TV REVIEWS : ‘Copperfield’: Uneasy Shift to Animal World

“Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield,” a two-hour special airing at 8 tonight on NBC (Channels 4, 36 and 39), epitomizes the jejune bilge that prevents animation from being taken seriously as an art form in America. Ill-conceived and sloppily executed, it delivers about as much holiday cheer as a stocking full of coal.

Little remains of the original novel but the names of the characters: The teleplay by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens sanitizes and trivializes Dickens’ attacks on child exploitation and other social problems. Murdstone’s grim bottle factory, where the title character slaved, has become a cheese factory guarded by “cheese police” and a “cheese monster.” No one seems to have a problem the Care Bears couldn’t solve.

The setting has been shifted to “the animal world,” which means dog and cat heads have been incongruously stuck on human bodies to free the animators from the demanding task of drawing human faces. They don’t do terribly well with the animal heads, either--proportions change and features shift when the characters turn or move. The designs and animation recall the crummiest kidvid shows of the ‘70s.

Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn provide a number of sappy rock songs that are completely inappropriate for early 19th-Century characters. Julian Lennon (David) and Sheena Easton (Agnes) sing the clunky lyrics well enough, but don’t provide much in the way of vocal characterization; the rest of the cast, which includes Andrea Martin and Michael York, rants and bellows. Howie Mandel gives the show’s only credible performance as Mealy, a street-smart orphan who befriends David.

“David Copperfield” was produced in Canada and France; had it aired a few weeks earlier, Ross Perot would have had no trouble convincing viewers that trade barriers were a good idea.