TWENTY years after his best-selling Rupert And The Frog Song animation enchanted the nation, Sir Paul McCartney is to release a follow-up film for a new generation of children.

The former Beatle has teamed up with film company Miramax to release a collection of his acclaimed creations on DVD.

It will also introduce a new cast of all-animal characters in the short film Tropic Island Hum, including a Liverpudlian squirrel called Wirral.

In the cartoon, which Sir Paul started with his late wife Linda, the friendly grey rodent is forced to flee from huntsmen in a balloon that takes him to a tropical island sanctuary populated only by animals.

Here he falls for shapely red squirrel Wilhelmina.

Sir Paul, 61, first fell in love with animation when he was a boy growing up in Liverpool and later he read Rupert stories to his children.

The musician said: "In animation it's good to have a bit of a childlike quality about yourself and I certainly have, it's just something that's in me.

"I'm still fascinated by things that fascinated me as a kid - the passion for adventure, humour or romance.

"Sometimes people grow out of them, or they sort of force themselves out of them, but I've been lucky - because I've been involved in music I've not had to lose those qualities.

"There's a childlike quality to the art of animation and, married with a bit of music, it seemed the perfect way to bring these magical stories to life."

The new DVD, Paul McCartney: The Music and Animation Collection, is the culmination of his enthusiasm for animation which grew out of his childhood love of classic Disney characters.

As well as Wirral's adventures in Tropic Island Hum, it features the Bafta award-winning Rupert and The Frog Song and Tuesday, a surreal story of an invasion of flying frogs. It will be released in Britain on April 19.

Miramax co-chairman Harvey Weinstein praised Paul McCartney as "a master of animation.

He added: "In keeping with the great Disney tradition, these three titles are breathtaking and will be a real treat for families to watch together."

All three animations were directed by Geoff Dunbar who has worked with Sir Paul since the early 1980s.

They won a second Bafta in 1992 for an animated film on the work of French artist Honore Daumier and were nominated for a third two years ago for Tuesday.

The DVD also includes an interview with Sir Paul about his passion for animation as well as bonus features on the making of Tuesday and Tropic Island Hum, line tests of Rupert And The Frog Song and Tuesday and storyboards.