This charming British animated short film (it's just 23 minutes long) is a 1982 production of London's Channel 4, based on the classic children's book by Raymond Briggs and crafted with a colored-pencils-on-paper look, like fluffy, hand-drawn illustrations. Small children should be entranced by the story of a small boy in rural England whose lovingly constructed snowman comes to life and takes him flying over the white-blanketed landscapes, in a beautiful rotoscoped (traced) sequence based on live-action flying footage. Part of the charm of the film is the gentle, everyday quality of its fantasy adventures: the snowman is invited in to try on clothes and play with the Christmas decorations, then plays host to the boy at a party in the woods, at which his snowy relatives do English country dances. This is one of the very few Christmas tapes on the market that really deserves to be a holiday perennial, a gentle fable of friendship and the power of imagination. -David Chute.

As a brief promo by a Sea World Animal Ambassador tells us before the movie begins, male penguins really do present pebbles to the females during a courtship that will result in a lifetime match. This post-Thumbelina Don Bluth/Barry Manilow effort gives us Hubie, a nerdy penguin whose love for the beautiful Marina, remarkably, is returned. Alas, before he can present her with a fine stone, his evil-and strangely buff-rival throws him into the swirling sea. Epic adventures and a comical sidekick result. Leopard seals and killer whales threaten, but kids will be entertained rather than frightened by this harmless, if less-than-brilliant movie. -Kimberly Heinrichs.

Ethan Hawke, fresh faced and full of determination, tackles the icy wilds and rowdy boom towns of Alaska in Disney's 1991 adaptation of Jack London's turn-of-the-century gold rush classic. Though somewhat tamed for young audiences, the story of a city kid who befriends a feral half-wolf/half-dog orphan while learning to survive the dangers of nature and man has its share of peril and rousing scenes of wilderness adventure. But the humans are upstaged by both the animals (the standoff between White Fang and a wild brown bear is a highlight) and the Alaskan landscape, from the snow-covered mountains and frozen lakes of winter to the rich green forests and whitecap rivers of summer. The scenes of dogfights and wild wolves hunting game are carefully shot to avoid bloodshed (the opening disclaimer takes pains to remind viewers that all such scenes have been simulated), but they may still be too intense for young children. Recommended for 9 and up. -Sean Axmaker.

Don Bluth's An American Tail is based on the story of a young Russian mouse who is separated from his family in America and who later heads with his reunited kin out to the American West. It's pleasant, though not spectacular, and has its greatest problems in story development. Steven Spielberg produced with an eye toward creating animation hits outside of Disney, and he and Bluth certainly took a big step in that direction here. Kids like it a lot, and adults will warm to the sound of various familiar voices, such as Dom DeLuise as Tiger and Madeline Kahn as Gussie Mausheimer. It's also the source of the pop single "Somewhere Out There. " -Tom Keogh.

Thirty-seven years after his famous TV debut, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer returns in a sharp-looking computer-animated feature. Using excellent voice casting with actors that sound like the originals, this new Rudolph looks and sounds grand. There's a mysterious Toy Taker gobbling up toys around the world. Rudolph and his team (including deer-friend Clarice, elf-turned-dentist Hermey, and the Abominable Snowman) try to track the toys down and save Christmas again. While the setup and songs hold no candle to the original, and the lessons learned are borrowed from Toy Story 2, the final third succeeds-it's always good to have a flying reindeer when you are chasing a blimp. Kids ages 3 to 9 who have seen the original will certainly want to see the sequel; however, their parents might be less enthusiastic. -Doug Thomas.

Dinosaurs come alive like never before in this costly computer-animated film from Disney. After a breathtaking opening (a dino egg is kidnapped), the film changes style; realistic dinosaurs are given human characteristics and voices. The kidnapped egg grows into an iguanodon named Aladar (voiced by D. B. Sweeney), who is raised by lemurs (shades of Tarzan) on a lush island void of other dinosaurs. When a meteorite destroys their island home in a thrilling sequence, the lemur family and Aladar become part of a dinosaur troop roaming the mainland deserts looking for the lush nesting grounds (shades of the fourth installment of the Land Before Time series and Fantasia). Disney's usual mix of modern language (one lemur calls himself "a love monkey") is present, as is its typical capital punishment law: anyone against our forward-thinking hero (or even disagreeing with him) ends up dead. Curiously, the meanies, a pair of carnotaurs following the group, are nameless and voiceless. This more realistic approach might have been a bigger wow, as in the BBC's Walking with Dinosaurs, which looked extraordinary with only a fraction of the budget. The complexity and scope of Dinosaur's visual scale is impressive, and group shots and a point-of-view angle are stunning. [+]