Last weekend the film adaptation of Judith Viorst’s Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, opened in theaters to mixed reviews. Writer Troy Patterson has a bone to pick with the source material.
Alexander is SUCH A PILL. He’s graceless and ungracious and self-pitying to an entitled extreme. You know, when Mr. Raccoon has a very bad day—in “The Unlucky Day” of Richard Scarry’s Bedtime Stories—when Mr. Raccoon’s bathroom faucet breaks and his car motor explodes and Warty Warthog sticks him with the check at lunch and he goes back home to find that his house has flooded, despite Mr. Fixit’s having been there all day, alone with Mrs. Raccoon—when these misfortunes befall Mr. Raccoon, he remains stoic and takes it all in stride. Meanwhile, Alexander, being a terrible, horrible brat, narrates a tedious catalog of petty gripes.
Was Patterson having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day when he wrote the article, or was he being very clever by writing his very own surly, complaint filled article? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
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