The emotionally charged, visually spellbinding and borderline hallucinogenic take on Maurice Sendak’s Where The Wild Things Are is a hit at the box office.
The Halloween season was a perfect time to release this film about a young boy named Max (Max Records) who runs away from home and enters a magical world of wild creatures who crown him their king.
Directed by Spike Jonze, a popular music video director turned film maker, it’s an adaptation of the illustrated book from 1963. Although it was difficult to turn this 40 page book into a 101-minute film, writers Dave Eggers and Sendak devised a storyline that explained Max’s wild behavior as well as his reason for leaving his own world.
The book is about a young boy sent to bed without supper because of his wild behaviour, yet his room transforms into the world of wild beasts. Jonze’s take is one of a troubled boy upset about his parent’s divorce and who feels lonely and rejected. One night, after an argument with his mother (Catherine Keener), he runs away and enters the world of these giant, super-strong ferocious creatures.
Some of the voices behind the furry monsters are recognizable, such as James Gandolfini as Carol, Paul Dano as Alexander, Forest Whitaker as Ira, Catherine O’Hara as Judith and Chris Cooper as Douglas.
Where The Wild Things Are was not created for a younger audience. It’s emotionally complex storyline and dream-like symbolism is too difficult for children to comprehend, and its borderline “creepy” quality would terrify some younger than 13.
Spike Jonze And The World of The Wild Things
Jonze started his career directing music videos such as the Beastie Boy’s famed Sabotage music video where the three rappers play undercover cops from the late 1970’s and Daft Punk’s Da Funk.
Along the way he’s produced other films that have blown the mind and entranced the eye. In 1999 he made Being John Malkovich, about a man who discovers a door to enter actor John Malkovich’s head, and Adaptation in 2002, based on the book by Susan Orlean and starring Nicolas Cage.
The creation of the fantasy world in Where The Wild Things Are is brilliant. Rather than bombarding the audience with a computer-crafted world of imagery – which seems the norm for many modern films focusing on fantasy – Jonze shoots in ordinary forests, fields or deserts.
Furthermore, each of the wild things are real men wearing large furry costumes, giving realism to their look on screen. Computer-generated-imagery or CGI is only used to create their faces and expressions. Instead the production depends more on traditional tricks of puppetry and visual effects.
The Popularity of Where The Wild Things Are
This book has been one of the most recognized and most popular of its genre since its release in 1963. Originally published by Harper and Row, Where The Wild Things Are has sold an estimated 19 million copies and won the 1964 Caldecott Medal as the “Most Distinguished Picture Book of the Year."
Dressed in a wolf costume, young Max shows the petulant anger that resides in every child and the wild things exemplify his inner passion. At the end of the book the boy becomes homesick and returns to his bedroom to find dinner waiting, a resolution to his tantrum.
In the film version of the story, Max and the wild things wrestle one another, have dirt clump wars and sleep in one giant pile of fur and claws – all behaviours that young children show with their friends at the playground or at home.
Many psychologists who study children have said that Where The Wild Things Are is a perfect case study of childhood brooding and anger, the rage that flows to the surface over what adults would consider inconsequential things.
The film version is a thought-provoking look at how family dynamics effect children, and how their feelings manifest in dream form.
MPAA Rating: PG for mild thematic elements, some adventure action and brief language.
Runtime: 101 minutes.
 |
