Perhaps the most anticipated film of this month is WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE, Spike Jonze’s adaptation of Maurice Sendak's well-known children’s book. Jonze’s feature work has not been exactly conventional by Hollywood standards (BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, ADAPTATION), so it will be interesting to see what he does when he's working with material aimed at kids. The hype surrounding the film is huge, and the trailer has been met with almost unanimous praise. (It's already made its way onto the list of "Stuff White People Like").

VARIETY has already published one of the first reviews of the film. In general, reviewer Todd McCarthy finds that the film is a triumph of design, but fails to provide an engaging plot for its entire duration. The actual text of the book was a little under 400 words, so it is easy to see how this could be a problem.

Personally, I am greatly intrigued by the film and might even attend a midnight screening. I will catch it during opening weekend at least. Hopefully WILD THINGS will continue this year’s trend of great feature films for kids -- witness both CORALINE and UP -- proving that children’s films don’t have to be idiotic to be entertaining. Children’s films can, in fact, just be good films.

What say you? Will you give Spike $12 this weekend, or wait it out and see what the consensus is after opening weekend?