After farmer Monmouton sighs that he could do with a vacation in Paris, all his animals squeeze into his truck and beep impatiently. They're ready for a break too. The entourage descends on Paris and quickly fans out — the goats to smell (and sometimes taste) the flowers in the Luxembourg Gardens, the cows to gaze at paintings of cows in the Louvre, the hens to cackle at the cancan dancers at the Folies Bergere. One of the joys of Stock's exuberant watercolors is the absolute sangfroid with which waiters, pedestrians and other Parisians greet this animal invasion, as if it were nothing out of the ordinary. Home again, Monmouton swears off vacations as too exhausting. But in the barn, the animals are already looking at travel brochures for New York City. If this signals a sequel in the making, then allons!
Come fly with us, and Leo, through the best (and worst) of 2004. Tops in the cinema this year include Scorsese's Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator. Elsewhere, Deadwood was good TV, and a Strange tale fascinated readers.