Hiawatha; Peter Pan

Originally made for Australian television, these two animated adaptations of literary classics share good production values, and feature exceptional soundtracks, but each carries a semi-lethal flaw. Hiawatha, taken from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's epic poem "The Song of Hiawatha" reduces what is essentially a richly detailed atmospheric poem about historic Native American culture to the level of a G.I. Joe cartoon. Little time is spent on Hiawatha's childhood, the filmmakers opting instead to milk the action elements of Hiawatha's quest. So Hiawatha does battle with the great crayfish, the huge snake, the giant fish, etc. while journeying to visit the mammoth bear who holds the secret to peace for the warring Indian nations. Although the actual cartoon maintains intermittent interest, Longfellow's classic is gutted. Peter Pan is both more fun, and more faithful to the original source, J. M. Barrie's classic fairy tale. The first half, in particular, is very well done, with a charming Peter and his jealous companion Tinker Bell, rounding up Wendy Darling and her brothers for the trip to Never-Never Land. Once on the island, however, the tempo rapidly shifts to clashes with Captain Hook's pirates and the Indians. Even this obligatory nod to action is bearable except for the uncomfortable stereotypes in the speech patterns of Black and Native American characters. While infrequent, these unwitting slurs will bother many viewers. Both programs are, in their way, better than most cartoons on video, but each has defects which make them unsuitable for library children's video collections. Not recommended. (Available from most distributors.)