Who doesn’t love Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are? Max and his toothy subjects are among the most alluring children’s characters ever conceived. That it’s taken this long to turn the book into a film is dumbfounding. But thanks to Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers’s screenplay, and Eggers’s novelization (a related but stand-alone book, complete with furry edition –top), Wild Things is poised to captivate an entirely new—and dedicated old—audience.
I recently saw a preview of the impressively high-tech film, and it more than met my expectations. If I were handing out stars or any other metric of success, it would get ten out of five—it’s that wild a thing.
Steven Heller is the co-chair of the SVA MFA Designer /Designer as Author + Entrepreneur program, writes frequently for Wired and Design Observer. He is also the author of over 170 books on design and visual culture. He received the 1999 AIGA Medal and is the 2011 recipient of the Smithsonian National Design Award.View all posts by Steven Heller →