Page 45 Review by Stephen
Not so much the Circle Of Life as the constantly turning tides of food-chain fortune and the constant threat of being stalked, surrounded, flattened, clawed, mauled, mangled and otherwise shredded by crocodiles, vultures, spotted hyenas and even other lions.
I've never seen so many carcasses.
No wonder the scorpion crawls back under its rock.
Brrémaud and Bertolucci's LOVE: THE TIGER and LOVE: THE FOX have already claimed more than enough tiny victims as young souls' eyes widen with recognition and delight at their covers, eagerly anticipating bright Disney doings, but come away streaming with tears at the ferocity they encounter within.
"Errrrm, probably not..." I've warned parents in advance on several occasions, but children can be tenacious once they've set their sights on things, can't they?
Set on the Serengetti, this is on another level of brutality than either of the other two, genuinely upsetting as the lead lion here enjoys little respite during its solitary roaming even if others do. Briefly. For him it's one long territorial ostracism.
Even for the others it's death - death everywhere - and often dragged out. Painful, really.
Also exceedingly beautiful, obviously. Bertolucci's animals are exquisitely drawn, their habitats radiant with light or drenched in torrential rain. Other Serengetti animals on offer include baboons, armadillos, a particularly petulant cobra, blue wildebeest, black rhinos, gazelles and assorted flying things.
As for the comet that appears from the sky towards the end, well you're in for a bit of a surprise as are those lying below. Seriously? After everything else, they deserved that?
P.S. It isn't a comet.
For far more extensive reviews, please see LOVE: THE TIGER and LOVE: THE FOX and for more adult-orientated animals, please see PRIDE OF BAGHDAD by Brian K. Vaughan and Niko Henrichon.
