A navigational overview of available visual reference for the squirrel.

Within Locomtion, for example, there may be videos of walking, running, jumping and climbing. Within Behaviors, there are videos of playing, grooming, eating, fighting, mating, and group interaction. Within Visuals, there are close-up videos and photos of the head, body, limbs and even textures.

In the Locomotion submenu, there is a “Study” feature where you can examine an animal’s movement in four modes: Normal, Slomo, Grid and Film Strip. The Grid option has a convenient frame counter accompanying its playback, but in any of the modes you can pause the video (or print out images) for a frame-by-frame analysis. There is also a “Compare” feature where the same actions can be viewed from two different perspectives.

The second disc of Volume One hosts a bevy of “special guests.” It is not a fastidious selection of shots, but a hodgepodge of video clips grouped into different animal categories: canine (coyote, fox, wolf); feline (jaguar, lynx, puma, ocelot, cheetah); primate (colobus, lemur, baboon); reptile (snake, alligator, tortoise); and “extra” (bear, anteater, ferret, prairie dog, wolverine).

The Film Strip view within the Locomotion section, showing the run cycle of a squirrel.

Volume Two of the Animal Motion Show, a separate disc set, focuses on the elephant, giraffe, hawk, rhino and horse.

The Animal Motion Show offers a lot, and it is put together in a very simple, accessible format. Instead of searching for such a breadth of visual materials, it is readily available at your fingertips with the click of a button. Whether as life study or animation reference, the price tag of $60 for each volume may be a reasonable investment, especially if you amortize the cost over the years of its use; and especially if your next cartoon enterprise involves a chimpanzee, a squirrel and a horse.

It sounds like the opening of a bad joke, but in the end, one hopes the joke isn’t on you. If there is any drawback to the Animal Motion Show, it is that there are not more animals on an individual set. No doubt, the series library is growing and other compilations are waiting in the wings.

To find out more about The Animal Motion Show or to order a DVD, visit www.rhinohouse.com.

Greg Singer is a human animal, occasionally in motion. He eats, grooms, plays, fights and mates in Los Angeles.