Where The Wild Things Are

Taking a book that is some ten lines long and turning it into a 90 minute movie is a challenge. Having that book be beloved by millions makes it doubly difficult. In most respects, Spike Jonze has succeeded.

In the book, Max is mischievously bad. He acts up and his mother sends him to bed without dinner. There, his imagination takes over and he "sails" to a land of the Wild Things where he is soon crowned King and leads them in a wild rumpus. However, he soon grows lonely and homesick and "returns" from that land to his bedroom to find that his mother has set out his dinner, still hot. Basically, it shows that, even if his mother has to punish him for being bad, she always loves him.

In the movie, Max comes from a family of divorce, whose father is absent, sister ignores him and wants to be with kids her own age, and whose mother is overworked and stressed out. He acts out in ways that are not mischievous; he directly opposes his mother and physically attacks her, biting her hard on the shoulder (assault), and speaking out at her in despicable ways. He then actually runs away from the house and throws a temper tantrum in the woods. He finds a small sailboat, boards it, and sails away in the dead of night. At no time is this shown to be a figurative adventure; it appears to the audience that this small boy actually sails away and is on the boat at least all that night and well into the next day.

He lands on an island where he finds strange creatures. He soon lies his way into being their king, and then leads them on a wild rumpus that involves many dangerous and violent escapades. At first the Wild Things are happy and enjoy his leadership, as they come together as a group and are having fun without reservation. Soon, however, his antics start causing rifts between the Wild Things and they stop trusting his opinions. Carroll, his closest friend among the Wild Things, finally goes ape and chases him with the intent to eat him. Max escapes and decides he must go home again, as he is lonely and misses his mom. The other Wild Things help him leave and Carroll comes to his senses and says goodbye too.

Max arrives back at the same dock he left at night and runs home, to find his mom waiting up for him. She hugs him tight, makes him dinner, and falls asleep watching him eat.

My biggest areas of praise for the movie are:

• It does not talk down to children in any way. It presents the story straight, without platitudes or overly obvious metaphors and allows children to make up their own minds about it.
• The music and pacing seemed spot on.
• The use of actual puppets rather than CGI was a great choice. It made everything more real and allowed the child to actually "make eye contact" and be "there" with the creatures. Too often directors rely on CGI when a puppet or a person in some sort of costume would be a better choice.
• The dialog was spot on and felt like what a child would say. It didn't feel forced or phony.
• The action was believable.
• The male lead, Max Record, was exceptionally believable in the role of Max.
• The Wild Things accurately represent various aspects of Max's personality and life at home, and he learns valuable lessons by interacting with them.
  

My areas of complaint are:

• There is NEVER a time in a movie or a TV show that shaky-cam is viable. Making your audience sick to its stomach and headachy is never a wise or smart choice. And otherwise excellent movies (like this one, or any of the Bourne movies, for example) can be graded down a notch because of it.
• My wife pointed this one out to me: The main character and plot are very male-centric. Girls/females may not "get" everything about it, as they aren't as into building forts, telling stories, and adversarial play.
• The child in the movie should be spanked and possibly sent to juvenile hall for his actions. The fact that he is so bad to his mother and then she apparently completely forgives him because he ran away and came back may send the wrong message to children who miss the message of Max's time with the Wild Things... all they may learn is that you can be a horrible felonious child, run away to avoid punishment for your actions, and all will be forgiven when you return. It would have been nice to show Max accepting responsibility for his actions (which he did with the Wild Things but never does with his family).
• It is not clear whether Max's time with the Wild Things is a flight of fantasy or if he really ran away and was gone for a few days. This was much clearer in the book and should have been as clear in the movie to help children more fully understand what is going on.
  

Spike Jonze has taken Maurice Sendak's much-beloved classic children's book and turned it into a film that may become a classic children's movie. It is finely crafted and beautifully adapted. It does not speak down to its audience. Its deficiencies are in the use of shaky-cam and the fact that boy is too bad to just be forgiven by his mother. Without an adult there to discuss the film and explain a few of the finer points, some children may come away with the wrong message.

All in all, this movie would get a solid A grade, but the shaky-cam use knocks that down to an A- and the lack of clarity on the final message of the film further knocks it down to a B+. Still, well worth a watch by both parents and children, especially as a tool to spark conversation on the merits of what Max did and what he learned.