Little Bill - Merry Christmas [VHS]
Little Bill's creators--like those behind other cartoon series--could have strung colorful lights and twinkling ornaments around their character's TV apartment and called it Christmas, but instead they reached for the real deal: an honest representation of a 5-year-old's fuzzy grasp on the holiday spirit. One episode is dedicated to Little Bill's anguish when Alice the Great's flight is delayed on Christmas Eve. His crocodile tears as he and Alice sing their favorite carol by phone could melt the snow out of Cincinnati, where she's stuck, and the unpacking of the family's ornaments feels as stirringly sentimental as it does familiar. Additional episodes "Summertime in the Wintertime" and "Snowracer" meander from the holiday theme, but gently--because they're both swirled in snow, leaving the merry mood undiminished.--Tammy La Gorce