"So this here's the story of a cat-bear-rabbit thing— you know what, let's just say he's a boy, makes things easier..." So begins "The Puckerberry Overlords," a tale sung by an old wisdom tooth and storyboarded by Maxwell Atoms (The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy). The cat-bear-rabbit boy is the eponymous Chowder, and today the pop-up book of Marzipan City will take us to his stygian depths.

Yes, we're going into Chowder's mouth.

This first tale of escape and the power of happiness overcoming doom starts out with Chowder popping a puckerberry. At which point he puckers up to the point of imploding into himself. It's a dark little hero quest that's just Mr. Atoms' style, complete with a soured taste buds, a crazed sweet tooth, and the villainous king Sour Ron.

Yes, we went there too. Ahem. In true hero form, Chowder faces possible doom ("possibilidoom"), gets mad ("ragey"), and confronts the overly grouchy overlords ("and you need to make a poo!"). By the time our young hero recalls the teachings of his elders, his little-kid logic has surprised a guffaw or two out of this grumpy viewer. Also tempering the sweet-as-honey solution are the gags aimed at adults. As the wisdom tooth said: "Now I know what you're thinking... but stop it and pay attention to the story, sickos."

Since this wasn't featured in the commercials, I didn't expect the toe-tapping music and subversive humor. The story works on several levels, and I may have to watch it again to sample them all.