PET SHOW!

Archie of Hi Cat (1970) is back and so is the Keats of brightly patterned collage, exuberant thick-smudged paint, and general good will — but the cat is nowhere to be found and Archie needs him for the pet show. Archie's last-minute ingenuity — he presents the judges with an empty jar which he says contains a germ named Al — wins him a blue ribbon anyway (for the quietest pet in the show), and an old woman who happens on the scene just when Archie's cat shows up gets one for the pet with the longest whiskers (she wants to hand the prize over to Archie but "It's okay," he says, "you keep it"). Everyone else gets a blue ribbon too — for the friendliest fish, the slowest turtle, or whatever — which is just the way it should be with such an attractive variety of contestants. Even Keats' ubiquitous row of background doors appear in popsicle colors for the jubilant occasion.