I have to admit that I've never read the book of "Where the Wild Things are", or if I have, I don't remember reading it. Of course I've heard of the book and I'm very familiar with a lot of the art work and images, but I really couldn't tell you the story inside pages. When I heard that there was going to be a film about this book, I didn't think much about it because I wasn't familiar with the plot. What changed for me was when I first started seeing the trailers for the movie. I really liked what I saw in these brief clips and thought I should check this out and see what it's all about.
Perspective. That's what I feel this movie is about. The perspective of being a kid. Who doesn't remember how different the world looked when we were younger. Not only because we were smaller at that age, but also because of our innocence. My first impression after the movie was that what I saw was not a kid's movie. I know that it's based on a beloved children's book, but the story and movie I saw was geared more towards adults and their memories of childhood. This movie made me think about my own childhood and what it was like growing up. It made me look at the world as I remember it as a kid. Everything always seemed so much bigger when I was younger. I used to love the fact that I was small enough to fit into places that no adult could. One of the greatest parts of this movie is helping us to remember how it felt to be a kid again.
In this movie, Max is a complete brat. Although they never say, it seems that his mother is divorced and raising two kids. Max is the youngest and his sister is at the age of hanging with her friends and dating and being too cool to hang out with her little brother. Max doesn't seem to have many friends either and therefore tries to do anything to get attention from his mother, his sister or his sister's friends. His constant need for attention and getting his way comes to a boiling point when his mother tells him that his behavior is not acceptable and he breaks away from her and runs away. His mother tries to catch him but just can't keep up. So begins his journey to the land of the wild things.
At this point in the story, you would imagine that the kid's part of the movie would begin. Not so. When he meets the wild things, they each seem to deal with some aspect of Max's own behavior and his own inner demons. One is lonely. One is always being ignored. One is used to getting his own way. Yet another just wants to be left alone. Unknowing how to cope with such vastly different personalities, Max must learn to cope with each monster and try to unite them together to face their lives as a united group. They make Max their king and in the process Max actually grows up and realizes how to manage these feelings and emotions himself.
One of the traits of a great movie, is that you leave the theater still thinking about it. The more I think about, the more I can envision the message being conveyed. As the years go by, I do think this will become one of the first true masterpieces of film to come out of the early 21st century. I think the kids will enjoy the movie, especially the parts with the wild things, but adults will understand the deeper meaning and remember just what it was like to be a kid and how we each began our own journey to adulthood and being more than just a kid but an adult who is just a kid at heart.
~A. Renfro
