Scamper the Penguin

Winner of a Grand Prix award at the 1989 Moscow Animation Festival, this charming animated feature, a Russian-Japanese co-production, relates the adventures of a perky little penguin named Scamper. Set in Antarctica, the film opens with the father penguins hibernating on the eggs, while the mother penguins head for the ocean to replenish their empty bellies. Almost immediately, one notices a big difference in this "cartoon"--it's intelligent. Children who watch Scamper will not only have fun seeing Scamper's comic attempts to fly, or be concerned when he and his friend Snowflake are cast adrift on a floating iceberg, they'll also learn quite a bit about penguin life and Antarctica's overall ecosystem. Created by Yoshi Enoki, Scamper features detailed animation (which is not quite on a par with Disney, but is worlds ahead of typical Saturday morning cartoon fare), an entertaining and instructive storyline, and some bubbly tunes. Recommended. (R. Pitman)