In a dramatic 180 from my previous entry, let me just say that I'm actually - against my better judgment - looking forward to this:
Where the Wild Things Are is one of my favorite childhood books, which numbers me among countless millions. I assumed Jonze would muck it up, even if I had no real reason to think that - Being John Malkovich and Adaptation are both very good films, after all, and the guy knows his way around a Beastie Boys video. For me, the trailer strikes just the right balance between real world and whimsical. There's obviously been some fleshing out, but unlike other recent efforts to beef up children's book narratives (The Grinch and The Cat in the Hat spring to mind), everything here seems to fit.
And if nothing else, they got Max's outfit exactly right. We'll see on October 16.
I am ridiculously excited about this. In fact, I played the trailer for my students this morning, and Where the Wild Things Are has NOTHING to do with Asian American Literature.