Max's Chocolate Chicken And Other Stories For Young Children; Princess Furball; Sylvester And The Magic Pebble

Although all of these programs were produced by Weston Woods, only the older Max's Chocolate Chicken and Other Stories for Young Children is available at a home video price. That volume includes the title piece, which features Rosemary Wells' impish bunny Max and his bossy sister Ruby vying for the prize of a chocolate chicken in an Easter egg hunt; Each Peach Pear Plum, a rhyming "I Spy" game featuring familiar Mother Goose and folklore characters, based on the picture book by Janet and Alan Ahlberg; and The Circus Baby, an older piece about a baby elephant learning to be himself, using illustrations from the 1953 picture book by Maud and Miska Petersham. But the crowning jewel of the collection is definitely Picnic, a fully animated adaptation of Emily Arnold McCully's charming book about a family of mice on a picnic, enroute to which the baby mouse falls out of the back of the truck. While the baby mouse has a few adventures in the wilderness, the rest of the family parties hardy until the mother notices that someone is missing...and the search is on. With its colorful animation, cute storyline, and characteristically zippy score by Ernest Troost, Picnic makes the Max's Chocolate Chicken and Other Stories for Young Children well worth the price.Princess Furball, a new Weston Woods film narrated by actress Alice Krige, is a disappointing simple iconographic version of Charlotte Huck's 1989 book, illustrated by Anita Lobel. After her father has pledged her hand to a local ogre in marriage, an unhappy princess runs away to hide in the forest. She is wrapped in a coat of 1,000 different furs--made on her request by her father, who killed 1,000 animals in the process (which has to rank as a Guinness world record in the Cruelty to Animals for the Purpose of Personal Fashion category). Dubbed "Furball" by the folk who capture her in the forest, she's whisked away to a nearby kingdom, where she's employed as a lowly scullery maid (like Cinderella). Princess Furball attends three balls given by the young and handsome king (throwing off her disguise and throwing on a bit of face paint), where she cuts the proverbial rug with the enchanted king and then disappears. After she leaves trinkets in the king's soup on several occasions, he discovers that the kitchen girl and his fancy dancer are one and the same. The problem with Princess Furball (besides the unjustified slaughter of 1,000 critters) is that the story turns on the familiar rule of three (the princess has three dresses, three gold items, attends three balls, etc.) for the sake of mathematics rather than plot. I know why the witch got her butt torched in Hansel & Gretel, and why the wolf got a little impromptu surgery at the close of Red Riding Hood, but I don't know why Princess Furball does what she does. An occasionally charming, but ultimately unsatisfying, story.Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, based on William Steig's 1969 picture book, and marvelously narrated by actor John Lithgow, is the story of a young donkey named Sylvester Duncan, who enjoys collecting pebbles. One day he finds a colorful "magic" pebble which grants his every wish. But when he's startled by an approaching lion, Sylvester panics and makes a rather foolish wish: to become a rock. In doing so, the pebble falls from his hand, and he is unable to return to donkey form. How the sad Sylvester and harried parents suffer, and how they are eventually rejoined is the subject of this delightful story about family relationships.Max's Chocolate Chicken and Other Stories for Young Children is recommended, and is available from most distributors. Princess Furball is not recommended. Sylvester and the Magic Pebble is highly recommended for larger children's video collections. (Available from: Weston Woods, 389 Newtown Turnpike, Weston, CT 06883; (800) 243-5020.)