Based off of the 1963 children’s book by Maurice Sendak, “Where the Wild Things Are” takes the audience through the adventures of Max, Max Records, a misinterpreted kid.
After an argument with his mother, Max runs away and finds his self in the land of the Wild Things, which is filled with creatures. Max declares his self the kind of the land and promises everyone will be happy.
After time passing, Max realizes that being kind is harder than he thought.
Directed by Spike Jonze, it was a different film for him, but to be fair, most of his do not really replicate each other.
This book was a great book to make a movie out of. The amount of adventures that the film brings to life from the book is amazing.
Towards the beginning and middle of the film, I thought the film was pretty inspirational for a child. Seeing a kid come in and just say he is king and just act accordingly.
I feel like for a kid watching that would feel empowered to get up and do anything. I think seeing that as opposed to reading the book would leave a kid feel better and more inspired than a book does.
That feeling was quickly shifted after the film progressed. After his promises were unfulfilled and everyone turns on him, it brings down that heroic feeling that one might feel.
I think it is also a good lesson for a kid to live up to some sort of expectations and promises that they give.
The pacing was pretty good for the most part. The buildup to Max going to the land of the Wild Things picked up at the right time. It was starting to feel a little dragged on. It was a good set up, but it was not anything new, but it was still good timing.
Carol being voiced by James Gandolfini was a very interesting choice. Known as the Italian American Mafia crime boss, Tony Soprano, he took a different role for this family friendly movie.
Looking at it from a different perspective, him voicing it kind of went well. The movie had a moderately dark aesthetic. The colors presented were dreary looking for the most part and having Gandolfini come in, well-known for his dark character, was fitting.
The voice was kind of hard to get past though, but to be fair, I can not think of any voice that would have fit those costumes.
I really enjoyed the dark theme in general. The characters were very creepy looking, which probably is not the most appealing to look at for children.
The CGI was alluring. It did not look fake, and the handheld camera really helped make the scenes look more believable. As stated previously, the dull look was admired, and the cinematography had a dystopian type of theme to it.
There was a good connection between the book and the movie and after reading the book, the added content made sense to the story for the most part.
The buildup to Carol finding out that Max was lying was very intriguing. Even though the film was targeted toward children, I was anticipating to see what was going to happen when he found out.
In general, the story line was good for an adult, but I am not sure if it would have been interesting enough for a child. Maybe the characters would have been enough but it did not seem that there was not enough action going on to keep a child interested.
In general, the movie was great. There were not that many faults in it that would have affected the film, I just have some ideas how it may not have been too fascinating for a child.
Rate: 4.5/5
Cam’ron Hardy can be reached at cahardy@eiu.edu or 217-581-2812.
