
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, August 26, 1995                   TAG: 9508280009
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: B10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MICHAEL H. PRICE FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

'PANDA' IS FAMILY ENTERTAINMENT

A humane and uplifting rescue picture, Christopher Cain's ``The Great Panda Adventure'' is sharing its opening bill with a new Bugs Bunny cartoon called ``Carrotblanca.'' Smart money says the superior animated short will upstage ``Panda.''

That is unfortunate, given a common practice among filmgoers to take in a cut-price matinee just for the occasional cartoon and then leave before the feature can get going.

``Carrotblanca,'' a spoof of the 1942 Warners classic ``Casablanca'' with Bugs Bunny in the Bogart role, is so fine as to feel like the glory days of animation. But its excellence should not eclipse the simpler goodness of ``The Great Panda Adventure.''

``Panda'' stars 11-year-old Ryan Slater (Christian's kid brother) as Ryan Tyler, a resentful youngster en route to meet his father (Stephen Lang), a naturalist, in the bamboo forests of China's Himalayan region.

The father is at war with poachers who prey on the area's pandas. One such ruckus leaves Ryan and two Chinese friends (Yi Ding and Huang Fei) in the lurch: They decide they must rescue a baby panda from the panda pirates before reuniting with Ryan's dad and the mama panda. As perils and pitfalls mount, Ryan develops a bond with the creature and gains respect for his father's work.

John Wilcox's screenplay, polished by Steven Alldredge, is based on observations made during 1984 and 1988, when Wilcox shot two popularly acclaimed documentaries on pandas as an endangered species. Director Cain is best known for such adventure pictures as ``Young Guns'' (1988) and ``The Next Karate Kid'' (1994), and he translates that affinity for thrills effectively to the family entertainment agenda of ``Panda.''

``Carrotblanca'' squeezes a lot of story into its few minutes, confronting Bugs Bunny (voiced by Greg Burson) with a stolen-document scam, a sneaky Tweety Bird-as-Peter Lorre (voiced by Bob Bergen), a rampaging Yosemite Sam (Maurice MaLarche), a fugitive Sylvester (Joe Alaskey) and so forth. It is a delight in the classic Warner Brothers style, and also a reminder of how irreplaceable the late Mel Blanc has proven as a cartoon voice: It takes half a dozen vocal actors to fill the bill that Blanc used to handle solo.

\ The Amazing Panda Adventure

A Warner Bros. release film showing at Salem Valley 8 and Valley View Mall 6. Rated PG for mature themes, language, scattered violent action.

by CNB