Baron von Baddie and the Ice Ray Incident - George McClements
Baron von Baddie was a genius. An EVIL genius.
Many of you may be familiar with the brilliant (but not suitable for kids) "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog," Joss Whedon's evil genius comic opera 3-webisode series. If not, I think it's certainly worth the five bucks it would cost you to buy it from iTunes.
Baron von Baddie is a kids' picture book that arrived at our library. I like picture books and generally flip through the new ones to see if they're something the kids would enjoy. This one seemed like it would go along with the recent rash of pop culture told from the criminal mastermind's point of view, so I took a look.
Oddly enough, the plot at first is eerily similar to Dr. Horrible's: Baron von Baddie's evil plans are always thwarted by his nemesis, Captain Kapow, a cheerful-but-dim superhero. Von Baddie (in goggles and heavy gloves, naturally) breaks out of jail and tries again. But one day he manages to actually freeze Captain Kapow. Hmmm. Dr. Horrible (in goggles and heavy gloves) builds a freeze ray in order to stop his nemesis, the cheerful-but-dim Captain Hammer. The only thing missing in the kids' book is Penny, the love interest.
The book is cute and silly, omitting the darker undertones of Dr. Horrible (which is also cute and silly). It's not a spectacular picture book, but I just thought it was worth a mention because of the convergence.
Fed to jonathan's brain | September 17, 2008
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