PREPARE TO ROLL YOUR TERRIBLE EYES: The trailer is up for Spike Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are. I love Spike Jonze -- loved his videos for "Cannonball," "Drop," "Weapon of Choice," "California," and, especially, "Da Funk"; loved his acting in Three Kings; loved his Being John Malkovich; was okay with Adaptation -- and Where the Wild Things Are is what I used to lull/terrify my children into placid sleep for years, so I can still recite it from memory.
But I'm not exactly wild about this trailer. On the one hand, I appreciate the way Jonze's production designer has gotten Sendak's prickly textures and earthen palette just right. On the other hand, I don't like the idea that Max, a defiant and fearless ball of pure id whose sole job in the book is to get sent to bed and dream himself a lawless kingdom until he gets hungry enough to wake up, gets stuck in a domestic drama and saddled with more complex emotions like hope and fear. Or worse: the monsters have emotions. In my version of the story (spoiler alert), Max (only temporarily) tames the monsters with the magic trick of staring into all of their yellow eyes without blinking once, not by hugging them until they secrete compassion.
And the monsters kind of look like H.R. Pufnstuf with a bigger budget. I mean, I'll give it a chance, but ...
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