DANGER ON MOUNT CHOCO

Scaling Mount Choco is just the tip of the ice cream—ahem iceberg—in Dan Abdo and Jason Patterson’s latest adventure featuring a trio of unlikely friends.

In this outing in the Blue, Barry & Pancakes series, Barry the frog is dead set on winning a trophy to relieve the shame of his empty trophy room, so his friends Pancakes the bunny and Blue the worm vow to help him win a grand sundae-making contest. Realizing they need something special to carry the day, the pals set off on a dangerous journey to get the best chocolate ice cream from a yeti. To do so, they must cross the Sea of Seasickness and trek up Mount Choco. Challenges and mistakes along the way test the strength of their friendship. There are obvious morals about living in the moment and appreciating the people you meet on life’s path, and some scenes are genuinely moving. The adventurers, amusingly, don’t look anything like your typical worm, frog, and rabbit; Pancakes looks like a huge potato with a pink tufted tail, and Barry is square-shaped. The pictures are both funny and spectacularly bright. Unfortunately, the plot almost feels like an afterthought in this overwrought graphic novel. There are multiple dance sequences, some with instructions, and too many supporting characters vying for the limelight; on one double-page spread, there are 19 different animals, including a bright pink pig with a Dalí-esque mustache, suggesting a whole life history.

An absolutely hilarious caper bogged down by excess detail.