Where Did I Come From?

Remember Peter Mayle's charming little picture book on how grown-ups make babies? Of course you do; and so do a whole league of conservative library patrons. Well, fasten your seatbelts: you're about to discover that still drawings and (vigorously) moving pictures are different species altogether. Almost scrupulously faithful to the text of the book, Where Did I Come From? offers small children the essentials of sex education through animated metaphors: ejaculation, for instance, becomes a 'sperm race' replete with swimming pool and featuring water dance arrangements obviously inspired by the Busby Berkeley musicals. One hardy fellow in a top hat, which is cleverly angled in the water to resemble a shark's fin (with the Jaws score playing in the background), pulls ahead of the other sperm (which appear, rather sadly, to be drowning) and greets the smiling egg at poolside, where the duo dance the 'fertilization tango'. (What a child actually makes of all this, we don't know.) The animated sequences focusing on intercourse and birth are much less metaphorical, but hardly realistic. Yes, the couple do make love, but the bedside table--which is not attached to the bed--shakes like the dickens. (This extended scene is liable to spark more conversation between parent-parent, than between parent- child; not all of it friendly.) And, in the section on birth, one wonders whether it is advisable to explain that one egg plus one sperm equals one baby, up through triplets, and then say--"and so on"--leaving the child to ponder the mathematics of hundreds of scrunched-up siblings. Still, the pro gram is well-meaning, and the filmmakers are dealing with an admittedly sticky subject. If you're ready to begin adding sex education videocassettes to your collection, this program will certainly spark family discussion. Recommended, with reservations.