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Showing posts with the label adapting children's books into film and television

Saturday morning satire for all my "Kid Lit" homies

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This has been a big year for Hollywood turning classic children's literature into hit film. First there was Where The Wild Things Are , and now, Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland . To be entirely honest, from the trailers for Burton's Alice, I'm fairly sure "Alice" would easily qualify as a disturbing vision of what was intended to be quality children's entertainment. *Note to Tim Burton. Sorry, Mr. Burton, I know you're brilliant, but weren't Edward Gorey, Steven Sondheim and Lewis Carroll perfect the way they were? Why change perfection? In any event, today I thought I'd present a few hilarious examples of how not to turn children's literature into film courtesy via a hilarious post called Children's Book Cinema , from Something Awful . ... " If there's one thing Hollywood loves more than copying a successful idea, it's copying the successful idea of someone who was already appropriating someone else's materia

Where The Wild Things Are -- looks amazing

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Ever since I can remember I have considered Maurice Sendak's book, Where The Wild Things Are , to be utter perfection. His illustrations so brilliantly capture the freaky way adults can crowd and overwhelm a child on their own personal journeys. One minute appearing to be a loving tribe, then an angry mob, the next. All depending on one's perspective, of course as well as the adults expectations of the hero of the story, Max. Anyhow -- Since I clearly hold Sendak's original classic to be one of the few bibles of great children's literature, I was reluctant to accept that one could improve it by reinventing it into an art that that doesn't, actually, involve reading. However, perhaps I'll be a convert if the entire film is as good as this trailer.