The City Curious

Two tiny travelers, Smaly and Redy, set out to find three little girls and are soon bewitched so that their faces take on birdlike beaks. They pass through a whimsical city of edible and animated inhabitants—confectioner-kangaroos, sugar horses, flying fish, walking sponges—and encounter suspicion, peculiar laws, and the threat of banishment. Episodic episodes introduce a sugar-cane prison, a curious Historian whose manuscript uncovers past events, and a cast of eccentric officials and creatures. The narrative unfolds in dreamlike, playful scenes that mix nonsense, gentle satire, and imaginative invention.