Originally, the wild things were nameless. Maurice Sendak, author of Where the Wild Things Are (1963), told Newsweek he “never wanted them to have names.”
But in the movie, the wild things are called Alexander, Carol (male), Douglas, Ira and Judith. The names were chosen by director Spike Jonze and screenwriter Dave Eggers.
Do you like that the wild things now have names?
What names would you have chosen for them?
Source:
- Setoodeh, Ramin. “Exclusive: A Talk With the ‘Wild Things’ Creators.” Newsweek 8 Oct. 2009.
- Naming the Wild Things – Fritinancy
Image: Portion of the cover of Where the Wild Things Are
Actually, Wikipedia states that the Wild Things have had names for quite a long time:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where_the_Wild_Things_Are
The original concept for the book featured horses instead of monsters. According to Sendak, his publisher suggested the switch when she discovered that he could not draw horses, but thought that he “could at the very least draw ‘a thing’!”[2] He replaced the horses with caricatures of his aunts and uncles, whom he had studied critically in his youth as an escape from their weekly visits to his family’s Brooklyn home.[3] When working on the opera adaptation of the book with Oliver Knussen, Sendak gave the monsters the names of his relatives: Tzippy, Moishe, Bruno, Emile, and Bernard.[4]
The dolls of the book are sold with those same names.
Hi Uly,
Sendak mentioned those names in the Newsweek interview. Here’s the full quote:
I’m not sure Sendak’s right hand knows what his left hand is doing, then, because I’ve definitely seen in stores stuffed animals of the monsters with the Yiddish names attached on tags.
I checked Amazon–you’re right, plush dolls with those names (e.g. Moishe, Bernard) are currently being sold.
Huh. Maybe they aren’t officially licensed toys?
Heh, in my family, they’d be called
Fang
Moose Major
Moose Minor
All Powerful Moose Mother
We’re rather non-creative. :)
I love the original names.
I loved the movie but,
I was so freaking confused!!!
And that was stupid they made new names.
Disappointing.
AND BTW;
I have the Moishe plush doll.
I got it in Books-a-million.
They are licensed.
1. You forgot KW and Daniel
2. In the original book, they are Tzippy, Aaron, Moishe, “Goat Boy”, Bernard, Emile, and Bruno
3. In my book, they are Hunter (KW), Henry (Alexander), Blake (Judith), Connor (Carol), Jay (Douglas), and Sorin (Daniel) and Ira’s not in there