Rolie Polie Olie: A Jingle Jangle Holiday

While this collection of four episodes from the Disney Channel's pre-school hit Rolie Polie Olie--based on children's writer/illustrator William Joyce's popular picture books about an extraterrestrial family of round, vaguely bug-like, colorfully drawn robots--makes for a genuinely entertaining half-hour, only the lead-off piece Jingle Jangle Wish is Christmas-related…sort of. In Polieville, where Rolie and his sister Zoe and dog Spot live with Mom and Dad and Pappy, what we call Christmas is known as Jingle Jangle Day and presents are brought not by Santa Claus, but by Clanky Claus (whose mechanical stomach, one presumes, shakes like a bowl full of petroleum jelly). In Jingle Jangle Wish, a panic-stricken Rolie chases Clanky on the night before Jingle Jangle Day, in order to tell him about Zoe's wish for a Rocket Pony. In the other episodes, the Polies set up an ice skating rink on a hot day, visit the Ice Cream Planet for tasty treats, and rescue a baby falling star. Recommended, though some might be disappointed in the somewhat misleading title/packaging. Aud: P. (R. Pitman)