Sammy's Great Escape

Kids’ animation doesn’t come more basic than this second undersea outing for Sammy the Turtle. The opening song simply stops mid-riff as it cuts to grandad Sammy herding his family’s hatchlings from beach to briny. Since no wildlife cartoon is complete without an eco message, sure enough, along comes a gang of dastardly poachers. The tone shifts into prison escape movie mode as Sammy and his pal Ray are shipped off to a vast underwater aquarium. Zoologists will be wringing their hands at the turtles’ irritatingly cute gigantic dome-shaped heads, way out of proportion to their shells. Still, any toddlers’ folly that features Hendrix’s version of ‘All Along the Watchtower’ can’t be a complete wash-out.