Goldilocks Returns

You remember Goldilocks? Liked to snoop? Had a dreadful run-in with a family of bears? Who says, to gender-invert Wordsworth, that the child is not mother to the woman? 50 years after the fact, the guilt-ridden Goldilocks not only runs "Goldi's Locks and Keys," a store set up "to protect against snoops," (such as herself), poor Goldi is still plagued by sleepless nights. In this adaptation of Goldilock Returns (2000), writer/illustrator Lisa Campbell Ernst's clever update on the classic folk tale, the neurotic blonde-tressed security expert straps on her tool belt, jumps into her jalopy and heads for the forest on a quest to set her karma straight. Finding the bears gone for their morning walk, she sets about installing anti-snoop locks on the door, replacing the bears' porridge ("ish," she says) with healthy rutabaga breakfast bars, and hanging "hoity toity" drapes. I won't reveal the "denouement," as French pre-schoolers might say, but I will reveal that Baby Bear's (now a middle-aged, squeaky-voiced, portly cub) wounded cry "she's back!" will raise the fur on the back of ursine viewer's necks everywhere. Narrated by Dee Hoty, this enhanced iconographic animated crowd-pleaser (young and old) is not only bear-y entertaining, it will also serve as a springboard for discussion on the sanctity of personal preferences. Warmly recommended. Aud: K, E, P. (R. Pitman)