- I am increasingly finding that the best kids’ movies these days are the ones that try to think like kids in one way or another. I have a decently well-known dislike for movies that condescend children and movies like this or Pan’s Labyrinth are making great headway in the opposite direction, where the thematic content is structured around the non-linear or unencumbered way kids tend to think and the films talk to kids rather than at or about them. You hear about those depressing scientific studies about how we socially condition infants to think a certain way that we destroy so much potential in their thought processes before their first birthdays. Movies that speak to kids in their own language salvage what little is left of that pre-conditioned behaviour.
- I said this when I saw Pan’s Labyrinth, but the elaborate fantasies kids construct to make sense of the depressing things in their world can be positively soul-destroying sometimes.
- I set a new record for myself by crying during the opening credits when the logos for the distribution companies came up. Seriously. The Warner Brothers logo with horns and a mane of fur doodled on top had me in tears. I am a teensy bit stressed right now, but even I can recognize this is a ridiculous reaction.
- The monsters were FABULOUS. I’m glad that the Jim Henson Muppet Squad™ did the creature costumes; it’s like getting ILM to do your special effects — why go anywhere else? I was also pleasantly surprised by how multi-dimensional the monsters were. You don’t always get non-human characters with much personality, let alone a depth of personality traits in each one. Actually, you rarely get this in human characters either.
- There was an incredibly perceptive kid down the row who was able to pick up on a lot of the parallelism between Max’s real life and Max’s fantasy life. His mom really needed to STFU, though, as she kept chatting with her friend. The only people who should be talking during a movie are young children who don’t know movie etiquette and express their joys and sadnesses verbally to the audience at large.
- Loved the production design. They did a good job of making real-world equivalents of Maurice Sendak’s drawing style, which I thought was wonderful.
- Mark Ruffalo is billed third despite having approximately ten seconds of screen time.
- Max Records is FRIGGIN ADORABLE. I also thought that he was able to really convey that absolutely tragic sense of despair a kid in his situation might have. The scene where his sister’s friends destroy his igloo and hurt him quite badly was really, really upsetting; the crying was so intense it was that kind where you just get mucus and god knows what else in your mouth and you’re completely inconsolable and it just made me want to crawl in a hole and die. I’ve never seen anyone cry on screen like that before.
Also, Max Records is just an awesome name.
- It usually turns out to be a good thing that I see movies like this by myself since the weeping mess I turn into is gross for other people to witness; however, sometimes I just need a hug after.
Where The Wild Things Are
Thanks, movie, for wounding my soul.
IMDB Plot Synopsis An adaptation of Maurice Sendak's classic children's story, where Max, a disobedient little boy sent to bed without his supper, creates his own world — a forest inhabited by ferocious wild creatures that crown Max as their ruler.