Maurice Sendak has a new book out. I commend him for keeping at it. I haven't had a chance to look over the book for a good judgement YET but as perhaps some of you may have figured out, I won't give you my full judgement of a book anyway... because you know... I'm an author... and that would be bad.
Anyway, this is his new book:
And this is a short film from the old Bumble Ardie: (thanks to Sheila for the heads up)
I will say this about his work. His art has gotten a little sloppier. Or a lot?
And here's a cool stop motion animation from Sesame Street.
I remember this when I was little. I remember feeling uneasy about it. Isn't that weird? I didn't like its hairdo or the eyelashes or the song it sang. But at the same time I thought it was interesting to look at and I like when it croaked.
I remember this from childhood. They must have replayed it in the 80s. It's so odd and obviously drug inspired.
It burned into my memory I guess because it was so odd.
I remember the below movie that my dad rented for us kids when we were little. REALLY weird. A boy loses his hair after a great fright (first it turns white) and ghosts come to visit him to give him "the peanut butter solution" so that he can grow it back... only he makes the solution wrong and his hair grows like crazy. A painter guy kidnaps the boy to make paintbrushes out of his hair because his hair is magical. You can walk right into the painter's paintings. You can't make this stuff up!
This is the crazy part: It says a movie for the whole family. I DISTINCTLY remember one part of the movie. The boy's friend puts "the peanut butter" solution down his pants and grows pubic hair out his pant legs. Um.... This would never fly today!
Despite the insanity and the pubic hair incident, there's something missing in today's movies for kids and dear I say even books. They're too sterile and SAFE. You can't do this and you can't do that and a parent might complain about this or that and what you end up with and not much of anything! This is why I do nonfiction. There's something in telling a real story that is unusual that still excites me. People ask me constantly why I stopped writing fiction and this is why. Everything in fiction has been done and I'd just be repeating things. I want to do something new!
But this post isn't about me. I want to talk about kids' movies and books in general. I just think thinks have changed. They're very different. For better? For worse? What do you think?
