The American director's adaptation of Roald Dahl's excellent Fantastic Mr. Fox, opened over the weekend at the London Film Festival. The film opens in the U.S. on November 25. It's rated PG for "action, smoking, and slang humor," so I'll be voting to take Z straight to the theater. We'll read the book either before or after.



Nice to see new, playful work in stop-motion by a major director that has a different perspective than Henry Selick's trademark style. Stop-motion can look many different ways, and it's easy to forget that if there aren't enough active practitioners. - Jeremiah

I cannot help but excerpt the same brilliant passage everyone else undoubtedly will in referencing this interview.

What do you say to parents who think the Wild Things film may be too scary?

Sendak: I would tell them to go to hell. That's a question I will not tolerate.

Because kids can handle it?

Sendak: If they can't handle it, go home. Or wet your pants. Do whatever you like. But it's not a question that can be answered.

Jonze also quite elegantly describes why this is not necessarily a relevant question, which also explains why young children really should probably not see this movie. "[The studio] thought I was making a children's film and I thought I was making a film about childhood," he said. "I mean, I think it's a film - I want children to see it, and it's not like I made it not for children, and it'll be on the video shelf under CHILDREN'S, but I didn't come at it that way. I came at it from the inside out as opposed to the outside in. In the end, though, the studio let us make the movie we wanted to make."

Read the full interview on the Newsweek website. [Via Daddytypes] - Jeremiah

You can't get much more of a blessing from a book's author than this, can you, Spike?


Honestly, whatever reservations I had about this film have been torn asunder. Can't wait. - Jeremiah

Disney made a big impression with their Alice in Wonderland film adaptation of Lewis Carrol's classic back in 1951, but Tim Burton is very good at forgetting what he's seen to create something truly original. Here's the first trailer out on Burton's Alice in Wonderland, which is slated for release in March 2010. We're flagging this as an "over 8" post - what do you think? To intense for the kiddos?



[Found via ClassyMommy] - Jeremiah

We can't wait to see what Tim Burton does with Alice In Wonderland. We loved Burton's take on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, so we certainly aren't opposed to seeing the director rewrite great literature.

From USA Today:

The traditional tale has been freshened with a blast of girl power, courtesy of writer Linda Woolverton (Beauty and the Beast). Alice, 17, attends a party at a Victorian estate only to find she is about to be proposed to in front of hundreds of snooty society types. Off she runs, following a white rabbit into a hole and ending up in Wonderland, a place she visited 10 years before yet doesn't remember.

Among those who welcome her back is the Mad Hatter, a part tailor-made for Johnny Depp as he collaborates with Burton for the seventh time. "This character is off his rocker," Zanuck says.

Aussie actress Mia Wasikowska, 19, best known for HBO's "In Treatment," has the coveted title role. "There is something real, honest and sincere about her," Zanuck says. "She's not a typical Hollywood starlet." [Link]

We'll probably hold off on Z watching this until it's been on DVD for a bit, as it seems pretty dark. Between this, Coraline, and other films we've seen and loved in the past couple of years, we'll have quite the lineup of slightly frightening films in store for her when she reaches a slightly less tender age.

[Via A Fuse #8 Production] - Jennifer

We had been thinking that Pixar's recent release "Up" would be a good early movie for our nearly five-year-old, Z. The PG rating, according to the Internet Movie Database, is for "some peril and action," which doesn't really faze us. But then we heard from multiple adults who had seen the movie that while they had enjoyed it, they wouldn't take their young child to it. Some even called it "kind of depressing." Fortunately for most of Disney's direct-to-DVD sequels, MPAA includes "depressing" in its rating criteria!



So, I'm asking... Have you seen "Up"? Did you, or would you take your kids to it? Why or why not?

There's a broader question here, which I'll pose soon. But first, I'm really curious to hear any parent's thoughts about this particular movie.

And incidentally, whoever the folks are at Disney who thought that disabling embedding of "official" trailers was a good idea... - Jeremiah