Fruit: Close Up And Very Personal

In previous productions, Stage Fright Productions has taken whimsical, non-narrated looks at farm animals, trucks, horses, and trains. Now comes fruit. In the immortal words of Sesame Street: "which of these things is not like the other?" If you guessed fruit, you're absolutely right. All of the other subjects are inherently kinetic; fruit is rather static. Divided into segments showing the members of six fruit families, the program tries to offset the rather motionless subject with stock footage of fruit pickers and trucks barreling down dusty roads on their way to market. We even see an artist painting a still life fruit mural and a market shopper chomping into an occasional apple. It's a game effort, with bubbly music and good editing, but a narration-less film about fruit wears out its welcome long before thirty minutes are up. An optional purchase for larger collections. For ages 2-5. (R. Pitman)