Book 3

Even now, after having finished the third and final installment to this great little graphic-novel series, I still haven’t researched whether or not the books came before the movie or vice-versa. I don’t want to know, because reading through the series with my eyeballs and fingers—flipping the pages and studying the beautifully artistic relationship of light and darkness in what’s essentially pastels—I find myself in love with the gorgeous illustrations, and I would hate to think I’m just looking at a bunch of screen shots!

That might not be the best way to open a book review, but these were the thoughts that constantly ran through my brain as I read, so they’ve gotta come out first.

The plot of this series is fairly standard—underdog and his friends save the world, all the while working through daddy issues—but it’s couched in a very unique world of cute and cuddly animals in which a never-defined wave of darkness threatens to destroy them all. I’ve already discussed in my reviews of Book 1 and Book 2 the dark nature of this story, despite its cutesy-ness, and that issue becomes even more defined in this final book.

The authors and artists masterfully play with light and darkness here, often committing full pages to sheer whiteness or deep blackness, as if we’re an audience watching a slow fade into or out of a scene of intense emotion. They also employ those tactics common in Japanese comics of evincing motion and movement through a careful use of lines and swirls. This really is a fun book to study, for the purposes either of technique or of basic art appreciation.

The three-part Dam Keeper story comes to head here in this final installment, though with few surprises to anyone who has read mini-epics like this before. Lessons at play include Duty, Faithfulness, and Cooperation.

With duty, we see that the dad cared way more about his job than his family, though it’s hard to find why in this story that’s a bad thing. Had he remained with the boy, everyone would have died. He fled in order to save the world, so it’s hard to fault him for that. Ultimately Pig forgives him and comes to a certain level of understanding, but there still seems to be slight feelings of bitterness there deep down.

This leads into the lesson of faithfulness, that the dad remained faithful to his job, and Pig chose to stay faithful to the cause, even if it meant facing some of his most terrible memories and life experiences. The supposition is that Pig chooses to carry on his father’s legacy of saving the people, but he also chooses to include the community in this responsibility, rather than going it alone as his father had done.

And that leads into the lesson of cooperation. Had not the community stepped up, Pig and his dad would have ultimately failed. Had not Pig and Hippo gotten over their initial rough relationship in Book 2, the community never would have stepped up here at the end. It’s nice to see the progression of how one positive relational move leads to another.

I may be thinking too deeply on this, and there may be no teachers or parents out there looking to use this series as a teaching moment, but that’s sort of why I’m here! I really enjoyed this series and would recommend it with the caveats that there are some disturbing scenes and images inside, not matter how cute Pig might look. Now the question is: will I watch the movie? Doubt it.

©2021 E.T.