Home Entertainment : Scarry Creations Find Their Way to Video

Here’s some good news for preschool viewers and their parents: The worm has turned, and it’s scary. No, make that the Worm has returned, and it’s Scarry. As in Lowly and Richard.

What that means for the uninitiated is that the planet’s most famous annelid, Lowly Worm, best friend Huckle Cat and all their Busytown buddies have returned to video.

The characters are the creations of the late Richard Scarry, the prolific author-illustrator who died unexpectedly last year as his new series was going into production for its cable TV premiere. The videos are adapted from those shows, and the shows themselves are based on Scarry’s best-selling books (100 million copies of which are in print).

Sixty-five episodes of “The Busy World of Richard Scarry” have been acquired by PolyGram Video, as it flexes its considerable muscle to get a firmer foothold in the children’s-video field. The Scarry stuff is aimed at kids 2 through 5.

The first two titles of the new video series are just arriving in stores, at $9.95 each. Each video contains three stories, about seven minutes a pop, along with what PolyGram calls “intersectionals”--there’s a word for you--one-minute musical ditties offering children tips on everything from safety to how things work.

Some of these Scarry stories are expanded from their original book versions, but they do not suffer from it. The animation is superb, and the musical scores are upbeat and charming.

These are robust and delightful videos, which should not only entertain your kids but also whet their appetites for more Huck, Lowly and Scarry in print form. And what more can you ask from top-quality videos at bargain-basement prices?

Don’t forget, there are earlier Scarry videos still available, and they are also highly recommended. Two of the most popular for kids 4 to 6 are “Richard Scarry’s Best ABC Video Ever!” and “Richard Scarry’s Best Counting Video Ever!” (both Random House Home Video, $14.95). If your little one’s working on the alphabets or old 1-2-3, you won’t be disappointed in these golden oldies.

What’s New on Video: “Miami Rhapsody” (Hollywood): Shameless . What else can you say about a film that so blatantly rips off the style, basic structure and comedic approach of Woody Allen’s “Annie Hall”? If you can put the comparisons aside, this is a witty romantic comedy that offers a commendable look at the frailties of modern relationships. Sarah Jessica Parker is no Woody Allen, but screenwriter-director David Frankel (a double-duty feat also akin to Allen) gives her some witty lines.

“In the Mouth of Madness” (New Line): Director John Carpenter (“Halloween,” “The Thing”) has returned to his horror-film roots and gets out of the gates strong, thanks in large part to a dynamic performance by Sam Neill. Neill plays a cynical private investigator assigned to track down a best-selling horror author who has mysteriously disappeared. He soon finds himself transported to a town that doesn’t exist on any map but is the central focus of the author’s books.

Laser Tip: The recently released laser-disc version of “The Making of Jurassic Park” (MCA/Universal, $35) will bring you closer to what it feels like to be involved in the making of a movie than ever before.

Adding to the terrific 50-minute behind-the-scenes documentary that has been available on videocassette for two months and is on the first side of this disc, the second side features camcorder video shot by Spielberg while scouting locations in Hawaii. It looks no more professional than you would shoot.

His random recorded conversation sounds a lot like Everyman’s home movies. Equally compelling is random raw footage of Spielberg sitting at a table talking over possible ideas for the movie with special-effects artists.