Sleeping Beauty

If you ignore the hype about the "breathtaking animation " (not) in "five of the greatest children's stories ever told" (The Toy Symphony ?) which "introduce kids to classical music" (please), then Sleeping Beauty, one of five new programs in the Storyteller's Classics series isn't half bad. Narrated by Dudley Moore, Sleeping Beauty combines some moderately clever humorous writing with pedestrian animation and excerpts from Tchaikovsky's classic score to tell the story of the poor Princess who pricked her finger on a spinning wheel and went into a major doze until a courageous Prince came along who was in the mood to suck face...and...well, you already know the story. Low-priced, especially for a video/audio combination, Sleeping Beauty is a good choice for kids 4-8. The other titles in this series originally made for British television are: Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, Peter and the Wolf, and The Toy Symphony. Recommended. (R. Pitman)