The movie of the famous Maurice Sendak children's picture book finally opened in Australia these week. I saw it tonight. It was... satisfactory. It could never rival the book, of course, but it definitely hit lots of the right chords.
I had no misconceptions. The film was going to need some "padding" because the text of the picture book is typically scant, and it was always going to be a pal shadow of the original material. The US reviews were lukewarm, but it got a great review in Thursday's Sydney newspapers and I thought it did what it needed to do. (Certainly not the disgrace of "The Magic Pudding" animated film of a few years ago, which changed things for the sake of changing them.)
"Where the Wild Things Are" certainly adds lots of new imagery, while saluting so much of the original book. Was there a sea serpent and I missed it? I always liked how he was the first indication of what Max would find when he arrived on the shore.
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