As a small boy I've always loved this book. It's one of the first book I read that had illustrations that really appealed to me. I guess I could relate to Max's naughty and imaginative nature. It's probably one of the things that led me to really get into fine art and thus into art direction and design. I even (sheepishly) admit to indulging myself into Todd McFarlane's Where the Wild Things Are figures a few years ago. I also admit to exposing my children to anything that held fond memories for me as a child - Disney World, Sinatra and Nat King Cole, drawing and painting, whatever.
I was pretty stoked to hear that Where the Wild Things Are was going to be made into a movie awhile back. After the movie opening a couple of weeks ago El had been prepping Isa by reading her the book before bed for the past two weeks. This is the same thing we did when Pixar's Wall-E was about to come out to help familiarize herself to it. Same goes for Disney. Anyways, it was a great way to get her to watch something I personally wanted to see without her losing interest or getting fidgety in the theater (yes...I work that way).
This morning I went to her room to find her "reading" the book to herself. Tonight was the night! After work we had a tasty anitpasto dinner El prepared and drove the kids out to see it. Spike Jonze's version of it remained true to the book imagery. Even Max was spot on to how I thought he should be although a little older. Nico was passed out, but Isa held her attention for the most part. I thought it was GREAT. Definitely a little more (surprisingly) graphic than I imagined at times but still true to form. I thought Spike managed to successfully "extend" the movie out - a difficult task considering the actual length of Maurice Sendak's book. The Wild Things even got a little scary at times with what they were capable of doing. Overall, great flick. Just not necessarily a kid flick - just a flick about a kid.
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