HERE COME RACCOONS!

Foolproof garbage-can lids are the focus of Hoban's little comedy about twin raccoons Albert and Arabella, who save the day for their species by inventing ""foolproof garbage can openers."" The trouble begins when the possums and skunks bar raccoons from Possum Junction since the mess they make of the garbage has caused people to come up with the hard-to-open lids. (But as the raccoons themselves live in houses with porches and yards, and the possums and skunks put up their ""No Raccoon"" signs on Possum Junction's Main Street, it's hard to figure out just how the people fit in.) In any case, the situation is developed via slapstick bits involving roller skates, cream cakes, and the like--but far from being funny, these episodes read like mechanical synopses of TV cartoons.