Moonhead and the Music Machine: 04/17/15

Moonhead and the Music Machine by Andrew Rae is the story of a middle school or high school student who is drifting through school until he discovers the power of music. With the help of his dad and his friends, he sets out to build a musical instrument unlike anything that's come before it.

The one odd thing about him, and his family, is that he has a moon for a head. That means he can literally space out. It's a weird conceit but it works. It works as a metaphor for being different than the majority.

But it also works on a more literal level because there are so many unusual animation series right now where diverse groups of characters come together for slice of life stories. I'm not talking about racially diverse, though again, these characters are in part metaphoric. In stead I'm talking literally diverse and unusual and unexpected beyond even the classical mixture of animals that harken back to the earliest days of American animation.

The Moonhead family reminds me most of a family you'd see on the Amazing World of Gumball. Except for most of the book, they are alone as the others in town are clearly human beings. It's through the creative process and the taking pride in expressing his individuality that Moonhead is able to transform his environment into something more welcoming.

Five stars

Comments (0)