BAD APPLE'S PERFECT DAY

An outing doesn’t quite go as planned for Mac the apple and his resident worm, Will—first met in Bad Apple (2012) and still best buds.

It’s all about keeping a positive outlook. Arriving at the water hole to find it nearly dry, Mac and Will “[get] creative” and build mud apartment houses. The onlooking sour apples sneer at first but soon join in to make a mud city. Not even a sudden thunderstorm puts a damper on things, for though it drives the playful produce into a hollow tree, Mac’s tale of “pretty swell apples” rocketing to Mars keeps Everyapple enthralled until the rain stops. Outside, the mud city is mostly gone, but the now-brimming water hole offers a fine opportunity for death-defying dives and then an afternoon spent contentedly bobbing with friends. Mac and his coterie sport smiles (mostly), stick limbs (except for Will) and shiny skins of diverse, bright colors in Hemingway’s sparsely detailed outdoor and interplanetary scenes.

Though Mac’s “bad apple” moniker is strictly marketing, his core belief that it is “never too late to turn things around” is a nutritious notion.