Joey

An engaging credit sequence, two positive adolescent role models and a few quirky touches are not enough to recommend this Australian boy-and-his-'roo adventure that hopped directly to video. My four-year-old instantly made the connection to E.T. as a resourceful young boy, a defender of creatures big and small (at school, he breaks up a cockroach fight), sets out from his rural home to Sidney to reunite a baby kangaroo with its parents. He is joined on his mission by the neglected daughter of an American ambassador (Ed Begley, Jr.). I liked the boy's ingenuity and integrity, and kangaroos are unconventional animal screen stars, but this film is marred by cartoonish villains, an awful musical score and clumsy slapstick sequences tricked up with animated sound effects. Even at the low price, this is an optional purchase. (K. Lee Benson)