Culture and slime

It’s a good week for kids, be your tastes highbrow or slimy.

Wednesday’s “Great Performances” brings “Peter & the Wolf,” winner of this year’s Academy Award for animated short film, on PBS. Defiant as he is brave, this Peter is all sharp elbows and enormous eyes. He lives with his grandfather in a battered fortress of a town, a scruffy duck his only friend. When a bird with a broken wing tempts him into the forest, he meets his wolf, conquers it and learns about the meaning of real freedom. Based on Prokofiev’s symphony, the film, made in Poland, is both somber and exhilarating, with a decidedly modern twist.

And if you’re in the mood for sheer goofiness, Jack Black (below) is back, hosting Nickelodeon’s 2008 Kids’ Choice Awards on Saturday. Child-friendly stars, including Miley Cyrus, Steve Carell, Cameron Diaz, Harrison Ford, America Ferrara and the Naked Brothers Band, honor and celebrate the films, songs and entertainers kids like best. Out with the golden statues, in with the green slime.

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-- Mary McNamara

(“Peter & the Wolf,” KCET, Wed., 8 p.m.;

Kids’ Choice Awards, Nickelodeon, Sat., 8 p.m.)