Where The Wild Things Are Preview

"No home with children should be without it," said the 'Guardian' of Maurice Sendak's 1963 book. But we'd go further than that and say "No home should be without it" as you don't have to be a child or a parent to appreciate the book's wonderfulness. Most adults have fond memories of their own childhood encounters with it.

If you're one of the few people who hasn't had the pleasure of reading 'Where The Wild Things Are' - and enjoying its marvellous, memorable illustrations - the book concerns a naughty young boy called Max. During a mischievous rampage he endangers the family dog, threatens his mum, and is sent to bed without any supper. His room transforms, and Max sails away "to where the wild things are," where, clad in his wolf suit, he runs free with other beasts.

As with many fictions and folk stories read to children, the tale is about a stage of growing up, about learning to control inappropriate moods and emotions. Aggrieved, Max flees into an imaginary world, but eventually learns a lesson. Sendak's writing is spare, and as such a challenge to adapt. The story is told more in Sendak's illustrations, which create a surreal fantasy world populated by weird and wonderful monsters.

A film version of the book has been a long time coming, and the challenge the project presents to a screenwriter may be the reason why. In the early 1980s, Disney turned to the book and began experimenting with how to bring it to the screen. The House of Mouse had just made Tron (1982) and turned to MAGI-Synthavision, one of the production companies which had innovated some of the computer animation techniques used on that landmark film, to create backgrounds.

The characters were created with traditional 2D hand-drawn techniques. John Lasseter directed a test which demonstrated the sense of 3D space, and fluid, inventive camera movements within it that would become a hallmark of digital animation in the films of his own Pixar company. But the project never came to fruition with Disney.