I remember fondly reading this book in second grade. A children's book detailing a young boy's very bad day, fraught with misfortune and rotten luck. And, like most popular books, it was eventually adapted into a cartoon, and then, many years later, Disney somehow saw the potential in turning it into a full-length feature film. I have no idea why, because it's a short story and those don't make good feature length films. I mean, look what happens every time some company tries making a movie about the Grinch. As far as the animated short adaptation for Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, we watched it in the second grade, and right away I saw many of the liberties that were taken from the source material, though nothing damaging that took away from the story, unlike that godawful Disney movie. How does the cartoon differ from the book, and what did they get right? Well, it's interesting to note that they made it a musical for some reason, as characters break into song a few times, such as in the beginning, everybody gets out of bed singing, all except Alexander, of course. I wonder, do they perform this number EVERY morning, or was this just a very good day for them... and inversely a terrible one for Alexander? Well, when he finally wakes up at the conclusion of his family's song, he talks about going to sleep with gum in his mouth (always a good idea) and woke up with it in his hair, you know how the story goes. Also, for some reason they added a subplot about Alexander having lost a yo-yo, it's purple and glows in the dark. Always struck me as weird, but I know they did it for a reason, which I'll get into later. At the breakfast table, his brothers Anthony and Nick find prizes in their cereal boxes, but all little Alex finds is breakfast cereal. Bummer. Then he begins his catchphrase of wanting to move to Australia. Why? Are their cereal prizes better? Next in the carpool, Alexander complains about having to sit in the middle, and at least they upgraded Mrs. Gibson's car to something a bit larger, as in the book it was a VW Bug, so I didn't blame him for feeling squashed, and at least his brother has to sit in the middle too. But seriously, Mrs. Gibson, if you're driving the carpool, get a bigger car. But maybe he'll have a better day at school. No such luck, but then again, maybe he brings it on himself. What do I mean? Well, in art class, the teacher loves Paul's picture of a sailboat, but balks at Alexander's invisible castle. Yes, I'm serious, he claimed to have drawn an invisible castle. Come on, Alexander, you weren't even trying! Doesn't think much of his teacher, does he? But then, he's only 7. At counting, he skips the number 16 (ironically, my second grade room number) and he does lousy at singing, and I love how as the teacher gives him the Simon Cowell treatment over his singing, she doesn't tell the other kids to stop teasing him. I mean, the little snots were laughing at him even as he went before the class. Cut the kid a break.
The rest of the school day doesn't go much better, as the other kids are dicks to him, and at lunch time, guess whose mother forgot to pack dessert? Alexander is then informed that Paul demoted him to his third best friend. You remember that first/second/third best friend stuff from school? Yeah, well, in response, Alexander hopes Paul's ice cream falls off the cone and lands in Australia. Yeah, that's telling him, dude. Oh, and guess who has a dental appointment after school? You guessed it. The other kids tease him about it, though I'm sure their little bratty butts will be in the dentist's chair soon enough. The long and short of the dental appointment is that Alexander has a cavity... how? His mother doesn't even pack him a dessert. Once that was over, Alexander and his brothers get in a fight outside, and then they launch into a musical number about wanting to be an only child, but then realize that they're perfectly happy being brothers. Catchy song, but not much baring on the plot, except that Anthony and Nick are nicer to Alexander from hereon out, so I guess that's ONE good thing that happened. Then they go to the shoe store, where of course they don't have the sneaker Alexander wanted and he had to settle for plain old white. "They can make me buy'em, but they can't make me wear'em." Oh yes, they can. Next, they go to Dad's office, where Alexander messes with his copy machine and somehow manages to call Australia. After that, Dad tells him not to pick him up anymore. Well, I can't say I blame Dad, as he's got a hard job working as an office drone, having the boss breath down his neck, trying to avoid the advances made by his hot secretary, and provide for three kids and send them to college, and then his youngest son messes with his equipment and runs up the company phone bill. At least, that's how I see it anyway. Afterwards, Alexander goes home and sums up the latter portion of his day, but it just amounts to a very long stream of complaints, he hates lima beans, he hates kissing on TV, his bath water was too hot, he had to wear his railroad train pajamas, which he hates... good lord, First World Problems thy name is Alexander. Also, the cat doesn't want to sleep with him... yeah, he had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, and even sings about it. His mother assures him that some days are like that... even in Australia. But fortunately, we can give Alexander a happy ending, because guess what he found? His yo-yo! That and the cat changes its mind and sleeps with him.
And so ends Alexander and the..... very bad day. As an animated adaptation, it's not bad. The animation is a little weird and lagging in some places, and the songs, while catchy, were not really needed. That's Danny Tamberelli doing the voice of Alexander, and you may remember him as the voice of Arnold on The Magic School Bus, and he later played Jimmy De Santa in Grand Theft Auto V. Talk about bad luck, it was as if this kid was cursed, and I do believe a curse is what the horrible 2014 Disney film works into its plotline, where the WHOLE family has a terrible day, not just Alexander. So... why call it that if it isn't ONLY Alexander having the terrible day? I guess Steve Carrel must have really needed the money. Were The Office residuals not enough to pay the bills? How could Judith Viorst license her story for that kind of a film? I'm glad Judy Blume is protective of her work, otherwise I'm sure Disney would've tried making a full length feature of Freckle Juice. A good book, but NOT a contender for a 90 minute film. Not every book needs a live-action film adaptation! But enough about that version, if you want to see Alexander adapted to the screen, stick to the small screen and give this HBO animated short a try, and I definitely recommend the book too, as it's ending is more bittersweet, saying "some days are like that", which is absolutely true.
The rest of the school day doesn't go much better, as the other kids are dicks to him, and at lunch time, guess whose mother forgot to pack dessert? Alexander is then informed that Paul demoted him to his third best friend. You remember that first/second/third best friend stuff from school? Yeah, well, in response, Alexander hopes Paul's ice cream falls off the cone and lands in Australia. Yeah, that's telling him, dude. Oh, and guess who has a dental appointment after school? You guessed it. The other kids tease him about it, though I'm sure their little bratty butts will be in the dentist's chair soon enough. The long and short of the dental appointment is that Alexander has a cavity... how? His mother doesn't even pack him a dessert. Once that was over, Alexander and his brothers get in a fight outside, and then they launch into a musical number about wanting to be an only child, but then realize that they're perfectly happy being brothers. Catchy song, but not much baring on the plot, except that Anthony and Nick are nicer to Alexander from hereon out, so I guess that's ONE good thing that happened. Then they go to the shoe store, where of course they don't have the sneaker Alexander wanted and he had to settle for plain old white. "They can make me buy'em, but they can't make me wear'em." Oh yes, they can. Next, they go to Dad's office, where Alexander messes with his copy machine and somehow manages to call Australia. After that, Dad tells him not to pick him up anymore. Well, I can't say I blame Dad, as he's got a hard job working as an office drone, having the boss breath down his neck, trying to avoid the advances made by his hot secretary, and provide for three kids and send them to college, and then his youngest son messes with his equipment and runs up the company phone bill. At least, that's how I see it anyway. Afterwards, Alexander goes home and sums up the latter portion of his day, but it just amounts to a very long stream of complaints, he hates lima beans, he hates kissing on TV, his bath water was too hot, he had to wear his railroad train pajamas, which he hates... good lord, First World Problems thy name is Alexander. Also, the cat doesn't want to sleep with him... yeah, he had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, and even sings about it. His mother assures him that some days are like that... even in Australia. But fortunately, we can give Alexander a happy ending, because guess what he found? His yo-yo! That and the cat changes its mind and sleeps with him.
And so ends Alexander and the..... very bad day. As an animated adaptation, it's not bad. The animation is a little weird and lagging in some places, and the songs, while catchy, were not really needed. That's Danny Tamberelli doing the voice of Alexander, and you may remember him as the voice of Arnold on The Magic School Bus, and he later played Jimmy De Santa in Grand Theft Auto V. Talk about bad luck, it was as if this kid was cursed, and I do believe a curse is what the horrible 2014 Disney film works into its plotline, where the WHOLE family has a terrible day, not just Alexander. So... why call it that if it isn't ONLY Alexander having the terrible day? I guess Steve Carrel must have really needed the money. Were The Office residuals not enough to pay the bills? How could Judith Viorst license her story for that kind of a film? I'm glad Judy Blume is protective of her work, otherwise I'm sure Disney would've tried making a full length feature of Freckle Juice. A good book, but NOT a contender for a 90 minute film. Not every book needs a live-action film adaptation! But enough about that version, if you want to see Alexander adapted to the screen, stick to the small screen and give this HBO animated short a try, and I definitely recommend the book too, as it's ending is more bittersweet, saying "some days are like that", which is absolutely true.
