vaguely bug me now is that some of the good guys verge more than a little on being sickly sweet, I also find the design and voicing of Urpgor the completely mad scientist to be over-the-top and annoying... The sweeping operatic theme song "Better than a Dream", and the stunning animation of Rufus' dream that accompanies it was very clever, because you could really *feel* how it was deliberately designed to conjure up and capture the rather epic and awesome concepts of dreams that above all else I believe sat at the very heart of this show. Even as an ignorant little happy kid I strongly grasped that about this programme and loved it for it. Such a grand and marvelous concept: This mysterious, mystical place beyond space and time, where the benevolent Merlin-like Dream Maker and his infernal dark dragon opposite battle endlessly over the control of dreams or nightmares via the precious Dreamstone through which they could they could be channelled into the minds of sleepers everywhere... This has got to be one of the most tragically underrated gems ever! It's a baffling mystery to me how such a magical and cheerfully captivating series like this one could have ever been robbed of its prime and place in animation history. It seems to be perilously unknown mostly, and that makes me sad, to think it may be forgotten when it has so much more worth and magic I it than most animated shows of it's era or ever for that matter.. But regardless of whether it's largely remembered or not, what a show! It stands strong as a testament to the magic of the imagination. It truly was the stuff that dreams are made of, and it will always have a special place in mine. It was beautiful... X

The Dreamstone is certainly a show that brings back my nostalgia goggles. With the internet I can now take another gander at the show. For those of you unacquainted with the show, The Dreamstone is a British animated series created for CITV during the early 90s. The central plot for each episode revolved around the Land of Dreams, a world completely divided in half in the premise of providing happy dreams and nightmares for it's inhabitants. Good dreams are provided in the Land of Dreams by a wizard like character blatantly nicknamed the Dreammaker, and a population of species called the Noops (strange little Jazz Jackrabbit type civilians) and the Wuts (a tribe of magical poodle like beings) while the Nightmares are provided by demonic lizard Zordrak and his ghostly Aggoribles in the land of Viltheed. The Dream Maker manages to keep nightmares from invading the Land of Dreams thanks to the title device; the Dreamstone which holds away Zordrak's Aggoribles. As such Zordrak is insistent on nabbing the thing, enlisting his minions, the Urpneys (basically slovenly humans with lizard tails and enormous noses) to steal it, with limited success.The show starts off with a rather epic narration more or less explaining the basic plot above. In a rarity, each episode begins from the villains' point of view. All the bad guys have an amusing charm to them, ranging from the incredibly fearsome (but hilariously hammy and exasperated) boss Zordrak, his scatterbrained second in command Sgt Blob and his two neurotic "not-all-that-evil" cronies Frizz and Nug and the rivalistic and completely deranged mad scientist Urpgor, who creates the inane vehicles and inventions which Blob's men utilise to try steal the stone. Character oozes from these guys and the clever wit and slapstick means they usually make every scene they are in a hoot, leaving me to wonder why exactly I begun to lose interest in such a charming show. Then we meet the good guys...Following the villains plotting their attack on the Utopian Land of the Dreams, we then meet the protagonists, the Dream maker, his two young Noop assistants, Rufus and Amberley and his pet Dogfish Albert (yes, that's exactly what it sounds like). The depiction of the heroes is EXTREMELY cutesy. Most of the protagonists are rather bland and never really intertwine themselves into the show's comedy as well as the bad guys do. Even the manner they are voiced and animated is much flatter and generic in comparison to that of the villains (which almost rivals what Disney and Warner Bros were churning out at the time). Not to mention they are thoroughly infallible and lacking in pathos, and half the time come off more as self righteous bullies due to the Urpneys' ridiculously sympathetic dynamic. In short, you WILL root for the bad guys the large majority of the time.It's a real shame. The concepts for the show overall brim with potential and are genuinely creative. Mike Jupp's character designs are brilliant and the surreal setup leaves you wanting to see more. Sadly the show's heart doesn't seem to be really with it (oddly enough the actual dream premise is hardly ever seen and most attempts world building are ruined by the heroes' dull execution).The Dreamstone is a show that REALLY makes me want to love it, but in the end I can only say so for half of it, it's a really big shame, if they had kept up a consistent charm and personality to the good guys as much as the villains, this may have earned an impressive 8 or even a 9 If you want to get a taster of the show, I highly advise watching the opening special for the series at it's highest form, otherwise watch any episode and have a laugh, just be expected to fast forward through to the far more entertaining villain scenes each and every time.

I have spent about the last five years not only trying to find people who remember this show, but to remember the name of it myself. It's quite hard to find others who remember it when you describe it as "A cartoon with these bear kind of things who flew around on leaves and sent out good dreams with a crystal thing...you know the one...a dream crystal or something?" Blank stares. And today I finally Googled it just as 'cartoon 90's dream' and lo and behold! The Dreamstone (I know, could it have been any more obvious...unfortunately my brain doesn't work that way)! Anyway, the point is, it was an EXCELLENT show, right up there with Captain Planet, Widget the World Watcher and Samurai Pizza Cats...go 90's cartoons and everyone who can remember them!

'The Dreamstone' was absolutely fantastic. I'm lucky to have four episodes, including the double-length pilot on video. The show is absolutely stunning, a visual tour de force, with believable characters and some truly fantastic voice-over work. The scripts were never dull, the stories never boring, the show mesmerised me in a way no other cartoon has ever done, or probably will ever do. The Noops, Rufus & Amberley were fully-dimensioned, Rufus in particular so wonderfully realistic that many I know have actually dubbed me as the human version of him. We have the advantage of seeing the show now with our older, more cynical eyes - and that everyone who has seen the show since that I know still holds it in great adoration as a result is a testimony to it's sheer brilliance.