Too Much Information
Honestly, I was planning to see the movie.
I mean, who knows? Sometimes the movie is even better than the book, or at least wonderful in its own way. The Wizard of Oz certainly holds its own. I like Disney’s Pinocchio. So I was going to give Where The Wild Things Are a chance, when it’s released in October. But this. I don’t know. I tried, but I couldn’t get past the first page. Words, words, words.
August 21st, 2009 at 3:22 pm
Hey, funny finding you all here!
I’m not sure what I think about the movie, the didactic U2-esque trailer music put me off before I could give the story much of a chance.
Stay tuned, there’s more to come….http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2009/08/dave-eggers-on-wild-things.html
Martha B~
August 21st, 2009 at 4:31 pm
Hi Martha B. Great to see you here.
Like Debbie, I couldn’t get past the first page of the Eggers version. But what doesn’t work on paper might work on film — so long as the film stays with the spirit of the book. Which really isn’t about all the bad things that happened to Max, but what being a wild thing means, even when bad things happen. So I’m willing to suspend judgment, but I’ll probably rely heavily on reviews and word-of-mouth before I go see the movie.
I kind of liked the trailer since it had so many wild things in it — but I’ve long ago learned to distrust trailers. And now that Martha’s pointed it out, the didacticism is cloying. . .
August 21st, 2009 at 4:42 pm
Oh, I’m sure I’ll see the movie. Visually, it looks like it will be stunning. And actually, Maurice Sendak has said himself that it does keep the spirit of his book (and I think Eggers wrote the screenplay).
September 8th, 2009 at 9:16 am
I was a little too old for Wild Things when it came out — it was my younger brother’s book, so of course having moved on to chapter books, I disdained to read it. But when I read it later as a grownup and hopeful-children’s-writer, I thought what made it such an astonishing creation was its restraint: how much information the very brief text deliberately leaves out. Sendak let Max’s adventures, emotional and visual, remain wide-open for any child to fit him or herself into. I wonder if the movie will fill in so many blanks that the story loses its universality.
The movie monsters look pretty amazing, though! It would be worth seeing it just to gape at them and wonder how it was done.
September 8th, 2009 at 9:19 am
Exactly my thoughts, Kate!