Many anime fans acclaim writer-director Hiroyuki Yamaga's Wings of Honneamise as a masterpiece, but general audiences may react less enthusiastically. Honneamise is a small country in a parallel world very similar to Earth. Shiro Lhadatt, the least impressive cadet in the air force flight school, volunteers to become the first astronaut in a controversial space program. Training toughens his body, while the priggish evangelist Riqunni challenges him to discipline his spirit. In one distasteful sequence, Shiro attempts to rape her. The next morning he starts to apologize, only to have her apologize for braining him with a candlestick, a scene certain to infuriate feminists. Despite an invasion by a hostile country, Shiro gets into space and delivers a ponderous homily from his capsule. Wings was made by a group of young artists in 1987, and with a record- setting budget. Art director Hiromasa Ogura's lavish designs blend '80s high-tech with art nouveau, and Yamaga's leaden pacing gives viewers the time to study every detail. Fans of Honneamise acclaim it as a critical meditation on the illusions and follies of the human race, which suggests that profundity, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. [+]

The classic Mark Twain book The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is presented here as an animated video featuring the voices and music of country music stars Mark Wills, Lee Ann Womack, Rhett Akins, and Hank Williams Jr. Other famous voices include Betty White and Don Knotts. Twain's general plot is reproduced fairly faithfully: Tom falls in love with Becky, Tom and Huckleberry Finn witness a murder and later risk their lives to save the falsely accused Potter, and Tom and Huck eventually find Red Beard's buried treasure. Subtle elements have been changed for either political correctness or plot convenience: for instance, the name "Injun Joe" has been changed to "Injurin' Joe" and Becky has gained an antagonist father. A not so subtle change is the presentation of the characters as animals: Tom and Becky are cats, Huck is a fox, and Joe is a bear. The video is skillfully animated (much more so than the cover suggests) and the voice talent is excellent. Pop-country music lovers will love featured songs such as "You Can't Keep a Country Boy Down" and "There's a Light at the End of the Tunnel," although they seem more appropriate for adult audiences than the 5- to 12-year-olds this video is aimed at. All in all, this is an entertaining, accessible presentation of a classic story that kids will enjoy. -Tami Horiuchi.

"I am invincible! No one can survive my shadow skills! With a single stroke I am unbeatable!" In a world where martial arts gladiators with unheard-of skills battle for glory and justice, young orphan Gau trains relentlessly under his cocky adoptive sister Ella (a great champion) to master the elusive Shadow Skill, a mystical style with a dark past. His education of course allows for plenty of flashy fights, and that's the main appeal of this lively collection of two short 1996 OVA features. The animation is limited but the art direction is detailed and vivid, and director Hiroshi Negishi saves his budget for the battles, which offer impressive displays of animation pyrotechnics. Though hardly deep ("We can get closer to God by fighting!" opines the mysterious champion Scarface), the episodic adventures zip right along, and the climax packs an unexpected charge of drama between the blows. For ages 13 and up for violence and some strong language. -Sean Axmaker.

Disney's 1992 animated feature is a triumph of wit and skill. The high-tech artwork and graphics look great, the characters are strong, the familiar story is nicely augmented with an interesting villain (Jafar, voiced by Jonathan Freeman), and there's an incredible hook atop the whole thing: Robin Williams's frantically hilarious vocal performance as Aladdin's genie. Even if one isn't particularly moved by the love story between the title character (Scott Weinger) and his girlfriend Jasmine (Linda Larkin), you can easily get lost in Williams's improvisational energy and the equally entertaining performances of Freeman and Gilbert Gottfried (as Jafar's parrot). -Tom Keogh.