Something to Look Forward To this Autumn!

[klondike]

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[sandykaypax]

Cool trailer!!!

Spike Jonze--should be interesting.

Sandy K

[jdb1]

No . . . . . no. I don't need to point out, do I, that Maurice Sendak is from Brooklyn, and is an alumnus of my high school, Lafayette, in Bensonhurst. His great book "In The Night Kitchen," which I like more than "Wild Things," has a lot of Bensonhurst in it. (And, like all his children's books, a lot of Freud. I sense a Freud-like direction in this trailer as well -- Mommy kissing a man, and little Max in his wolf suit going wild, etc. There's no adult kissing in the book.)

[klondike]

Hey, ya know, if I don't know it, I want to hear it!
And I didn't know Sendak was a Brooklynite (or is Trolly Dodger more appropos?), but now I do. Simple, eh?
As for other stuff getting grafted in, I imagine that Mr. Hanks promoted using the same augmentation method he did for Polar Express, which although indescribably wondrous & poignant in book form, needed a boost or two to approach even a modest theatre run-time.
Like yourself, I too have a slight preference for "In The Night Kitchen"; and just as you mentioned it does have some significant Bensonhurst (I can't think that word without picturing Ralph Kramden) in it, and as really good, evocative literature often does, it creates an affinity therefrom for people of all ages who have never even been near the place!

[jdb1]

And what do we all make of this? Although some people find the book a little dark and creepy, my nursery school students loved this book above all others. I love it too. See what you think:

Peter Schickele (a/k/a P.D.Q. Bach) narrating In The Night Kitchen
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[movieman1957]

Peter Schickele is a very funny man. To go off on a tangent, if you love music and know anything about Bach the "biography" of PDQ BAch is a hoot.

Sorry.

[knitwit45]

I love Oliver Hardy's turn as the bakers! Thanks for sharing

[jdb1]

The book is very interesting from an interpretive standpoint, and I think it's quite beautiful. This animated version is very true to the look and essence of the book, especially in that it presents the drawings and text in a straightforward, non-scary way. I personally don't find anything in this book scary, and I know from the reactions of the many children I've read it to that they don't either.

Knitty, Sendak has said that although people have been reading deep meanings into Night Kitchen and its dream-like presentation, there was nothing abstract about putting Oliver Hardy into it. Sendak said he just likes likes Oliver Hardy, and has since he was a little boy, and he wanted to draw him, so he put him in this particular book because Hardy made him think of jolly bakers. My former very young students had very little idea who Oliver Hardy was, but they loved his likeness in this book. I'd like to think that when they got a little older they became L&H fans.