KEEP AN EYE ON IVY

Little Shop of Horrors for the Oshkosh set.

The delighted young narrator of this French import understands that they need to care for the small potted plant they receive as a birthday gift. But being a busy kid, they ask sister Susie to watch it on Monday while they’re off to judo class. On Tuesday they ask Grandpa to tend to the somewhat larger plant for a bit, since Susie is nowhere around. On Wednesday, it’s Grandma’s turn, since Grandpa’s evidently out…and so it goes, as family members vanish one by one while Ivy grows in successive scenes into a vine-y green tangle sporting a gape-mouthed, Pac-Man–style pod. (Sharp-eyed viewers will spot Susie’s saxophone and other clues to what’s going on in the background.) When at last the kid wonders aloud where everyone is, the pod lunges out with a startling page-turn pop-up, and (with another turn) everything goes black. Happily, no one’s actually been digested, and in the next picture they are all back out in the light, looking on with annoyed expressions as the kid delivers a stern lecture to Ivy: “It’s rude to swallow people without asking first!” Barroux lays down color highlights with broad, energetic brush strokes but draws the family’s heads as unfilled outlines with dot-eyed features, so the human cast is paper white.

Good for any time a mildly scary story is in order.