Where the Wild Things Are

In an homage to the original book that served as the basis for this movie, I will make this post nine sentences long. No, seriously, they made a 101-minute movie out of a nine-sentence kids' book. Spike Jonze is one of my favorite directors and the minute I heard that he was attached to this film adaptation, and that Dave Eggers was the writer, I knew it was one that I wanted to see. The most important distinction to make about the movie, as expressed by Jonze himself, is that this is not a movie "for children," but rather a movie "about childhood." I thought the character design for the Wild Things was utterly fantastic and I also loved the portrayal of Max as a lonely and fantastically imaginative rascal who acts out of line at home only out of a desperation for attention. The Wild Things - who are never explicitly implied to be extensions of Max's imagination - personified a lot of the emotions, thoughts, and fears that Max had. Jonze and Eggers were very effective in exposing and exploring childhood themes such as innocence, confusion, and frustration. A criticism I have is that the flow of the story was a bit abrupt and jagged at times, but I suppose that since most of it took place in Max's wild imagination, that only makes sense. All in all, I think this is a great expansion of the world and story first told and illustrated by Maurice Sendak way back in 1963.