While looking for the Really Rosie opening on You Tube (after reading about it on Michael Sporn’s animation blog), I found this wonderfully animated version of Maurice Sendak’s In the Night Kitchen. My only complaint is the narration by composer Peter Schiekele, who goes a bit over the top.

Last year during an art history course I was taking I discovered that In the Night Kitchen is a kind of tribute to the amazing illustration and comics of Winsor McKay, most specifically his Little Nemo in Slumberland comics that ran full-page in the Sunday New York Herald from 1905-1911. (McKay was an animator in his own right, pioneering in the medium with his performances on-stage with his animated Gertie the Dinosaur.) As talent borrows and genius steals, Sendak lifted the bed right out of Little Nemo’s bedroom and put it under Mickey at the beginning and end of his story. It’s fun to see the story come to life.

BONUS: Animated Where the Wild Things Are! This seems to be done by the same team who made the In the Night Kitchen animation, but this one works a lot better, imho.

P.S. There is much to update you about, not the least of which is that I am now living in St. Paul, MN, and teaching a class at MCAD while I keep up with various freelance projects and art shows. When the pace slows, I’ll let you know more, dear readers.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 26th, 2007 at 10:55 am and is filed under Animation, Children’s Books, Comics, youtube. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.