Seriously now... Hollywood has to stop bastardizing timeless classics. Classics such as this wonderful children's picture book...



Now, how the scriptwriters think that they can drag a 10-sentence long picture book with probably less than 100 words into a full length movie is completely beyond me. It's a picture book, for crying out loud! Watching the trailer suggests that lots of unneccessary story was added in, like Max seeing his mother kissing someone, for example. Problem is, all these adding on just destroys the whole point of the story and the entire magic of it all. The book is just about a boy who gets angry for being scolded as he had been mischievous, so he imagines a travelling to a world where he gets the power to control wild things. Frankly, I don't need explanations as to how he actually found his way there and all the psychodynamic theories of where he may have gotten his anger from. The story is simple for very good reasons - it is a children's picture book made for children. It teaches children that you may be angry at your loved ones for disciplining you, but at the end of the day these are the people who continue to love you the most. Period. End of story.

Apparently author Maurice Sendak actually endorsed the film. That is just S A D.

The beauty of picture books for children is that it fuels the imagination. I loved using Where The Wild Things Are with clients as they found great enjoyment in re-enacting the scenes as they imagined them to be while learning important values at the same time. But now, where is that room for imagination now that some people have chosen to make a 90min long story out of this simple, innocent book.

Sigh... Tragedy! What tragedy!