Where The Wild Things Are
Encyclopedia
Where the Wild Things Are is a 1963 children's
picture book
by American writer and illustrator Maurice Sendak
, originally published by Harper & Row. The book has been adapted into other media several times, including an animated short in 1973 (with an updated version in 1988), a 1980 opera
, and, in 2009, a live-action feature film adaptation
directed by Spike Jonze
. According to HarperCollins
, the book has sold over 19 million copies worldwide as of 2008.
of the book with Oliver Knussen
, Sendak gave the monsters the names of his relatives: Tzippy, Moishe, Aaron, Emile and Bernard.
suggests that the book is "one of the very few picture books to make an entirely deliberate, and beautiful, use of the psychoanalytic story of anger
". Mary Pols of Time
magazine wrote that "[w]hat makes Sendak's book so compelling is its grounding effect: Max has a tantrum and in a flight of fancy visits his wild side, but he is pulled back by a belief in parental love to a supper 'still hot,' balancing the seesaw of fear and comfort." New York Times
film critic Manohla Dargis
noted that "there are different ways to read the wild things, through a Freudian or colonialist
prism, and probably as many ways to ruin this delicate story of a solitary child liberated by his imagination." In Selma G. Lanes's book The Art of Maurice Sendak, Sendak discusses Where the Wild Things Are along with his other books In the Night Kitchen
and Outside Over There
as a sort of trilogy centered on children's growth, survival, change and fury. He indicated that the three books are "all variations on the same theme: how children master various feelings - danger, boredom, fear, frustration, jealousy - and manage to come to grips with the realities of their lives." The book was awarded the Caldecott Medal
in 1964.
directed by Gene Deitch
at Krátký Film, Prague
for Weston Woods Studios
. Two versions were released: the original 1973 version, with narration by Allen Swift
and a musique concrète
score composed by Deitch; and an updated version in 1988 with new music and narration by Peter Schickele
. In the 1980s Sendak worked with British composer Oliver Knussen
on a children's opera based on the book, Where the Wild Things Are
. The opera received its first (incomplete) performance in Brussels
in 1980; the first complete performance of the final version was given by the Glyndebourne Touring Opera
in London in 1984. This was followed by its first U.S. performance in Saint Paul, Minnesota
in 1985 and the New York premiere by New York City Opera
in 1987. A concert performance was given at The Proms
in the Royal Albert Hall
, London in 2002. A concert production will be produced by New York City Opera
in spring 2011.
In 1983 the Walt Disney Studio conducted a series of tests of Computer-generated imagery
created by Glen Keane
and John Lasseter
using as their subject Where the Wild Things Are.
The live-action film version Where the Wild Things Are
is directed by Spike Jonze
. It was released on October 16, 2009. The film stars Max Records
as Max and features Catherine Keener
as his mother, with Lauren Ambrose, Chris Cooper
, Paul Dano
, James Gandolfini
, Catherine O'Hara
, and Forest Whitaker
providing the voices of the principal Wild Things. The soundtrack was written and produced by Karen O
and Carter Burwell
. The screenplay was adapted by Spike Jonze
and Dave Eggers
. Sendak was one of the producers for the film. The screenplay was novelized by Dave Eggers as The Wild Things
, published in 2009.
The animated series The Simpsons
made allusion to Sendak's book in the season 17 episode "The Girl Who Slept Too Little
". In the episode, the take on the book was titled The Land of Wild Beasts.
Children's literature
Children's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age twelve; it is often defined in four different ways: books written by children, books written for children, books chosen by children, or books chosen for children. It is often illustrated. The term is used in senses which sometimes...
picture book
Picture book
A picture book combines visual and verbal narratives in a book format, most often aimed at young children. The images in picture books use a range of media such as oil paints, acrylics, watercolor and pencil.Two of the earliest books with something like the format picture books still retain now...
by American writer and illustrator Maurice Sendak
Maurice Sendak
Maurice Bernard Sendak is an American writer and illustrator of children's literature. He is best known for his book Where the Wild Things Are, published in 1963.-Early life:...
, originally published by Harper & Row. The book has been adapted into other media several times, including an animated short in 1973 (with an updated version in 1988), a 1980 opera
Where the Wild Things Are (opera)
Where the Wild Things Are is a 'fantasy' opera in one act by Oliver Knussen, his Opus 20, to a libretto by Maurice Sendak, based on Sendak's own children's book of the same title...
, and, in 2009, a live-action feature film adaptation
Where the Wild Things Are (film)
Where the Wild Things Are is a 2009 American fantasy drama film directed by Spike Jonze and adapted from Maurice Sendak's 1963 children's book Where the Wild Things Are. It combines live action, performers in costumes, animatronics, and computer-generated imagery...
directed by Spike Jonze
Spike Jonze
Spike Jonze is an American director, producer and actor, whose work includes music videos, commercials, film and television...
. According to HarperCollins
HarperCollins
HarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company, itself the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers and Row, Peterson & Company. The worldwide...
, the book has sold over 19 million copies worldwide as of 2008.
Plot
The book tells the story of Max, who one evening plays around his home making "mischief" in a wolf costume. As punishment, his mother sends him to bed without supper. In his room, a mysterious, wild forest and sea grows out of his imagination, and Max sails to the land of the Wild Things. The Wild Things are fearsome-looking monsters, but Max proves to be the fiercest, conquering them by "staring into all their yellow eyes without blinking once", and he is made "the king of all wild things", dancing with the monsters in a "wild rumpus". However, he soon finds himself lonely and homesick and returns home to his bedroom where he finds his supper waiting for him still hot.Development history
The original concept for the book featured horses instead of monsters. According to Sendak, his publisher suggested the switch when she discovered that Sendak could not draw horses, but thought that he "could at the very least draw 'a thing'!" He replaced the horses with caricatures of his aunts and uncles, whom he had studied critically in his youth as an escape from their weekly visits to his family's Brooklyn home. When working on the opera adaptationWhere the Wild Things Are (opera)
Where the Wild Things Are is a 'fantasy' opera in one act by Oliver Knussen, his Opus 20, to a libretto by Maurice Sendak, based on Sendak's own children's book of the same title...
of the book with Oliver Knussen
Oliver Knussen
Oliver Knussen CBE is a British composer and conductor.-Biography:Oliver Knussen was born in Glasgow, Scotland. His father, Stuart Knussen, was principal double bass of the London Symphony Orchestra. Oliver Knussen studied composition with John Lambert, between 1963 and 1969 and also received...
, Sendak gave the monsters the names of his relatives: Tzippy, Moishe, Aaron, Emile and Bernard.
Literary significance
According to Sendak, at first the book was banned in libraries and received negative reviews. It took about two years for librarians and teachers to realize that children were flocking to the book, checking it out over and over again, and for critics to relax their views. Since then, it has received high critical acclaim. Francis SpuffordFrancis Spufford
-Early life:He studied English Literature at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, gaining a BA in 1985.-Career:He was Chief Publisher's Reader from 1987-90 for Chatto & Windus....
suggests that the book is "one of the very few picture books to make an entirely deliberate, and beautiful, use of the psychoanalytic story of anger
Anger
Anger is an automatic response to ill treatment. It is the way a person indicates he or she will not tolerate certain types of behaviour. It is a feedback mechanism in which an unpleasant stimulus is met with an unpleasant response....
". Mary Pols of Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine wrote that "[w]hat makes Sendak's book so compelling is its grounding effect: Max has a tantrum and in a flight of fancy visits his wild side, but he is pulled back by a belief in parental love to a supper 'still hot,' balancing the seesaw of fear and comfort." New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
film critic Manohla Dargis
Manohla Dargis
Manohla Dargis is a chief film critic for The New York Times, along with A.O. Scott. She was formerly a chief film critic for the Los Angeles Times, the film editor at the LA Weekly, and a film critic at The Village Voice. She has written for a variety of publications, including Film Comment and...
noted that "there are different ways to read the wild things, through a Freudian or colonialist
Colonialism
Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...
prism, and probably as many ways to ruin this delicate story of a solitary child liberated by his imagination." In Selma G. Lanes's book The Art of Maurice Sendak, Sendak discusses Where the Wild Things Are along with his other books In the Night Kitchen
In the Night Kitchen
In the Night Kitchen is a popular and controversial children's picture book, written and illustrated by Maurice Sendak, and first published in 1970. The book depicts a young boy's dream journey through a surreal baker's kitchen where he assists in the creation of a cake to be ready by the morning...
and Outside Over There
Outside Over There
Outside Over There is a 1981 children's book by Maurice Sendak. It concerns a young girl named Ida, who must rescue her baby sister after the child has been stolen by goblins.-Plot:...
as a sort of trilogy centered on children's growth, survival, change and fury. He indicated that the three books are "all variations on the same theme: how children master various feelings - danger, boredom, fear, frustration, jealousy - and manage to come to grips with the realities of their lives." The book was awarded the Caldecott Medal
Caldecott Medal
The Caldecott Medal is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children , a division of the American Library Association, to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children published that year. The award was named in honor of nineteenth-century English...
in 1964.
Adaptations
In 1973 the book was adapted into an animated shortAnimation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
directed by Gene Deitch
Gene Deitch
Eugene Merril "Gene" Deitch is an American illustrator, animator and film director. He has been based in Prague, capital of Czechoslovakia and the present-day Czech Republic, since 1959. Since 1968, Deitch has been the leading animation director for the Connecticut organization Weston...
at Krátký Film, Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
for Weston Woods Studios
Weston Woods Studios
Weston Woods Studios is a production company that makes audio and short films based on well-known books for children. It was founded in 1953 by Morton Schindel in Weston, Connecticut, and named after the wooded area near his home. The company's first project was Andy and the Lion in 1954, and its...
. Two versions were released: the original 1973 version, with narration by Allen Swift
Allen Swift
Ira Stadlen , known professionally as Allen Swift, was an American voice actor, known for playing characters including Simon Bar Sinister and Riff-Raff on the Underdog cartoon show...
and a musique concrète
Musique concrète
Musique concrète is a form of electroacoustic music that utilises acousmatic sound as a compositional resource. The compositional material is not restricted to the inclusion of sounds derived from musical instruments or voices, nor to elements traditionally thought of as "musical"...
score composed by Deitch; and an updated version in 1988 with new music and narration by Peter Schickele
Peter Schickele
Johann Peter Schickele is an American composer, musical educator, and parodist. He is best known for his comedy music albums featuring his music that he presents as music written by the fictional composer P. D. Q...
. In the 1980s Sendak worked with British composer Oliver Knussen
Oliver Knussen
Oliver Knussen CBE is a British composer and conductor.-Biography:Oliver Knussen was born in Glasgow, Scotland. His father, Stuart Knussen, was principal double bass of the London Symphony Orchestra. Oliver Knussen studied composition with John Lambert, between 1963 and 1969 and also received...
on a children's opera based on the book, Where the Wild Things Are
Where the Wild Things Are (opera)
Where the Wild Things Are is a 'fantasy' opera in one act by Oliver Knussen, his Opus 20, to a libretto by Maurice Sendak, based on Sendak's own children's book of the same title...
. The opera received its first (incomplete) performance in Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
in 1980; the first complete performance of the final version was given by the Glyndebourne Touring Opera
Glyndebourne
Glyndebourne is a country house, thought to be about six hundred years old, located near Lewes in East Sussex, England. It is also the site of an opera house which, with the exception of its closing during the Second World War, for a few immediate post-war years, and in 1993 during the...
in London in 1984. This was followed by its first U.S. performance in Saint Paul, Minnesota
Saint Paul, Minnesota
Saint Paul is the capital and second-most populous city of the U.S. state of Minnesota. The city lies mostly on the east bank of the Mississippi River in the area surrounding its point of confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Minneapolis, the state's largest city...
in 1985 and the New York premiere by New York City Opera
New York City Opera
The New York City Opera is an American opera company located in New York City.The company, called "the people's opera" by New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, was founded in 1943 with the aim of making opera financially accessible to a wide audience, producing an innovative choice of repertory, and...
in 1987. A concert performance was given at The Proms
The Proms
The Proms, more formally known as The BBC Proms, or The Henry Wood Promenade Concerts presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hall in London...
in the Royal Albert Hall
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall situated on the northern edge of the South Kensington area, in the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941....
, London in 2002. A concert production will be produced by New York City Opera
New York City Opera
The New York City Opera is an American opera company located in New York City.The company, called "the people's opera" by New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, was founded in 1943 with the aim of making opera financially accessible to a wide audience, producing an innovative choice of repertory, and...
in spring 2011.
In 1983 the Walt Disney Studio conducted a series of tests of Computer-generated imagery
Computer-generated imagery
Computer-generated imagery is the application of the field of computer graphics or, more specifically, 3D computer graphics to special effects in art, video games, films, television programs, commercials, simulators and simulation generally, and printed media...
created by Glen Keane
Glen Keane
Glen Keane is an American animator, author, illustrator and director. Keane is best known for his character animation at Walt Disney Studios for feature films including The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, Tarzan, and Tangled...
and John Lasseter
John Lasseter
John Alan Lasseter is an American animator, director and the chief creative officer at Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios. He is also currently the Principal Creative Advisor for Walt Disney Imagineering....
using as their subject Where the Wild Things Are.
The live-action film version Where the Wild Things Are
Where the Wild Things Are (film)
Where the Wild Things Are is a 2009 American fantasy drama film directed by Spike Jonze and adapted from Maurice Sendak's 1963 children's book Where the Wild Things Are. It combines live action, performers in costumes, animatronics, and computer-generated imagery...
is directed by Spike Jonze
Spike Jonze
Spike Jonze is an American director, producer and actor, whose work includes music videos, commercials, film and television...
. It was released on October 16, 2009. The film stars Max Records
Max Records
Maxwell Records is an American child actor. Records is most notable for the role of Max in the 2009 film Where the Wild Things Are. His earlier experiences in film include a minor role in Directions: The Plans Video Album, and an appearance in the music video for Cake's cover of "The Guitar Man"...
as Max and features Catherine Keener
Catherine Keener
Catherine Ann Keener is an American actress. She has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Being John Malkovich and Capote...
as his mother, with Lauren Ambrose, Chris Cooper
Chris Cooper (actor)
Christopher W. "Chris" Cooper is an American film actor. He became well known in the late 1990s. He has appeared in supporting performances in several major Hollywood films, including The Bourne Identity, American Beauty, Capote, The Town, The Kingdom, Syriana, October Sky, Seabiscuit, and...
, Paul Dano
Paul Dano
Paul Franklin Dano is an American actor and producer. He has appeared in films such as L.I.E. , The Girl Next Door , Little Miss Sunshine , There Will Be Blood , and Where the Wild Things Are .-Early life:Dano was born in New York City, the son of Gladys and Paul Dano...
, James Gandolfini
James Gandolfini
James J. Gandolfini, Jr. is an Italian American actor. He is best known for his role as Tony Soprano in the HBO TV series The Sopranos, about a troubled crime boss struggling to balance his family life and career in the Mafia...
, Catherine O'Hara
Catherine O'Hara
Catherine Anne O'Hara is a Canadian-American actress and comedienne. She is well known for her comedy work on SCTV, and her roles in the films After Hours, Beetlejuice, Home Alone, and The Nightmare Before Christmas, and also in the mockumentary films written and directed by Christopher Guest...
, and Forest Whitaker
Forest Whitaker
Forest Steven Whitaker is an American actor, producer, and director. He has earned a reputation for intensive character study work for films such as Bird and Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, and for his recurring role as ex-LAPD Lieutenant Jon Kavanaugh on the gritty, award-winning television...
providing the voices of the principal Wild Things. The soundtrack was written and produced by Karen O
Karen O
Karen Lee Orzolek , better known by her stage name Karen O, is the vocalist for New York rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs.-Early life:...
and Carter Burwell
Carter Burwell
Carter Benedict Burwell is an American composer of film scores.-Life and career:Burwell was born in New York City, the son of Natalie , a math teacher, and Charles Burwell, who founded Thaibok Fabrics, Ltd...
. The screenplay was adapted by Spike Jonze
Spike Jonze
Spike Jonze is an American director, producer and actor, whose work includes music videos, commercials, film and television...
and Dave Eggers
Dave Eggers
Dave Eggers is an American writer, editor, and publisher. He is known for the best-selling memoir A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and for his more recent work as a screenwriter. He is also the co-founder of the literacy project 826 Valencia.-Life:Eggers was born in Boston, Massachusetts,...
. Sendak was one of the producers for the film. The screenplay was novelized by Dave Eggers as The Wild Things
The Wild Things
The Wild Things is a 2009 full length novel written by Dave Eggers and published by McSweeney's. The book is based on the screenplay of Where the Wild Things Are which Eggers co-wrote...
, published in 2009.
The animated series The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
made allusion to Sendak's book in the season 17 episode "The Girl Who Slept Too Little
The Girl Who Slept Too Little
"The Girl Who Slept Too Little" is the second episode of The Simpsons seventeenth season, which originally broadcast on September 18, 2005. 9.79 million viewers watched the episode.-Plot:...
". In the episode, the take on the book was titled The Land of Wild Beasts.
External links
- NOW on PBS WATCH: Bill Moyers and Maurice Sendak discuss the inspiration behind "Where the Wild Things Are" and where mischievous Max might be today.
- Where The Wild Things Are - Early Disney CG Animation Test