Video Sunday – Death Comes to the Wild Things
I’ve always said that there has never been and will never be a successful adaptation of a picture book into a full-screen motion picture. And then, for just about half a second, I was about to be proved wrong. This week a scene from the new Spike Jonze/David Eggers version of Where the Wild Things Are premiered on the web. You can see the clip right here, and for half a second hopes were high. Imagine it. A children’s movie with quiet moments. QUIET moments! It fair boggles the mind. Jonze went online explaining that actually this scene was just a rough cut. Heck, the boy’s not even wearing a wolf suit. That’s a lamb suit, that is. The face of the Wild Thing will also be CGIed in later, so that’s fine. Only now it looks as if that’s about as much of this particular version we’ll ever see. Warner Brothers has gotten cold feet over doing anything this original and may scrap the whole project and begin again with people other than Jonze and Eggers. I mean, who exactly did they think they were hiring anyway? Ah well. We came close to getting a magnificent picture book adaptation on the big screen. Guess we dodged that bullet, eh?
Yesterday I posted information on Monica Edinger and her discussion during our last Children’s/YA Literary Cafe. Yet I failed to mention that during her talk, Monica showed us this link from her blog. Behold! It is part of the cut ending from the Golden Compass movie. Apparently the video game makers weren’t able to excise it from their games when they heard that it wasn’t making it into the final film. Their loss. Our gain.
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And here’s a little girl that belies the whole kids-can’t-memorize-anymore theory. A bit cute, but it amused me.
Thanks to Sara O’Leary for the link.
And, just to be fair, here is the version of Jabberwocky that I have memorized. Galumphs and all. I actually have a hard time reciting or hearing the poem without the galumphs.
First time picture book illustrator Dan Hanna sent me a couple links to the book trailers for his new book The Pout Pout Fish. I’ll put up my favorite two here for kicks.
And finally, this has nothing to do with children’s literature, but one of my best friends since 7th grade is Meredith Ann Arwady. She is perhaps the greatest young contralto living today and recently our hometown newspaper made a little video of her. I’ll put it up here, but it’s a pity that you only hear her warming up and not singing. If she was singing you’d get a sense for how awesome she is. Yay, Meredith!
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About Betsy Bird
Betsy Bird is currently the Collection Development Manager of the Evanston Public Library system and a former Materials Specialist for New York Public Library. She has served on Newbery, written for Horn Book, and has done other lovely little things that she'd love to tell you about but that she's sure you'd find more interesting to hear of in person. Her opinions are her own and do not reflect those of EPL, SLJ, or any of the other acronyms you might be able to name. Follow her on Twitter: @fuseeight.
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But….I wanna hear some singing! (I heart opera.)
Yes, we love the galumphing too. In fact we’ve been doing a lot of galumphing through the snow ever since my son learned the poem. Have to get his version up some time.
I was thinking it would be a great project to have a DVD of little kids reading great poems like Jabberwocky, Owl & the Pussycat and such-like. Kids like to watch kids and it would be much better brain-food than those vaguely narcotic-like Baby Einsten movies.
Woah. That’s not a bad idea. In fact…. it’s brilliant. Do that and you’ll find yourself at the head of a multimillion dollar company, though. Let’s see, what would be the name? Kiddie Classics? Too cute. Literature Kiderature? Ugg. No, you’d have to get the word “Poem” or “Poetry” in there. And you could include Casey at the Bat and all sorts of things. Better get cracking before the idea gets stolen!
Why do they need to destroy a wonderful book. How hard is it to get Max’s costume right?
A review of the Wild Things script in NY magazine last October said that it was “really, really good,” so I’ve been very optimistic about the Jonze/Eggers collaboration. What a shame if they scrap it. Boo!
That clip was a test run, not actual film footage. People keep assuming that it’s the movie itself but, as Jonze himself pointed out, it was just something they did for fun with a lamb costume. NOT the real movie, people!
Hmm, it is a good idea, isn’t it? What was I thinking giving it away like that? How quickly could I pull this baby together?
Jabberwocky: That little girl is awesome, and she reminds me of Hank Green.