Roundabout Tales: In Search of the Willie T

In this live-action production, a young girl visits her grandfather's old curiosity shop, where she hears a tall tale about one Capt. Phineas T. Blarney, a crusty pirate who awoke one morning to find himself washed ashore, robbed of his hook, eyepatch and pirate ship. By some unexplained narrative sleight of hand, the good captain has been catapulted into modern times, which allows him to visit a number of contemporary vessels--including a sailing schooner, a Coast Guard buoy tender and a submarine--while searching for his own lost ship. The scripting is fairly sharp as the blustering Blarney is calmly handled by the other captains and mates who point out the names of various sails, ship directions (port and starboard), locations (bow and stern), modern navigational tools (such as radar and depthfinder), and periscopes and torpedoes. However, the program goes very seriously astray while explaining how torpedoes work, as we watch Capt. Blarney inexplicably firing on (and destroying) a towering downtown office complex. What the heck were the filmmakers thinking of here? Obviously not the Oklahoma bombing tragedy. Building demolition in a construction video is one thing; blowing up a possibly occupied building for laughs is quite another. Should the producers decide to cut this objectionable scene, we would consider adding a star to our rating of this otherwise enjoyable and inexpensive video. As it stands, however, this is not recommended. (R. Pitman)