Lon Po Po

Based on Ed Young's Caldecott Medal-winning picture book Lon Po Po (1989), this iconographic-animated adaptation of a translated “Red Riding Hood story from China” features moving watercolor and pastel panels similar to those found in comic books or graphic novels (and common in Chinese arts, such as the National Film Board of Canada's computer-animated Showa Shinzen [VL-9/03] or Ping Chong's touring stage production of Cathay: Three Tales of China). In this version of the classic fairy tale popularized for Western audiences by Charles Perrault, three young sisters who are left home alone by their mother—she is traveling to visit the children's grandmother (or “Po Po”)—are surprised by a knock at the door late one evening from someone claiming to be their Po Po. As voiced by B.D. Wong (Oz), the impostor is none other than a devious wolf, who manages to gain entrance—blowing out the children's candle on his way in—and goes straight to bed, anticipating a late night snack. But when the oldest sister catches on, she hatches a scheme to trap the wolf by luring him up a gingko nut tree in the yard. Combining suspenseful direction by Cha-Pow! and appropriately spine-tingling music by Ernest V. Troost, Lon Po Po is an artistically pleasing rendition of a classic cautionary tale. Recommended. Aud: K, E, P. (R. Pitman)