Reviews

"Between the Lions" is a thoroughly engaging, well written, entertaining program that I wouldn't hesitate to recommend. My 3-year-old and I like to get up early and watch it together. The only character I could really do without is Arty Smartypants; the others are entirely likeable, even the curmudgeon Busterfield. My wife and I feel that "Between the Lions" is like "The Electric Company" reborn, except that the writing is superior, especially with the incorporation of puns and other wordplay that are meant for grown-ups to enjoy ("Click" the computer mouse, a dinosaur called a thesaurus, Clay and Walter Pigeon, Chicken Jane, the sidekick Russell Upsomegrub, the author Livingston Dangerously, Monkey C. Monkeydew, etc.). "The Electric Company" was fast-paced, musical, and educational, but it can't match the humor and thus the total value of "Between the Lions."

This was a popular film in elementary school classes in the mid-1970's. A single canoeist is shown traversing the waters of the Great Lakes through the changes wrought by time, from the Ice Age's glaciers to the present-day's industrial pollution. It manages to be educational (geology, climatology, history) and have a strong environmental message without losing the viewers' interest; in fact, many of the scenes are hilarious, notably the canoe free-fall and the mugful of industrial waste.