Donny Deinonychus

Can lightning strike twice? First, Barney got a major leg up riding the crest of Jurassic Park fever, now a new animated dino hits the little screen: Donny Deinonychus. In the first volume of a projected multi-tape series, Donny the Parrot, who lives with Professor Stevens and Pedro the Chihuahua in Montana, is transformed into his ancestor "deinonychus" (reputed to be the link between dinosaur and bird). The first of the two episodes on the video sets up the framing device: Donny runs away; Professor Stevens and Pedro (and, Professor Dagger, the main villain), go looking for him. In the second episode, the wandering Donny meets a group of school children and recounts a story about a ceratopian friend named Stormy, a tale designed to teach children that you can't judge people by their outside appearance. The animation in Donny Deinonychus alternates between simple iconographic movement and brief animated sequences involving one character, the stories are simple and rather bland, and the whole endeavor carries more than a little whiff of the marketplace. The first volume's narrators--Ruth Buzzi and Richard Moll--are scheduled to be followed by Tom Bosley, Dr. Joyce Brothers, Swoosie Kurtz, Kathy Ireland, and others. Not a necessary purchase, unless demand warrants. (R. Pitman)