THE WOLF WHO WANTED TO BE A SUPERHERO

An inept wolf discovers there’s more to being a superhero than sporting a “super-mind-boggling” costume.

As concocted by jolly, pink-furred seamstress Miss Yeti, it is a nifty costume—a yellow unitard with bat wings and a red cape—and the Wolf comes up with a name to match: “Super-Extra-Fabuwolf.” The saving-the-day part turns out to be not so easy, though, as the Wolf’s intrusive efforts to “rescue” Wolfette and his friend Joshua only leave her annoyed and him with broken binoculars. Discouraged (“It was a complete debacle!”), he sheds his costume, falls asleep in a boat—and needs to be rescued himself by Wolfette when the boat nearly carries him over a waterfall. “I wanted to be your superhero,” the Wolf shamefacedly confesses. Wolfette: “You already are my hero. I love you just the way you are, with all your faults and all your qualities!” The narrative probably reads better in the original French, but Thuillier’s long-nosed, rubber-limbed cartoon wolf has a dopey look that’s comical in any language. Would-be superheroes will find more satisfying action, though, in Brian Pinkney’s The Adventures of Sparrowboy (1997).

Superpowers may fail, but true friends are always there in need.