The Boy Who Cried Wolf

A rare miss from the Weston Woods team, this animated adaptation of the 2006 picture book The Boy Who Cried Wolf—based on Aesop's fable and retold by B.G. Hennessy, with illustrations by Boris Kulikov—turns Kulikov's expressive artwork into mostly bland and cartoonish animation (with a few creative touches). This “timeless tale” (as the DVD jacket calls it—though it's really more of a one-note instructive anecdote) relates the brief story of the bored shepherd boy who falsely cries wolf, twice bringing the townspeople running to his aid, before shouting for help a third time when wolves really do show up (although the fool-me-twice townspeople do not). Narrated in somewhat pedestrian fashion by Peter Scolari, the film also suffers from an inexplicably mismatched jazz soundtrack by John Jennings that just doesn't jibe with either the simple action or the bucolic setting. Presented with the option of using “read-along” subtitles with words highlighted in yellow as they are spoken, the DVD also includes an interview with Kulikov, who talks about immigrating to America and working on children's books for Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. Not a necessary purchase. Aud: K, E, P. (R. Pitman)