SKITTLEWONDER AND THE WIZARD

A thin, mechanical tale--Scottish in origin, we're told--with vapid day-glo pictures. A young ""skittle-mad"" prince plays against an old man and, losing, comes under his spell; to extricate himself, he must find out the oldster's name ""and where I live by Christmas"" (""or you'll turn into a set of skittles yourself""). A gypsy's knitted butterfly, unraveled, leads him to a witch who gives him the answers--and the wherewithal to reach said Wizard Green Sleeves. Then the Wizard refuses to let him off until he performs three Impossible Tasks--which, given the magic box the Wizard's youngest daughter has presented him with, he accomplishes 1-2-3. At the last the Wizard is undone, the prince weds the helpful maiden (wicked Green Sleeve's unhappy step-daughter, it turns out), and the prince's mother rejoices that something good has come of his passion for skittles. A trifling concoction without even a hint of a Scottish provenance in the pictures.