The First Snow of Winter [VHS]
The winter adventures of an errant young Irish duck who loses track of  his family on their annual southbound flight make for a charming tale voiced in accents from the British Isles with appealing animation reminiscent of theLittle Bearseries. If our hero Sean were human, he would probably be diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder. But he's fowl, so his mother (Carol Kane) makes her own diagnosis: he's "a duck running amok." So it's no surprise when he strays from the family formation and gets knocked back to earth to face winter alone. He is ably tutored by a good-natured, riverdancing vole (Tim Curry) who imparts some handy survival wisdom before he hibernates. The last 10 minutes of this 27-minute story are crammed with a series of short-lived perils involving a storm, a fox, and Sean's inability to find his parents as the ducks return in the spring. It all ends well, but very young and/or sensitive children may have a few anxious moments along the way.--Kimberly Heinrichs