By Daphne Lee
From Tots to Teens, StarMag
AS Maurice Sendak fans know, Spike Jonze's adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are is scheduled for release in October this year. The trailer looks quite promising as far as the wild things go. They are actors in furry suits - like Bird Bird from Sesame Street - but their expressively monstrous faces are, so it's been reported, the work of computer graphics. As far as I can tell from the official trailer (watch it on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--N9klJXbjQ), they look just like the originals in the picture book.
One also gathers, from the trailer, that in Jonze's version of the story, Max's mum is embarking on a new romantic relationship that the boy doesn't entirely approve of. She invites the new love of her life over, and Max's jealousy causes him to make "mischief of one kind and another". He is sent to his room without his supper, and, of course, this is the start of a journey "through night and day, and in and out of weeks and almost over a year to where the wild things are".
I'm rather uncomfortable with the decision to give Max a reason to misbehave. Does he need one? Max, like any small child, is a "wild thing" just because. That's the whole point, I feel, of the book - to acknowledge the almost primeval anger felt by children, and that urge they have to go a little crazy at times - and still be loved inspite of it. Max is punished but returns from his wild rumpus to find his supper waiting for him - "and it was still hot". That hot supper signifies forgiveness, understanding and love. Max is not a lucky child - he is a child who has what every child has a basic right to - a parent who is both a kind and responsible adult, who cares enough to set down boundaries but who also remembers what it was like to be a child.
No doubt, in order to turn a picture book into a feature film, it was necessary add some back story as well as elaborate on what is, in print, just a couple of lines of text or a few pictures. It probably just seemed like the most obvious thing to give Max a motive for his mischief. Anyway, it may not have ruined the story - I won't know until I watch the whole film.
I'm not sure what to make of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. Lewis Carroll is thought to have been on hallucinogenics when writing his book, but I've always thought that those who say that just don't understand the power of imagination. Burton's Alice on the other hand ... well, no, I don't think drugs were involved either. I believe Burton's gift (or curse, depending on how you look at it) is simply exaggeration. Nevermind the Mad Hatter, every other character in this film looks like she/he belongs in an insane asylum. And Alice herself looks like a starlet in search of a high-budget soft porn movie.
Still, it could not be worse than Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, which is supposed to explain all the food-based weather in the picture book (by Judi Barrett and illustrated by Ron Barrett). The trailer struck me as obnoxious and loud, and reminded me of those pie throwing segments that seemed to feature a lot in 70s sitcoms. I guess children will love the film!
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