Children’s Book Movie Fanboy-ing

One of the movies I’m really excited to see is Where the Wild Things Are. I saw the trailer maybe a few months ago and got really nostalgic about the book and everything. I used to see it at my old grade school library and I read it a few times. Cute story, but I kinda forgot it through the years. Actually even forgot about the book.

And then this trailer pops up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NOkQ4dYVaM
(the video didn’t allow embedding, and I’m too lazy to look for another one )

And everything comes flooding back into my head.

So of course, the question is: how the fudge do they turn a children’s storybook into a full-length film? All I remembered from the book was that a kid goes to an island full of monsters, becomes their king, misses home, and goes back. I mean not really much material for a movie. But then I just shrugged it off. The monsters in the trailer looked good and looked like how I remembered them. I’ll just hope I really enjoy the movie.

Another effect of seeing that trailer was that I developed a semi-obsession  on finding and reading the book again. I still don’t know how to buy stuff online, and anyway it would no doubt be expensive. I don’t think the local bookstores would have it anymore, and if they did I wouldn’t really be able to afford them. The only hope I had of finding it was to raid second-hand bookstores. This was semi-obsession we’re talking about so I only browsed through stacks when it crossed my mind. Second-hand bookstores being what they were, it was a hit-and-miss thing.

And today was my lucky day.

So I finally have a copy of the book (and also got to read The Velveteen Rabbit in the store, but I only had enough money for Maurice Sendak’s book so I couldn’t bring both of them home) , read it, enjoyed the art, found the story cute, and now find myself really wondering

HOW THE FUDGE WOULD THEY TURN A SIMPLE CHILDREN’S BOOK THAT’S MORE OR LESS 10 SENTENCES LONG INTO A FULL-LENGTH MOVIE?

It’s kinda stupid, but it’s kind of bothering me.

I’d totally slap myself silly if I ever watch the movie and go,  “That’s not what happened in the book!” But I’ve *sigh* been that way ever since I saw Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. It even happened in The Time Traveller’s Wife. But come on, this is a really short children’s book we’re talking about, so yeah complaining about that would be really pathetic and stuff.