Over the next few months there are six blockbuster children’s stories being turned into films and there are a couple that I am really looking forward to.
First is Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs which is coming out this September 18th. The children’s classic about the town of Chewandswollow where the towns meals are dropped in three times daily by mother nature in the form of soup rain or meatball hailstorms. The film adaptation differs slightly from the book in that the food storms are a result of a scientists attempt to solve world hunger problems by turning water into food.
In October Spike Jonze will unleash his adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s ten sentence titan Where the Wild Things Are. Considering the length of the original book the films creators have a fairly wide birth in where to take the movie, the opening trailers look pretty good but a lot could go wrong between a two minute trailer and a 90 minute movie. That said I have high hopes.
In November we get three films. First yet another adaptation of the Charles Dickens Classic A Christmas Carol. This animated adaptation will feature Jim Carrey playing the role of Scrooge as well as the three ghosts (Christmas Past, Present and Yet-to-Come). The story has been told over and over so I think I might give this one a miss and just settle in with one of the older adaptations, perhaps the Muppets version, I have always been partial to that one.
One of my favourite stories as a child was Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr. Fox, and so when I found out it was to become a film I will admit I was worried that my memories of the story would be shattered. Earlier this week, with a little trepidation, I decided to watch the trailer and am pleased to say that I am now quite excited to see this adaptation. The biggest complaint seems to be that only the farmers ended up with British accents, which is a bit of a shame but I would much rather a few American accents than trying to force the American actors into a badly done faked accent. (Keep in mind that I pretty much ruled out the idea of Hollywood abandoning American star power to help push a film, an all British cast would have been great but I will take what I can get and George Cloony does seem to have a good voice for Mr. Fox)
A week later we get another Twilight movie, New Moon. I am sure someone is quite excited about this but I just cannot bring myself to care. Three cheers that Stephenie Meyer has gotten more kids reading but I just cannot take anymore of this watered down pseudo-Goth vampire romance.
Lastly, and most distant, is Tim Burtons Alice in Wonderland. The movie is set for early next spring and continues where Lewis Carrol’s books left off. Alice is now a teenager and finds herself escaping reality down the rabbit hole 10 years after her last visit. Expect the film to be dark, and well done. Knowing with Burton is capable of I think this will be quite good.
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