Yeah! We’ve finally got some details about Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski‘s animated short Higglety Pigglety Pop! or There Must Be More to Life, which will appear exclusively on the Where The WIld Things Are Blu-ray, to be released on March 2nd (as we reported in our previously article.) You can read the press release for yourself below but if you have any doubt about the skills of these animators just check out their previous film, the Oscar nominated Madame Tutli Putli embedded above for your viewing pleasure (and currently available on both the Animation Express Blu-ray and streaming on the NFB’s HD site).
THE CREATORS OF MADAME TUTLI-PUTLI
RETURN WITH THE ADAPTATION OF
HIGGLETY PIGGLETY POP!
OR
THERE MUST BE MORE TO LIFE
Toronto, February 16, 2010 – The National Film Board of Canada and Warner Home Video present a new live-action/animated adaptation of Higglety Pigglety Pop! or There Must Be More to Life based on the book by Maurice Sendak. A film by the creators of the Oscar-nominated short Madame Tutli-Putli, Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski, features the voices of Meryl Streep and Forest Whitaker. Produced by Spike Jonze, Vincent Landay and Marcy Page.
Higglety Pigglety Pop! or There Must Be More to Life will be featured as an exclusive short on the Where the Wild Things Are Warner Home Video Blu-ray out March 2. On February 28, the film will have its world premiere at the Festival International du Film pour Enfants de Montréal (Montreal Children’s International Film Festival) followed by a special presentation with the directors and the puppeteers. The NFB will distribute a DVD scheduled for summer 2010.
Higglety Pigglety Pop! or There Must Be More to Life tells the story of Jennie, who once had everything. She had two bowls to eat from, two pillows, and for cold weather a red wool sweater. She even had a master who loved her. But Jennie didn’t care. In the middle of the night she packed everything she had in a black leather bag with gold buckles and looked out of her favourite window for the last time. Higglety Pigglety Pop! or There Must Be More to Life follows Jennie’s surreal, suspenseful and unexpectedly moving journey to gain new experiences and realize her dream of becoming the star of the World Mother Goose Theatre.
Since 1997 Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski have formed the artistic partnership called Clyde Henry Productions. The pair have created award-winning films, ads, illustrations, comics, and music videos. Their first professional film, Madame Tutli-Putli, produced by Marcy Page for the National Film Board of Canada, received international acclaim – over 50 awards to date, among them the Best Short Film and Rail d’or prizes at the Cannes International Film Festival and an Academy Award Nomination in 2007. Lavis and Szczerbowski are currently working with the NFB and Silo Corporation on a feature film project entitled The White Circus co-produced by Lago Film (Germany) and Apple Film Production (Poland). In 2008 The White Circus was selected for development by the Sundance Film Institute’s screenwriting lab.
Higglety Pigglety Pop! or There Must Be More to Life is produced by the National Film Board of Canada in association with Warner Home Video.
[...] The Maurice Sendak classic, Where the Wild Things Are has been a favourite book in my family for years and years. It became even more special when my sister named her son Max after the title character of the story (I was pushing for Maximus…it was 2000 after all, and Gladiator was a big hit at the time!) It kills me that I missed out on seeing Spike Jonze’s adaptation when it was in theatres last year but I’m excited to finally get a chance to check it out on Blu-ray. I haven’t received my review copy yet so I can’t speak to the quality of the disc itself but I can tell you that this thing is packed with special features, the coolest of which is the NFB produced Higglety Pigglety Pop! or There Must Be More to Life. [...]
[...] most substantive bonus feature on the disc is the Blu-ray exclusive short film, Higglety Pigglety Pop! Or: There Must Be More to Life – a short film based on another of Maurice Sendak’s tales, produced and animated by the [...]