SYLVESTER AND THE BUTTERFLY BOMB

Calling themselves the Foolhardy Men of War, Sylvester Serge, a frog, and his friends a woodchuck, a peccary, and a rabbit, set out to wage war against the imaginary Pestigroans. Coming upon a ""magnificent castle,"" they are met by an unarmed army (of birds) and taken to the king, who decrees that one of the invaders shall fight a duel on horseback with the resident champion. Sylvester, chosen to represent the Foolhardy Men of War, defeats his opponent by bursting a bomb of live butterflies before his eyes, and returns home to ask his father for some toy soldiers. What reaches for elegant wit comes off as flat and gratuitous whimsy, and the ugly animals, all dressed up in dashing military regalia, are only grotesque.