Awesome trailer, and I’m usually very critical of trailers.
I heard a great NPR interview with Maurice Sendak about his children’s writing, and how kids understand so much more than we give them credit for and they deal with difficult things in very resilient ways, so he never tried to pull punches and make his books soft, but presented stories where everything wasn’t happy and nice.
It was a fascinating interview. This might be it: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6139979
Jasper, I have no idea where your cynicism is coming from about this particular project. It seems totally misplaced to me. The book is a beloved classic and this adaptation looks artful and sincere.
The book is just a kid who gets into mischief, gets sent to bed without eating anything, then he escapes into his imagination/dreams. “He sailed off through night and day, and in and out of weeks, and almost over a year to where the wild things are.” After the wild things make him their king and they have a wild rumpus, he smells food and misses home so he sails across the sea again and back into his bedroom where he finds his supper waiting. “And it was still hot.” The end. There’s basically no story beyond “you get in trouble but your parents still love you” but the spare writing and wonderful illustrations perfectly capture the essence of something specific and unique and magical about childhood.
For the film, it looks like they’re attempting to capture the same magic but they’ve fleshed out his family life and given him a little more drama (divorce it looks like) to cope with and escape from. Plus they’ve probably added a bit more story or conflict in the land of the wild things. And if they also start selling Wild Thing toys and books… what’s the problem there exactly? I love giving my daughter toys based on classic literature or great films.
One book, about a paragraph in total with all the words together. This is a book for preschoolers. rrmorton summed it up pretty well (his summary reminded me why I think the song choice was genius – although blitzen trapper’s furr would have worked too, if a little too spot on). There’s something a little dark about the book, but the wild things are basically other children.
It’s not one of those totally fucked up kids books like The Giving Tree. I’d like to see someone try and film that one – maybe Todd Solondz.
lol. I vote David Cronenberg!
Right on, morton. That naked tree, axe-fight scene would be awesome.
So… how, exactly, are monsters supposed to sound?
Ha! My boys love that book, although I’m not sure why, since it makes them sad. “Why does the tree say it’s happy? It’s not happy!” Yet they keep asking me to read it.
The Amazon reviews are worth reading for a chuckle. (“I will never understand why people love this horrible book.”)
Oh god The Giving Tree still makes me weep to this day.
That trailer is incredible. I welled up suddenly and started to cry about halfway through, I just couldn’t help it. It taps into something really basic, that kid we all were (are), the fear, the joy, the terror, the wonder of being alive. Such a great use of that Arcade Fire song. The kid actor looks great, and I for one love the monster’s voice.
Also, Mark Ruffalo + Catherine Keener = best movie parents ever.
I just think a horned, furry creature seven-feet-tall and nine feet in circumference should have a little bass in their voice. But that’s just me.
I think the point of these ‘monsters’ is that they aren’t really monsters. They’re just kids who the boy thinks are monsters? Or am I completely wrong here?
It’s always dangerous to make dogmatic statements when interpreting a rich piece of fiction, but you’re completely wrong.
Youre both wrong, apparently the answer is they are a bunch of old Jews:
Doesn’t really say what they “represent”, of course, but interesting anyway.
“They’re all dead now, so I can tell people”
He is amazing.
Awesome quote, malph. That’s really interesting, not to mention hilarious.
That explains why the one Wild Thing looks he’s wearing a stripey sweater.
But Jonze is relieved to be putting the finishing touches on the film, which is due in October. And he’s excited about another labor of love: a documentary about Wild Things creator Maurice Sendak, which he hopes to finish in time for the release of the main event. “He’s awesome and amazing,” said Jonze of the 80-year-old writer, who wrote the book when he was living in a basement apartment on West 9th Street, and who now lives in Connecticut.
Although he was only the illustrator, Little Bear was and will always be a staple of young child entertainment in my house. My mom can’t get enough of that show and the books.
What happens when you swap the music from the trailer for this film and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2, and vice versa.