I’ve been itching to do another post about movies vs. books since the great response to my first one, but I wanted to wait until I'd seen a few new book adaptations. Now that I've seen two, I couldn't wait to write! This time around, we’re talking about picture books: Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, by Judi Barrett, and Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak. I’ll be honest, when I heard that these books would be made into movies, I was both intrigued and nervous: how can you possibly make a 2-hour (well, 1 ½ hour) movie out of a 30-page picture-book? Especially WTWTA, which contains very little written story. But I was pleasantly surprised by both. 

If you're not familiar with it, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs is a fun book about a grandpa who puts his grandchildren to bed with a story about a town where it rains breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  It's a cute story that kids enjoy—not surprisingly; it rains cheeseburgers and eggs (sunny-side up!)!  But the movie was brilliant. The writers—with the blessing of the author, I'm sure—took a simple idea and ran with it. A young boy named Flint Lockwood, whose idols are surprisingly Einstein and Edison, not sports players or rock stars, is inspired to invent something awesome—something life-changing—and he is lovingly encouraged by his mother regardless of what his “manly man” of a dad thinks. Years later, Flint Lockwood is still trying to invent that one life-changing thing but everything is always going wrong. Then one day a major mistake creates a machine that causes it to rain any food you can imagine. Fun and chaos ensues. The viewer sees how too much of a good thing can be a bad thing and, as in all good kids movies, Flint is forced to choose between right and wrong. Hilarity for all ages is peppered throughout the entire movie—I was laughing right there with Anna when we watched.  I'm sure it will keep the attention of any child for the full movie time. Although it's different from the book, it is a terrific adaptation—definitely a must-own movie for this household!

Where the Wild Things Are is a monster all to itself (ha—I couldn't resist!). First of all, it's a live action film, so no animation. It's definitely not for young children; Wes and I discussed this at length and we agree that kids probably 11-and-up would enjoy it and get the most out of it. The movie's writers along with the director and co-writer, Spike Jonze, wanted to keep with the darkness Sendak's beloved book is known for. The story itself keeps with the book, but it’s enhanced, in a brilliant, deep way. Max is a typical boy living in a single-parent household who could really benefit from his dad’s presence. His mom works hard at juggling life's details and, although she does a very good job, Max still feels lost and, at times, ignored. After a fight with his mom, he runs away, finds a boat, and travels to the island of the monsters. The monsters are fantastical. They are frightening yet lovable, and they ultimately represent the feelings that Max is experiencing: One is never heard by his fellow monsters; another represents Max's mom; and yet another represents Max's negative thoughts about life. But it’s Carol that stayed with me most. Carol represents Max’s unstable and unpredictable anger. And they couldn’t have chosen a better voice than James Gandolfini: just like in The Sopranos his angry and violent character is surprisingly likable. 

In the end, Max comes to terms with his own feelings and returns home with a new sense of self and belonging. As an adult, I found the movie to be deep and moving, but I did notice that the kids in the audience started to get restless after a while. Overall it's a wonderful adaptation of a picture book, but one that's more for adults than children. That's two more for my book-to-movie library, but I can’t think of any other picture-book movie adaptations, can you? I will continue to search and I hope you will, too. In the meantime, Happy Reading.