Die Schelm von Schelm Reviews

Narrated by Fyvush Finkel of TV's Picket Fences and adapted from several of Nobel prize-winning author Isaac Bashevis Singer's "Stories for Children," this bland animated feature retains little authentic Eastern-European or distinctly Jewish flavor, golems, rabbis and menorahs notwithstanding. Plucky orphan Aaron (voiced by Tommy Michaels) is adopted by his Uncle Schlemiel (Ron Carroll), the beadle of the village of Chelm. When the Almighty was dishing out foolishness, Chelm got an extra helping, and young Aaron and his wise pet goat, Zlateh (Tovah Feldshuh), are utterly baffled by the silly goings-on: The shoemaker makes only left shoes, Uncle Schlemiel gets turned around on a trip to Warsaw and becomes convinced that the town must be some other Chelm, identical to the one from which he departed, and the rabbi (Harry Goz) is busy trying to pass judgment on an insolent carp. Meanwhile, the local sorcerer (Steve Newman) is building a golem to punish the villagers for not treating him with the proper respect. Naturally, it falls to Aaron and Zlateh to stop the man-made monster. A damp cloud of good intentions hangs over this feature-length cartoon, which began production as The Real Schlemiel, a title that's both truer to its Yiddish source material and less suited to the insipid finished film. The songs are instantly forgettable and the pastel-pretty animation is generally undistinguished, though some handsome sequences in the sorcerer's castle recall the look of James Whale's FRANKENSTEIN. Only the youngest and least-demanding children will be captivated.