.
.
K U O C S K O O B R W W W .
.
D A E H Y E L D O B E H T
, 7 6 9 1
,
K A D N E S E C R U A M ©
I
CREEPY CLASSICS Some of the most unforgettable children’s films are also the scariest. Paul Dale recaps on the nightmare-inducing kids’ classics that live on long in the memory
CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG (1968) Adapted for cinema by Roald Dahl from Ian Fleming’s book, this musical fantasy about a crazy inventor and his flying car starring Dick Van Dyke
features the scariest antagonist ever committed to film. The Childcatcher, played by former ballet dancer Sir Robert Helpmann, fuelled a generation of child nightmares. Rocky Horror Picture Show creator Richard O’Brien and dancer Wayne Sleep later reprised the role for stage to terrify a new generation of little darlings.
THE WATCHER IN THE WOODS (1980) This elegant, old-fashioned Disney production about supernatural happenings in the English countryside featured the mighty Bette
Davis in one of her most haunting (and haunted) later roles. Pulled from cinemas after its original release because the studio disliked the director’s other worldly and strange ending, and re-released with a revised ending in 1981, the resultant media brouhaha made the film a cult hit with the kids. Both versions of the film were briefly available on a special issue DVD released by Anchor Bay in 2002 which is now permanently out of print.
LEMONY SNICKET’S A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS (2004) Adapted from the hit book by author Daniel Handler, Lemony Snicket . . . follows the orphaned Baudelaire children as they are shuttled from one oblivious relative to another, avoiding the attempts of distant relative Count Olaf (Jim Carrey in one of his finest, hammy turns) to murder them for their family fortune. With no real happy ending, this is a stark lesson in the dark realities of life.
THE CORPSE BRIDE (2005) Tim Burton’s masterful stop- frame animation relocates 19th century Russian Jewish folktale of undead bride and spectral beings to Victorian Britain with unsettling results. Throw in a couple of surreal songs about decay by screenwriter John August and the kids didn’t know whether to laugh or scream.
THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES (2008) A surprisingly good fantasy film adaptation of the bestselling book series in which twins Jared and Simon (both played by male child star of the moment Freddy Highmore) face down goblins and demons in their new rural home following their parents’ divorce. Legendary US filmmaker John Sayles polished up a pedestrian script to make it more like The Amityville Horror for children.
because you are a kid doesn’t mean your feelings aren’t as complicated and as deep as an adult’s. As a kid maybe you don’t have the experience to fully understand it, but I think the feelings are just as deep – of love, hope, disappointment, fear and anxiety. You don’t understand them and they are big and uncontrollable.’ Accordingly, Jonze wanted his Wild Things to literally be big and uncontrollable. To that end he eschewed animation and instead made a live action film using giant puppets built at the Jim Henson Workshop, home of The Muppets but also originator of more nightmarish children’s fantasies such as The Dark Crystal. The super heavy, ten-feet-tall shaggy suits were worn and operated by body-builder-fit puppeteers and Jonze shot their and Max’s antics on location in the great Australian outdoors. The Wild Things’ booming voices were recorded by a cast of actors known for their distinctive delivery – James Gandolfini and Forest Whittaker among them – and subsequently synched to the puppets using CG animated facial expressions.
‘I had always wanted to do the film live action,’ Jonze says. ‘I wanted to build the Wild Things and shoot them for real. I wanted it so that Max can touch them, lean on them, shove them, hug them. I wanted them to be there so that you can feel their breath, their size and their weight. I thought it would be more exciting and fun. Not only fun, but I felt all of that would make it more dangerous, more visceral and more immediate.’ If the reaction of Warner Bros and concerned parents in America is anything to go by, Jonze
18 THE LIST 3–17 Dec 2009
has achieved his aim. But we’ve been here before with public outcry about the tone and content of children’s films, of course. Just last month, questions were raised about the suitability for children of Wes Anderson’s Roald Dahl adaptation, Fantastic Mr Fox. And other recent precedents include the Neil Gaiman adaptation Coraline, Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride and his and Henry Selick’s The Nightmare Before Christmas. Going back a bit further, there was an almighty media-saturated outcry about Jurassic Park, which, parents were claiming, was terrifying their children. As it turned out, Spielberg’s dinosaur thriller was delighting the kids and scaring the bejesus out of the adults. In the end, it all comes down to whether or not you think it’s good for kids to be terrorised a little bit, or, as Sendak clearly thinks, not to mollycoddle them. ‘We were trying to make a movie that represents what it can feel like at times when you’re nine years old,’ Jonze says. ‘We were just thinking about what it’s like at that age. There’s fun, there’s safety, there’s love, and then there’s also times when there’s loneliness and longing. A long time ago Maurice said to me, “You have to make your version of this movie and make it personal to you. All I ask is that you don’t condescend to children. Don’t pander. Make it honest and make it personal.” His attitude was, “I don’t want to make a movie just to make a movie. I don’t want to just make some crap to fill the multiplexes for a month.”’
Where the Wild Things Are is on general release from Fri 11 Dec.