The Shivers in the Fridge (review)

The Shivers family—Grandpa and Grandma, Papa and Mama, and Sonny, the youngest—live in a strange cold, dark place, where their lives are punctuated by the occasional earthquake, blaze of light, and long-clawed monster taking away a neighboring item or two. Things go from bad to worse when members of the family begin disappearing one by one, leaving Sonny all alone. What sounds like a horrific plot is a comedy from the perspective of the viewer, who will be tipped off from the titular get-go that the Shivers are in the refrigerator (and, in fact, they're finally pronounced to be refrigerator magnets who have somehow mistakenly ended up inside the fridge). While that perceptival twist is pretty much all there is to the story, Manushkin makes the most of it with touches of characterization (Grandma, for instance, is a tough old pessimist), amusingly domestic familial dialogue ("Sonny, don't read in the dark," warns Mama. "You'll ruin your eyes"), and comedic references to the fridge's contents (Mama slides into the toasty warm Emerald Lake, only to find herself stuck solid when the green Jell-o jells). Zelinsky's artwork challenges the preconception of a fridge's sterile whiteness with loud, garish complements of orange and green predominating, while additional energy emanates from doodly scrawl around the edges and layers of media in contrasting color and texture; the result is sometimes chaotic to the point of unfocused overbusyness, but it brings considerable energy to what might have been considered about as still as a still life could get. This will tickle audience funnybones if not palates, and kids may relish considering what the food's-eye view would be from inside their refrigerators.