Folks running out to pick up the new DVD/Blue Ray of Spike Jonze’s live-action Where the Wild Things Are will find an interesting extra included: A brand-new short (24 minute) film based on Higglety Pigglety Pop, another book by Maurice Sendak. Using a combination of live action, puppetry, stop-motion animation and more, the film tells the story of Jennie, a fluffy white terrier dog (voiced by Meryl Streep). When she finds that she is bored and thinks “There must be more to life”, Jennie sets out to become leading lady of the World Mother Goose Theater. Unfortunately, she’s informed that the leading lady has to have experience. And Jennie has no idea what “experience” even is, let alone where to find it! Setting out on a quest for it, Jennie winds up as a nurse-maid for a very strange baby who refuses to eat. And nurse-maids who fail to convince the baby to eat are fed to the ravenous lion living in the basement! Only Maurice Sendak comes up with plots like this, folks… The production company for Higglety Pigglety Pop also created the Oscar-Nominated short film Madame Tutli-Putli. Clips from the former and the latter are up on YouTube.
Dogs
More CGI Dogs from India
In the spirit of Roadside Romeo — but with a completely different cast and crew! It’s Koochie Koochie Hota Hai, a new CGI animated film coming this summer from India’s Prana Productions. It’s a loose remake of the 1998 live-action film Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, which was the highest-grossing Bollywood film of that year. This new cartoon feature follows the lives of three high school dogs — one guy, two girls — in a love triangle, and throws in the added plot element of a time travel machine. In a sly wink to the original film, lead actors Shahrukh Khan and Kajol play the lead voices in this new version, along with several well-known comedy and action stars in other roles. You can check out the trailer on YouTube.
Cats and Dogs, living together…
We don’t remember it doing that all-fire well at the box office, but evidently it pleased someone: Cats and Dogs (from 2001) has inspired a big-screen sequel, Cats and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore, coming to theaters (in 3D) at the end of July. In spite of it not appearing until this summer, a full-fledged trailer is available for viewing on YouTube and elsewhere. From what we can tell the cast, crew, and characters appear to all be different from the first film. This time around the secretly high-tech cats and dogs put aside their warring ways in order to battle with a rogue cat spy — voiced by Bette Midler no less! — who has evil plans of her own. Hmm, could it be that the basic idea of the first film (dogs as heroes and cats as villains) so turned off “cat people” that it wound up limiting the film’s audience — and box office? We’ll find out if this new take on things performs any differently this summer.
It Will Leave You…
Famed horror and imaginative fiction writer Dean Koontz has returned with Breathless, his latest book in hardcover from Bantam. Check this out: Grady Adams is a man with a troubled past, living a solitary life in the remote Colorado mountains with only his Irish wolfhound, Merlin, for company. That is, until the day when Grady stumbles across a pair of magnificent, unknown furry creatures — clearly a brand new species. Grady befriends the creatures and asks Cammy Rivers, a local veterinarian, to help him study them. But then, out of nowhere, the government shows up and puts the entire area under quarantine — and refuses to answer any questions why. When something horrible happens, Grady and Cammy soon decide that they have no choice but to join the new creatures and escape to freedom.
Copper
More on-line comics making their way into the world on dead trees! Kazu Kibuishi (well-known as the editor of the Flight series of fantasy anthologies) has brought out his full-color on-line comic Copper in book form, available this January in softcover or hardcover from Graphix. From the publisher’s notes at Amazon.com: “Copper is curious, Fred is fearful. And together boy and dog are off on a series of adventures through marvelous worlds, powered by Copper’s limitless enthusiasm and imagination. Each Copper and Fred story in this graphic novel collection is a complete vignette, filled with richly detailed settings and told with a wry sense of humor. These two enormously likable characters build ships and planes to travel to surprising destinations and have a knack for getting into all sorts of odd situations. Copper’s good cheer always smoothes the way—and Fred can usually be won over if there’s food involved.”
Squirrel!
Furry fans all know that the real break-out star of Disney-Pixar’s summer smash film, Up, was Dug the dog. For heaven’s sake, he’s got his own Facebook page! Now Dug and his pack of servant dogs, all fitted with their high-tech talking collars, find themselves starring in Dug’s Special Mission, a new CGI short film that will accompany Up on the new DVD and Blue-Ray release. Directed by Ronnie Del Carmen (who worked in the story department on Up), this new short tells the story of what happened right before Dug met Carl Fredricksen and intrepid explorer Russell… when Dug, on his birthday, is wishing for a new master who would be less cruel and maniacal than the one he had before. Dug himself, of course, is voiced again by Up co-director Bob Peterson. The new DVD/Blue-Ray will be available November 10th.
Dug, dog. He just met you, and already he loves you.
Berke Breathed’s First Illustrated Novel
Berkeley Breathed, Pulitzer Prize-winning creator of Bloom County and Outland, has given us his first illustrated novel. Flawed Dogs — The Shocking Raid on Westminster is “a heartwarming and humorous ode to the unconditional and lasting love that we and our pets share”. This is from the publisher: “Sam the Lion is actually a priceless dachshund, bred to be a show dog. More important, he is Heidy’s best friend—and she needs one like never before. Living with her reclusive uncle is hard, but Sam has a way of making her feel soft and whole. Until the day Sam is framed by the jealous poodle Cassius, and is cast out by Heidy’s uncle, alone on the wild streets, where he is roughed up by a world he was not bred for. Sporting a soup ladle for a leg, Sam befriends other abandoned dogs and journeys all the way to the Westminster Dog Show, where his plan for revenge on Cassius takes an unexpected turn when he and Heidy spot each other after years of being apart.” The book is available in hardcover this September from Philomel.
Beasts of Burden
We can’t top this, so we’ll just reprint it (from the official Dark Horse Comics press release): “When supernatural occurrences sweep the community of Burden Hill, it’s up to a heroic gang of cats and dogs to keep the residents safe from harm. A bizarre disturbance leads these four-legged neighbors on a wild goose chase into the depths of the nearby forest, where loyalties are tested and lives come to an abrupt end”. Beasts of Burden is a new full-color four-issue comic book miniseries brought to us by the award-winning creators Evan Dorkin (Milk & Cheese) and Jill Thompson (Scary Godmother) and released, of course, by Dark Horse this September.
