What do you get when you cross a 1963 children’s picture book about a boisterous boy who encounters monsters with Spike Jonze, the visionary director of Being John Malkovich? You get Where the Wild Things Are. Here’s the trailer…
To activate the sound in the trailer: hold your cursor over the screen to reveal the control panel and click on the volume control in the bottom right-hand corner.
Adapted from Maurice Sendak’s best-selling illustrated story, Where the Wild Things Are follows mischievous youngster Max, who – after being chastised by his mother for his unruly behaviour – escapes to an imaginary land where he’s crowned king of a ragtag group of fantastiscal creatures, the Wild Things. Max’s first order of business? A ‘wild rumpus’, involving running, jumping, screaming, and breaking things.
If the trailer is anything to go by, the film is set to be a visual treat, reinterpreting the distinctive style of Sendak’s original illustrations. And the creatures – voiced by the likes of Forest Whitaker, James Gandolfini and Catherine O’Hara – are a curious, but enticing mix of costumed performers, animatronics, and computer-generated imagery.
This Christmas, when the film is released, will you find your inner Wild Thing?
Where the Wild Things Are is released on 11 December 2009.
