Where are the wild things? The M&C offices? I’ll admit that when the review stack piles up I react much as the young protagonist of the movie (growling, biting, and screaming).
Director Spike Jonze takes the Maurice Sendak picture book and transforms it into a thoughtful film that may be more adult than usual fare.
Max (Max Records) is a child with some behavioral issues. One day he has built a snow fort and one of his older sister Claire’s (Pepita Emmerichs) friends accidentally crushes it with Max inside.
The older boy asks if Max is okay before going off with Claire and her friends. Claire appears to say nothing to her friends about Max’s perceived slight so Max goes up to her room and goes on a rampage.
Connie (Catherine Keener), Max’s mom, arrives and is shocked to see Claire’s room torn up, but she helps the apologetic lad clean up the mess. Later in the evening, Connie has her boyfriend (Mark Ruffalo) over for dinner. Max asks his mother to come and see the fort he’s built in his room but she’s more interested in her boyfriend. Max dresses up in his wolf costume and demands that his mother feed him like an animal.
When she get upset, Max growls and ends up biting her. Both are shocked and Max decides to run away. He goes through their neighborhood and ends up finding a small boat moored to the seaside. He gets in and is transported across the ocean to an island inhabited by wild things.
The critters include the hotheaded Carol (voiced by James Gandolfini), couple Ira (Forest Whitaker) and Judith (Catherine O’Hara), goatish Alexander (Paul Dano), peaceful bird creature Douglas (Chris Cooper), independent K.W. (Lauren Ambrose), and the near silent Bernard the Bull (Michael Berry Jr.).
They seem animalistic at first and are possibly going to eat Max, but he convinces them to crown him their king. He finds that this fantasy-land may have more in common with the land from which he came though.
Sometimes taking a simple story and adding to it equals a feeling of stretching. I really can’t say that about Where the Wild Things Are (I can say that about The Box) since Sendak’s book is the barest of skeletons as far as plot goes. Director Jonze does add some meat to the bones and it’s helped along by some excellent special effects.
Max is a bit of a pill and his tantrums made me wonder why mother didn’t get some Ritalin for him immediately (such wasn’t around when Sendak wrote his book or it may have ended on page two). His tantrums are not exactly pretty and parents everywhere will be cringing. So he runs away to somewhere where he’ll be better understood (the fantasy of many a child).
Where he goes is a monster inhabited island. This island has friendly monsters though (again, if not the book would’ve ended on page three) who appoint Max their king. He seems to bond with the temper tantrum throwing (sound familiar?) Carol, but Carol also shows some jealousy over that friendship.
Jonze has made a film about childhood, but he’s not making a children’s film. So much of the interaction with the creatures may go over the young-un’s heads. There are some acts of violence, such as Carol tearing up the monster’s houses, and some of that might frighten some kids.
Jonze’s film is sure to polarize, but I happened to enjoy it (but could see some of the points haters may have made – although admittedly Ponyo was the hit of the evening).
It’s a more thinking picture, but one thing has to be said and that’s Jim Henson’s Creature Shop does an amazing job with the Wild Things. It seems they literally stepped out of Sendak’s book and onto the movie screen.
Where the Wild Things Are is presented in a 1080p high definition transfer (2.40:1). Special features are presented in high definition. The first special feature is a 24 minute animated adaptation of Sendak’s “Higglety Pigglety Pop!” that features Meryl Streep. Next is the 13 minute “HBO First Look.” The 3 minute “Maurice and Spike” has the author and director discussing the book. The 7 minute “Max and Spike” has the fledgling actor’s development on the project.
The 7 minute “The Records Family” focuses on Max’s refreshingly non-Hollywood family. The 5 minute “Carter Burwell” is an interview with the film’s composer. The 6 minute “Absurd Difficulty of Filming a Dog” is a humorous short about just that. The 3 minute “Big Prank is about an onset prank.
The 5 minute “The Kids Take over the Picture” has the cast and crew brings their kids on set. The 1 minute “Vampire Attack” has Jonze vamping out to scare Max. Disc two is a DVD copy of the film as well as a digital copy.
Where the Wild Things Are is a film you’re either going to love or hate. Sendak’s simple, beloved book has been expanded by Jonze and the results may go over some kid’s head. In fact, adults might find more to the themes than their kids who were probably expecting something complete different (mine lost interest).
In less sure Hollywood hands you just know that some idiot would’ve put the song “Wild Thing” on the soundtrack. I found those themes intriguing, but everyone can completely agree that Jim Henson’s Creature Shop is still getting top marks. I think the film will become more highly regarded as time goes on (and kids who watched it now watch it as they age).
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