Four twenty-minute episodes (plus a prologue), three of which are adapted from episodes of the same-named Rod Serling TV show, and the other an original. Together, they re-evoke the heavy moralizing and ironizing and sentimentalizing that marked, and marred, the entire series. They do not re-evoke the cumulative richness of it, however. The third and fourth episodes, directed respectively by Joe Dante and George Miller, manage best to escape the besetting sins of the forerunner. Number Three, about a boy whose every wish comes true, builds up a nice air of mystery and makes a good case (partly through its own bad example, unfortunately) for the many marvels of animation. Number Four offers a fast and furious plane ride bedevilled by some sort of Demon of the Storm Clouds. The first two John Landis being liberal about bigotry; Steven Spielberg being infantile about childhood — are zeroes. With Vic Morrow, Scatman Crothers, Kathleen Quinlan, and John Lithgow; narrated by Burgess Meredith. (1983) — Duncan Shepherd
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