Animated Musical Stories & Songs 4 Kids In 3 Dimensions; Infantastic Lullabyes, Vol. 2

Computer animation in children's video will undoubtedly become commonplace in the near future, but for the present, the entries aren't too promising. Infantastic Lullabyes, Vol. 2 (titled More Infantastic Lullabyes in the opening credits) features some half a dozen children's songs, including "I've Been Working on the Railroad," "Old MacDonald Had a Farm," and "Row, Row, Row Your Boat," set to computer animation which bears a strong resemblance to 8-bit Nintendo graphics. The Baby's Bedtime tape in the Stories to Remember series is a much better choice.Animated Musical Stories & Songs 4 Kids in 3 Dimensions offers technical wizardry up the wazoo on its three volumes of cutting edge computer animation (some of it comparable to the images seen in Miramar's The Mind's Eye and Beyond the Mind's Eye), but the storytelling capabilities are limited--partially by the medium itself, but also by the questionable abilities and motives of the storytellers. Each volume has six animated shorts bookended by similar introductions and conclusions which seem to laud the company (M3D) more than the stories (and even in the "stories" themselves the M3D logo occasionally pops up). Volume 1 opens on a promising note with a nicely done version of "Old MacDonald" followed by a lovely and infectiously hummable counting song called "Somewhere on the Planet." But then we're given a weird planetary traveler story called "Binki," about a benevolent space patrol robot who crash lands his ship, gives thanks at a local temple, has his prayers answered with a new space ship, and flies off--leaving viewers shaking their heads and wondering what that quasi-religious mumbo jumbo was all about. It doesn't help that the singer's voices are not always clearly intelligible. On Volume 2, for example, a piece called "Skeleton"--which is your basic "knee bone's connected to the leg bone"--song, suddenly blurts out "hear the word of the Lord" (I had to play this several times to make sure what it said, but I'm pretty much convinced that that's what I heard). Regardless of one's religious orientation, a religious message just doesn't belong in a song about the human skeleton. The pieces that are simple work the best, such as "The ABC Song" and "This Old Man." But the story segments seem to be written around the animation, rather than vice versa; there's little arc to the story and generally no sense of closure (more often the ending is abrupt). In short, these tapes are a wonderful example of the capabilities of computer animation put together by a group of people who have little idea of how to create good materials for children--not to mention bad judgment when it comes to inserting religious messages.Infantastic Lullabyes, Vol. 2 is not recommended.(Available from: V.I.E.W. Video, 34 East 23 St., New York, NY 10010; (800) 843-9843.) Animated Musical Stories & Songs 4 Kids In 3 Dimensions, while filled with eye-popping computer animation, is too weirded out for its intended audience of young kids, and is therefore not recommended. (Available from: Tapeworm Video, 12420 Montague St., Suite B, Arleta, CA 91331 (800) 367-8437.)