Where The Wild Things Are

Based on the wildly popular illustrated children's book by Maurice Sendak, the live-action film adaptation of Where The Wild Things Are has received extremely mixed reviews from viewers. While film critics are praising Spike Jonze's digression from music videos and television, finally "unleashing his considerable creativity" (Mary Pols, Time Magazine), some viewers aren't entirely pleased with the film's outcome. There is no doubt whatsoever that this movie is completely original and unlike anything Jonze or anybody else has directed before.

The movie features dreamlike landscapes (filmed on the coast of Australia), set in Max's vivid and active imagination, scenes of clever comedy, tear-jerking sadness, anger, nostalgia, and everything related to childhood, but not portrayed to appeal to only children. Many people felt that some themes of the movie were too profound for young children to understand, as well as some scenes much too frightening for a children's movie.

The film starts with a scene right out of the book - Max is bounding down the stairs after the family's dog, clad in his wolf suit, yelling and wielding a fork. His older sister, Claire, doesn't want to play with him and her big-kid friends break his igloo; Max's mother is too busy to come see the fort he made, and Max, like every child does at one time or another, feels ignored. After throwing a tantrum and angering his mother, Max runs away and reaches a pond, where he finds a boat, and sails across the ocean to an island where he meets the Wild Things.

The Wild Things in themselves are a spectacular adaptation of Maurice Sendak's original drawings. Played by puppeteers in nine-foot-high monster costumes, Jonze's characters each have a distinct personality, as well as easy to remember names. If you look back at the drawings in the picture book and compare the anonymous Wild Things to the personified characters in the film, the physical resemblance is obvious. When looking back at the illustrations in the book, I unintentionally picked out Carol and K.W. as well as the rest of the Wild Things from the movie.

Several moments in the movie had me grinning from ear to ear, while others nearly had me in tears. The imagery was breathtaking, the simplicity astounding and the emotional complexity extremely meaningful. The way the land of the Wild Things mirrored the situations and trials of the Max's real world was very well-portrayed, while the unique personalities of the Wild Things reflected people in Max's life, as well as aspects of himself.

With a magnificently fitting indie-rock-esque soundtrack, written by Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, this nostalgic and heartwarming film successfully explores themes of forgiveness, love, family, acceptance and friendship through a child's eyes. I can say, without a doubt, that it is one of the best movies I have seen in a very long time and it is definitely on my list of all-time favorites.

For all the money spent, the film's success is best measured by its simplicity and the purity of its innovation. Jonze has filmed a fantasy as if it were absolutely real, allowing us to see the world as Max sees it, full of beauty and terror. The brilliant songs, by Karen O (of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs) and the Kids, enhance the film's power to pull you in as Max literally hides in the belly of a beast, builds a fort and issues a call to arms: "I know something that always cheers me up - a war." Peter Travers - Rolling Stone