A rousing adventure.
Buddy Burger carries on in this sequel to Lights, Camera, Danger! (2020).
Now that Citizen Cruel has been dealt with, alien superstar Buddy has nowhere to go but up: His TV show, Oddball Academy, is being given a sweet hourlong special, and if the suits think it's strong enough, the silver screen will be next. But unbeknownst to Buddy, the Supreme Leader has decided to take matters into his own alien hands and head to Earth in an effort to capture Buddy once and for all. Will he finally be taken prisoner by the Supreme Leader? Will Oddball Academy become the next teen sensation? Will the weird romantic chemistry between Buddy and his human gal pal, Cassidy Cambridge, be resolved? This third series entry gets things back on track after a weak second outing. Buddy and Cassidy remain the most nuanced characters, but at this point readers have spent enough time in Buddy’s Hollywood that the tertiary one-dimensional gag machines come off as a feature rather than a bug. The authors are able to inject some real menace in the narrative with the Supreme Leader’s finally getting his hands dirty, spinning an engaging yarn that’ll have readers turning pages as quickly as possible. The narrative clicks into place, moving effectively while still boasting plenty of humor. Spot art—and the occasional full-page illustration—amplifies the hijinks and cues Cassidy as Black; Buddy presents as White when in human form.
A rousing adventure. (Science fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Oct. 5, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4684-0
Page Count: 296
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Is this the end? Well, no…the series will stagger on through at least one more scheduled sequel.
Sure signs that the creative wells are running dry at last, the Captain’s ninth, overstuffed outing both recycles a villain (see Book 4) and offers trendy anti-bullying wish fulfillment.
Not that there aren’t pranks and envelope-pushing quips aplenty. To start, in an alternate ending to the previous episode, Principal Krupp ends up in prison (“…a lot like being a student at Jerome Horwitz Elementary School, except that the prison had better funding”). There, he witnesses fellow inmate Tippy Tinkletrousers (aka Professor Poopypants) escape in a giant Robo-Suit (later reduced to time-traveling trousers). The villain sets off after George and Harold, who are in juvie (“not much different from our old school…except that they have library books here.”). Cut to five years previous, in a prequel to the whole series. George and Harold link up in kindergarten to reduce a quartet of vicious bullies to giggling insanity with a relentless series of pranks involving shaving cream, spiders, effeminate spoof text messages and friendship bracelets. Pilkey tucks both topical jokes and bathroom humor into the cartoon art, and ups the narrative’s lexical ante with terms like “pharmaceuticals” and “theatrical flair.” Unfortunately, the bullies’ sad fates force Krupp to resign, so he’s not around to save the Earth from being destroyed later on by Talking Toilets and other invaders…
Is this the end? Well, no…the series will stagger on through at least one more scheduled sequel. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-545-17534-0
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 19, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2012
Series fans, at least, will take this outing (and clear evidence of more to come) in stride.
Zipping back and forth in time atop outsized robo–bell bottoms, mad inventor Tippy Tinkletrousers (aka Professor Poopypants) legs his way to center stage in this slightly less-labored continuation of episode 9.
The action commences after a rambling recap and a warning not to laugh or smile on pain of being forced to read Sarah Plain and Tall. Pilkey first sends his peevish protagonist back a short while to save the Earth (destroyed in the previous episode), then on to various prehistoric eras in pursuit of George, Harold and the Captain. It’s all pretty much an excuse for many butt jokes, dashes of off-color humor (“Tippy pressed the button on his Freezy-Beam 4000, causing it to rise from the depths of his Robo-Pants”), a lengthy wordless comic and two tussles in “Flip-o-rama.” Still, the chase kicks off an ice age, the extinction of the dinosaurs and the Big Bang (here the Big “Ka-Bloosh!”). It ends with a harrowing glimpse of what George and Harold would become if they decided to go straight. The author also chucks in a poopy-doo-doo song with musical notation (credited to Albert P. Einstein) and plenty of ink-and-wash cartoon illustrations to crank up the ongoing frenzy.
Series fans, at least, will take this outing (and clear evidence of more to come) in stride. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Jan. 15, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-545-17536-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2013
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