OLD HIPPO'S EASTER EGG

An ugly-looking bit of whimsy about Old Hippo and his elderly housemate Pocket Mouse and the egg that's left on their doorstep. . . which they persuade Auntie Sheep to hatch. . . which turns out to be (chortles Old Hippo) ""my new son Small Quack"" . . . who departs come autumn. . . only to return the next spring with an egg, ""a new child to hatch."" Outlandish as it is, this might work if the characters had some appeal; if they elicited the sympathy that even a Dr. Seuss moose does; but they're charmless as described, and the next thing to gross as drawn. Worse yet, a Martian equivalent has been hatched by Winkowski.