FIERCE: THE LION

A lion who'd rather be loved than feared is easy to sympathize with--as in the case of The Happy Lion. But a circus lion whom all the other performers (human, too) are jealous of, who weeps as a consequence, who'd rather ""give little tots rides on my back,"" and who gets such a job at the zoo is, from first to last, a fabrication. And that's not the whole of it: this lion, yclept Fierce, is the pet of a little girl (whose parents are the circus lion-trainers); it's the tricks he learns from her that make him a star; and it's she who attests to his loving kindness and so secures him the job giving rides at the zoo. Oh yes--she also learns ""lion-roar talk,"" while he masters ""girl-giggly talk."" All this is presumably meant to be adorable--the hairbows-and-highbutton-shoes pictures included--but it all comes across as an act.