Peter and the Wolf.

• Author: Rothenberg, Robert S.

The Disney vaults seemingly are bottomless, a cornucopia of past treasures being released to home video at regular intervals. These marketing geniuses now are taking short cartoon features that once were part of larger groupings and spinning them off. The latest idea is to package these versions of classic fiction with storybooks illustrated from the films so that kids can turn to reading once their interest has been whetted by the videos.

"Peter and the Wolf" combines Serge Prokoffief's brief symphonic score--which had each character, human or animal, portrayed by a different musical instrument--with typical Disney animation and a narration by Sterling Holloway (fondly remembered as the voice of Winnie the Pooh, Jiminy Cricket, and a plethora of other cartoon characters). The melange works admirably, albeit briefly (barely 15 minutes), so that two vintage musical...