CABLE TV REVIEWS : ‘PINOCCHIO,’ ‘SONG’ ON DISNEY CHANNEL

The Disney Channel offers a refreshing look at some of the best animation of the past and present Saturday at 8:30 p.m., with the world television premiere of “Pinocchio” (1940) and the American premiere of “Rupert and the Frog Song” (1985).

Many critics regard Disney’s “Pinocchio” as the most perfect animated feature ever made, anywhere. Every frame seems to overflow with interesting characters, fluid motion and handsome designs. The Disney crew transformed Carlo Collodi’s rambling, episodic serial about an obnoxious puppet into a tightly structured, dramatic, sympathetic story. Lampwick’s transformation into a donkey on Pleasure Island and the attack of Monstro the Whale still rank among the most frightening sequences in the history of the medium.

Although “Pinocchio” has been one of the best-selling video cassettes in the country since it became available in July of 1985, it has never been broadcast.

Animation is often described as a lost art, but the elegant movement in “Rupert and the Frog Song,” an award-winning British short that follows “Pinocchio,” proves otherwise.

Rupert the Bear has been a popular cartoon character in English newspapers and storybooks for more than 60 years. He dresses in ‘20s clothes and lives with his parents in Nutwood Village, where time stands still. In this 13-minute short, Rupert discovers a secret frog kingdom, where he witnesses a rare music festival. Paul McCartney, who produced the film with his wife Linda, composed and performs the song, “We All Stand Together,” accompanied by “an all-frog orchestra.”

The story is regrettably weak, and Rupert emerges as the least interesting character in the story. He does little more than run away, watch the frogs and return home. But the artists fill the frog-realm with enough magic to hold the viewers’ attention. Some of the most respected animators in England, including Mario Cavelli, Eric Goldberg, Oscar Grillo and director/co-writer Geoff Dunbar, worked on “Rupert” and their elegant animation simply outclasses anything drawn for American television.

McCartney, who “grew up on the Rupert stories,” and Dunbar are already planning a feature-length sequel to “Frog Song”--welcome news for parents and children weary of the 90-minute Care Bears commercials that are foisted upon us as “family entertainment.”