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I'm Stephen Metcalf, and this is the Slate Culture Gab Fest I'll Eat You Up edition.

This is also the daily podcast from slate.com for Wednesday, October 14th, 2009.

On today's program, we're going to talk about where the wild things are from Spike Jones, skewering Obama, is it finally time, and obesity in America, for which I should say will be joined by Daniel Engber, senior editor of Slate.com, who's been writing about the subject lately. Joining me today are Slate's deputy editor, Julia Turner. Hello, Julia. Hi, Steve.

And our film critic, Dana Stevens. Hey, Dana.

Dana, you're the film critic. I'll start with you. We went and all saw this movie together,

a little culture gab fest field trip. What did you make of Spike Jones's interpretation of a classic

American children's book.

Let's see.

How can I approach this?

Well, I will say that I went in with very exceedingly low expectations for the movie.

So in some respects, those expectations, I guess, were exceeded, but that's not to say that I liked it.

I think the fundamental question for me is how always been, why does this movie need to exist? Why does Maurice Sondack's, what, 20-page book need to be fleshed out into a two-hour movie? And this movie did not in any way earn the right to exist, as far as I'm concerned. At the same time, I was sitting next to you in the screening, I shall say, and I could gauge the waves of hatred coming off my left side, sort of searing the left side of my body.

So I think that you hated it more than I did.

I think I probably did.

We'll get to my waves of hatred, but I love this needle that just got threaded to add another metaphor to the fire here.

That something can exceed your expectations and yet not earn the right to exist, Dana.

I feel as though you give me that look about once every gap fest.

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