An associate of Jonze had been impressed by Lavis and Szczerbowski's previous work, the animated short
Madame Tutli-Putli and suggested to the director that they would be suitable to create a short companion piece for the
Blu-ray release of
Where the Wild Things Are. Jonze contacted the animators while he was in France promoting
Synecdoche, New York and the two met after, with Jonze proposing that they create a film based on some other short story by Sendak. Unfamiliar with Sendak's work, the filmmakers researched his work and settled on
Higglety Pigglety Pop! as their choice to adapt. The film is set in 17 different locations, with a total of 25
scenes. With just 10 months to create the entire film, the filmmakers could not use
stop-motion or any of their traditional animation techniques. They decided instead to primarily make use of
puppetry, combined with some stop-motion. Meryl Streep, who voiced Jennie, was not yet cast when shooting had begun. Sendak provided Lavis and Szczerbowski with an old recording of Streep reading the book, doing all the voices, and the filmmakers were impressed. They approached her with the part and she agreed. ==Release==