THE EXPANDABLE PIG

Watch this and buy cautiously, for the first impression is of another Dr. Doolittle's Gub-Gub- or a Walter Brooks' type of story, but in final analysis we feel it just doesn't come off, and children are relentless critics in cases like ... ""Pig"" is the kind of animal character that is accepted more whole heartedly by English children than by Americans. He has the exaggerated love of food and sense of his own importance, and instead of getting the brush-off he might rate, he bungles through. By the unique method of drawing his breath in hard, this remarkable pig provides virtually a flying ship for his small master and his dogs to cross to England to visit his friend, Howard, who had recently been in America with Gary. Pig is greeted by the people of London as an ambassador from America (slightly too much nonsense here) -- and invited to the King's garden party. There is a thread of irony in the emphasis on differences in English and American post-war diets- perhaps to give the book social significance! There are chuckles and belly laughs now and again, but much of the humor seems forced.