I do look forward to seeing the movie, although I may wait for it to emerge on the video rental shelves.  I may try to see it sooner if my 10 yr old granddaughter will want to see it.  She is the youngest of the group now, and I don't know if she'll have an interest.  If they messed with the story line it might be because the book mostly targeted the pre-school group and they felt the need to 'zip it up'  bit. 

Have you noticed that many of the films for children sneak in adult stuff that goes over the kid's heads?  I guess the producers figure that many kids go to the movie theatre with their parents, so they stick something in for them to laugh at.

I do hope you get a chance to look at the book, it's a wonderful story!

I plan on looking for the book since I do not recall having seen or read it before.

A big part of my life was daydreaming. That part I understand. Television was just getting started when I was a child and we did not own one until I was a teenager. Most of my life was spent living on the edge of town, kinda between town and the country. We had raccoons as pets, I had a rabbit, we owned hunting dogs and later on I had a goat, chickens, ducks.  Cows, pigs and horses were owned and kept all around us. We also had cats. I spent a lot of time walking and roaming in the woods.

This movie did bring back a lot of memories but that doesn't make it a great movie but then thats just my opinion.

As for a movie for children, maybe you need to go see the movie and see if you think they turned the book into a good children's movie.

The movie is for children!  The book is wonderful and I have read it to young children many times.  I think I would have to get the opinion of a child to know what the movie was really like. 

Knowing the liberties that Hollywood takes with adapted films, I can only guess at the discrepancies in the movie.  The ending, from what you describe, does not fit the one in the book.  The one thing that impressed me in the trailers I've seen is the fantastic appearance of the 'monsters'......... looking just the way they appear in the book!

I'm sorry you were so disappointed.  Perhaps you can go to the library and pick up the book and read it right there.  It's not a long story, and maybe you will see some of the magic and the message that the children love!

I was disappointed that the reviews weren't better, for this popular Maurice Sendak children's story, but I guess the reviews match your experience. "Box office" is often only a measure of a successful ad campaign, and how good or bad the other movies are, that come out about the same time!