Amazing Animals: Animal Families [VHS]
As any parent knows, raising a family involves a fair amount of protection and self-sacrifice. But, as this 24-minute tape shows, animals often go about things a little differently from humans. For instance, when was the last time you produced nourishing slime on your skin and let the youngsters chow down? Henry the animated lizard is as impressed as your kids should be by this "yucky, but amazing" mama fish. Henry and the narrator focus on mothers and children--the typical animal family--but some time is given to mute swans, one of nature's few nuclear families. While Father Swan is unusually nurturing--taking his turn sitting on the nest, for instance--he also gets to let out a little aggression by harassing other swans at the feeding grounds when they get too close to his babies. Whether it's swans looking for a fight, ibex daycare, or quadruplet armadillos, this video, like the rest of the series, has the right balance of great footage, good information, and kid-size humor.--Kimberly Heinrichs