Word: steig
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...audiences should find something to enjoy in Shrek, a computer-animated film which, a la the musical Into the Woods and Rocky and Bullwinkle's "Fractured Fairytales," turns the fairytale world of the Brothers Grimm and Disney upside down. The film, based on the storybook by William Steig, revolves around the character of Shrek, voiced by Mike Myers, a smelly ogre who enjoys solitude. The isolation of his home, however, is threatened by the power-hungry, midget Lord Farquaad (John Lithgow '67) who forcefully relocates all the fairy tale characters from his theme-park-like kingdom to Shrek's swamp...
SHREK! by William Steig (Farrar, Straus & Giroux; $10.95). At 83, cartoonist Steig is still among the very young at art. His latest work follows the adventures of a creature so gruesome that snakes get poisoned when they bite him. But fate is kind: one bad day he meets the most hideous princess in the kingdom, and they live horribly ever after. Just what he wanted -- and so will any reader who appreciates the flip side of a classic fairy tale...
...sister calls him Stinky, his brother does not believe that Philadelphia is the capital of Belgium. Naturally Spinky Sulks (Farrar, Straus & Giroux; $13.95). At age 81, William Steig can still use the cartoonist's technique to render the wounds of childhood and the consolations of pouting. Spinky receives entreaties from his mother, lectures from his father and apologies from his siblings. Eventually, of course, he comes around, but only on his terms and his schedule. In youth as in humor, timing is everything. Steig has not forgotten that either...
...jungle also occupies William Steig, who, at 80, has found the source of eternal juvenilia. The proof is in his 21st children's book, The Zabajaba Jungle (Farrar, Straus & Giroux; $13.95). The author-illustrator enters the imagination of Leonard, a small rover who cuts his way through underbrush populated with beaky toucans and blue-bottomed mandrills. After a series of hilarious escapades, the boy encounters the most unexpected creatures of all: his mother and father. They look relieved to see him, and why not? What are young explorers for except to rescue grownups...
...Cartoonist William Steig continues to create with a master's style and a youth's imagination. In his 20th book, Brave Irene (Farrar, Straus & Giroux; $12.95), the daughter of a fevered dressmaker attempts to deliver a ball gown to a faraway duchess. Young Irene is faced with cold, snowdrifts and night. Lesser individuals might need rescuers, but this child has ingenuity to go with her spunk. She turns the dress box into a toboggan and slides her way to the ball. Young ladies have come a long way since Hans Christian Andersen's little match girl froze her toes...