So, the obvious question: Could a book with less than ten sentences translate well into a feature film?
It could, indeed.
Spike Jonze’s adaptation of the beloved children’s book Where the Wild Things Are, written and illustrated by Maurice Sendak, gives you everything you could ever want out of an adaptation, and far, far more. The only tragedy, though, is that the movie does not really play well to a younger audience. In fact, there are a lot of themes in the film that a child’s mind just can’t quite grasp. Well, perhaps that’s stated wrong. A child could very well understand the point to the film, it’s just that the film plays its themes fairly subtle for a young mind to try and understand without first becoming bored and losing interest. Here is a movie that is so much about the sheer frustration of childhood yet it seems only an adult can fully appreciate.
The film begins with the introduction of our hero, Max. Max just wants to play and have fun and be a kid. But being a kid isn’t as easy as you or I may remember. “Go play with your friends,” Max’s sister yells to him. From the look on his face we infer that Max probably doesn’t have any real friends. Instead he resorts to building himself an igloo and, when his sister’s friends go to leave the house, instigating a snowball fight. As Max learns, though, playing with much older kids has its consequences — namely them plowing into his beloved igloo, destroying it, and then not even apologizing! To the teenagers it’s all fun and games; to Max it’s earth shattering. Like any child who just can’t understand, he throws a tantrum and soon gets into a heated spat with his mother, at which point a still very confused Max runs away and disappears into his own imagination.
Enter the Wild Things. Max becomes their King and, finally having the friends he’s always wanted, sets out to have as much fun as possible. Eventually, though, the film’s central theme begins to resonate: You can’t run away from your problems. Everything starts out well for Max and the Wild Things but soon Max’s world begins to spin its own web of reality. Each Wild Thing has it’s own unique personality and as the story progresses the fun-filled world that Max had hoped for becomes less and less glossy. The Wild Things aren’t just one-dimensional playmates, no, they’re each a whole character and as such they each have something that they desire. And so Max is back at square one: he can’t control the Wild Things anymore than he could control the teenagers. He must therefore make the difficult decision of growing up and taking responsibility for his problems.
There were also many aspects of the actual story that I loved as well. For instance the character of Carol is the Wild Thing parallel to Max’s own character. All the frustrations we see in Max in the beginning of the film reappear later with Carol. It’s no surprise, then, that Carol’s former lover, KW, takes an instant liking to Max since he seems to be everything she used to like about Carol. But I digress.
The movie is a small masterpiece in my opinion — great direction, beautiful cinematography, all laced together with a sweet story and brilliant special effects. It’s a film that’s definitely worth seeing in theatres (and a film I’d definitely like to see again). Just remember, parents, if you’re taking your kids to see this movie, it is far more likely you’ll enjoy it than they will… but they’ll get there one day.
Just don’t forget to read them the book.