Animal Antics: Summer

I have a rule about "animal" films for kids. I think the animals should be allowed to be animals, with animal behaviors and instincts, and the kids should be kids, with kid behaviors and instincts (I confess that I find movies like Babe, Mr. Ed, and Mouse Hunt insufferable, though I make an exception for pure cartoons.) On the other hand, when animals are allowed to be animals, and humans interact with them in realistic ways, a movie can be genuinely touching and moving (I refer here to films such as Never Cry Wolf, The Black Stallion and Fly Away Home). So when I see an English film about a farmhouse where all the animals speak to each other in kid voices, I am already on the defensive. Why then did I like Animal Antics: Summer? Because even though the animals "talk" (through voice-over and thankfully not animated lips), their motivations are fairly realistic and the footage has a documentary feel to it as opposed to a re-enacted one. Wasps, tortoises, fox cubs, voles, badgers, barn owls, wrens, slugs and even a wild boar are gorgeously filmed in their natural environments competing for space, resources and affection. While the child voice-overs occasionally grated, I think children will draw comparisons between themselves and the animals, and hopefully learn that nature has its own share of complainers, hard workers, gossips, curiosity seekers and buffoons, albeit all of whom speak in British accents. Recommended. The three other identically priced titles in the series are: Spring, Fall and Winter. Aud: K, E, P. (R. Ray)