March 26th, 2009
Max Power
Where the Wild Things Are was the #1 children’s book in our house when Kate, Kevin, and I were growing up, so I am monitoring this trailer with intense scrutiny.
Some initial thoughts:
- I am worried. With the exception of the first two X-men, Spiderman, and Batman movies, every film based on a beloved element of my childhood has felt soulless and haphazard. (See The Grinch, The Polar Express, Alvin & the Chipmunks, Superman, that new Indiana Jones, the Star Wars prequels, Scooby Doo, and Charlie & The Chocolate Factory to name a few).
- Ok, this looks amazing. No traces of cheesy CGI to be found.
- I guess I’m seeing some evidence of the new subplot(s) that will be necessary to turn an 11-word-story into a full-length movie. I wonder what Dave Eggers cooked up.
- I also wonder if they worked in the classic lines from the book that kids love so much. (“Please don’t go, we’ll eat you up we love you so.”, “They gnashed their terrible teeth and showed their terrible claws,” etc.) Hard to say if those will work here or not.
- Great choice of song for the trailer. I was fearful that Tone Loc’s “Wild Thing” would kick off in the background, and I’d have to rip my computer off of my desk, hurl it across the room, and flee to a cave in the Appalachian Mountains where I would spend the rest of my life.
- Ok, this is just a knee-jerk reaction based on incomplete information, but these wild things might be a little too cute and friendly to be in keeping with the book. In the context of this movie, I suppose there could be a valid reasons this.
- Also, this kid might be a little too sweet. Max was an utter terror at the beginning of the book. Again, could be a valid reason for this.
- I hope this kid can act. Nothing ruins a film like a crappy child actor.
- Spike Jonze is the director and it seems he hasn’t made a bad feature yet. In fact he made Adaptation which is one of my favorite movies of all time.
- After much deliberation I have settled on my stance towards this movie and that stance is “cautiously optomistic.”
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