Spike Jonze teamed up with Lance Bangs for this interesting documentary about the man who wrote the book on which Jonze based his excellent live action film, Where The Wild Things Are. Entitled, appropriately enough, Tell Them Anything You Want: A Portrait Of Maurice Sendak, the documentary provides an intimate look into the life and work of one of children's literature's most unusual, though important, luminaries.

Sendak, now in his eighties, has an obsession with death and mortality that does tend to come through in his work and that's a fairly important part of this forty minute examination. Often prone to telling his critics off (and usually in no uncertain terms), Sendak has been a figure of some controversy over the years, some concerned parents feeling that his work is too dark or too scary for young kids. Jonze, while preparing for Where The Wild Things Are, spent a fair bit of time getting to know the author and illustrator of the source material and that's essentially how this documentary came to be. As the movie plays out in front of us, Sendak talks about his personal world views and elaborates on why he feels the way he feels about certain things. Recounting all of the discussions would take away from the picture for those who haven't seen it but let it suffice to say that Sendak has got the 'cranky old man' thing down perfectly and you never once get the impression that he's putting on a show for the camera.

Input from James Gandolfini, Meryl Streep, Catherine Keener, and Tony Kushner offer some insight into the effect that his work has had on people and why it's as appreciated as it is in certain circles but most of the discussion comes from Sendak himself. He speaks about his childhood, about his family life and what it was like growing up in the household he knew before moving on to cover how and why he got into writing and illustrating children's books. Thought certainly not without a very keen sense of humor, there's a certain sense of sadness to Sendak, who talks about how he's never really felt to have found true happiness and how he seems obsessed with his own mortality. He's got an obvious interest in the more unusual side of life, and he makes it perfectly clear that what he finds interesting or even fascinating other's may not, but if you think about that, kids generally lean towards the odd and the bizarre which makes his quirky slant a good fit for his occupation and his art.

Some interesting illustrations and archival photographs are included here in between the interview segments but ultimately this plays almost like a confessional session with the viewer playing the part of the priest. Sendak doesn't ask for our forgiveness or how to make amends for what he's done, but he does spill his guts to a certain extent and it becomes abundantly clear as the documentary progresses just how much of his 'self' is put into his storytelling. While Where The Wild Things Are does, understandably, get a bit more attention than his other films, his Holocaust themed In The Night Kitchen also receives some thorough and very interesting examination. What stands out the most here, however, are the bits where he opens up about his homosexuality, his rather sad childhood where he was raised by parents who saw him as an accident, about his dislike of the children his books are geared towards and other odd, assorted character bits that serve to flesh out the man behind the work and provide, as the title suggests, a true portrait, albeit in video form.

Video:

Tell Them Anything You Want looks very good in this 1.78.1 anamorphic widescreen presentation. Colors are well defined, skin tones look lifelike and natural and black levels are pretty stable and generally quite strong. There aren't any problems with mpeg compression artifacts to complain about nor is there any edge enhancement. Some periodic shimmering and aliasing is present and noticeable along diagonal lines but it's minor and never particularly distracting. Detail, while not exactly revelatory, is also decent enough while contrast looks to be properly set. This is pretty much a problem free transfer.