So you may have already heard that there’s going to be a Higglety Pigglety Pop! short film as a bonus feature on the Where the Wild Things Are Blu-Ray, which is coming out March 2. Higglety Pigglety Pop! or There Must Be More to Life is of course the other major chidren’s book by Maurice Sendak. It’s a surreal story about a dog looking for Experience.
The film is semi-animated (there are puppets involved) by the filmmakers of Madame Tutli-Putli and includes the voice-acting of Meryl Streep (Jennie), Forest Whitaker (Lion), Spike Jonze (Plant). The production design – as in Tutli Putli - is rich and stunning. Streep is perfect as usual.
I feel like I got this flood of great Geoff McFetridge exposure recently. Last time I was in Seattle, I discovered his fantastic installation at the Seattle Art Museum’s cafe by the sculpture garden. Then I watched the great documentary, Beautiful Losers, where McFetridge appears among a bunch of other artists I love. Of course he also did lettering, titles, and other drawings for Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are.
And finally, above is a great video of McFetridge talking about how he works and what he does, all while a video of him doodling runs on the screen behind him. Thanks, universe, for the inspiration!
I’m not the only one ’round these parts with Where the Wild Things Are fever am I? I didn’t think so.
Here’s a priceless video of Maurice Sendak describing what being an illustrator of stories means to him, and what his role is as part of the story-telling process. The video was produced by the Rosenbach Museum & Library in Philadelphia – the sole repository of Sendak’s original artwork, manuscripts and ephemera.
In fact, the Rosenbach Museum’s YouTube page has several more clips and interviews with Sendak, all worth a look while you whet your appetite for the film.
With the highly anticipated release of Where The Wild Things Are just around the corner, We Love You So has been set up as a way of sharing the varied influences of the film. While it’s fun to read though each post, I especially enjoyed the posting that included this clip of Shel Silverstein performing on the Johnny Cash Show.
As a way of paying tribute to the work that has profoundly influenced his artistic career, Cory Godbey decided to start Terrible Yellow Eyes, an online tribute to Maurice Sendak and his classic book Where the Wild Things Are. In addition to creating a number of beautiful pieces himself, Cory also asked a number of other artists to contribute illustrations to the site. So far artists have included the likes of Mike Lee, Jake Parker, Pascal Campion, and Alina Chau, just to name a few… heck, even I got in on the fun. There has been a flurry of activity on the site as new posts go up almost by the hour, and from what I hear, there are no plans to slow down as Cory continues to line up new artists to participate.
I’ve heard about this test for ages and now through the wonder of YouTube I can finally see it: the “Where the Wild Things Are” CG test from 1983. It featured John Lasseter’s (and Glen Keane’s) hand animated characters on 3D computer backgrounds done by MAGI Synthevision. Disney dropped the project, but both Lasseter and LucasFilm saw the potential of this new medium. John was hired by LucasFilm (later named Pixar) soon afterwards and, well…you know the rest.
