Ever since I was a kid, I've loved Mercer Mayer's "Little Critter" books. With this being the only Little Critter story to be adapted for animation ("Just For You" was made into a Golden Book video, but I consider that more of a slideshow), I think they did a really nice job. Like the book, the video is about Little Critter and his dad going on a camping trip and all of the crazy mishaps they get into, like claiming a campsite before realizing that a badger and a snake are living there, the perils of pitching a tent, and having a bear steal their fish. To expand the special to 30 minutes, they added a plot about a monster named "Bigpaw," who Little Critter hears about from his sister, who tells him about it out of her jealously from not being able to go camping. At first, Little Critter doesn't believe her, but soon, some signs show up that Bigpaw might be real after all. The voicework is excellent, with Nicholas Varnau doing a fantastic job as Little Critter- shame he never got any work after that- and video director Jerry Reynolds sounding like what I always thought his dad would sound like. There are also two songs in the video written by Mercer Mayer himself (who was also co-producer for this video) and they are quite catchy. One of them even has an extended version that can be heard on the "Just Me and My Mom" CD-ROM. I heard somewhere that this was originally going to be an episode of a Little Critter TV series that never came through due to budget problems. Really is a shame, the team that made this did such a great job with this video that I would love to see what else they could have done with Little Critter.
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