click image to view in full
I saw Where the Wild Things Are in massively lovable IMAX format (totally worth the extra 2 or 3 dollars) on it's opening weekend with a few friends, and boy was that fun. I prepared for the movie a few weeks earlier by finding scans of the book and reading it online for the sake of my enjoyment and edification, of course (something I managed not to tell my friends, because they would be like "WTF, mate?").
I'm not entirely sure if people consider the book a classic, but the story really isn't special at all. Max's mom punishes him for misbehaving, and sends him to his room without dinner. While in his room, he imagines an escape to a land of strange creatures and makes himself their king. He only returns when he realizes just how hungry he is, and that supper is waiting for him. As simple as it gets. What is special is the illustration, and that's something that filmmakers nowadays are more than capable of elaborating, even in lousy movies (the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still readily comes to mind), as long as the budget is big enough. This is a moment where the movie outshines the book, but that really wasn't too difficult due to the book's lack of substance.
Now, back to the film. I loved the depth of personality they gave the individual wild things and how Max developed relationships with them, something that was nonexistent in the book, which averaged about a sentence a page. Also, the movie displays a sense of the island's grandeur that wasn't shown in the book, although readers are free to imagine such things.
I can't really find anything wrong with the movie, except maybe how Max's mom was completely ignoring him when he wanted her to see his fort is his room and gave full attention to her man-friend. If she wants to be on a date, why not hire a babysitter and go out? Instead, this causes Max to run his ass out of the house and into the woods, which leads to his adventure. This is probably the only point where people could possibly bitch about the story detracting from the original. Instead of imagining that his bedroom transforms into a forest, he simply runs into one and sets sail from there. I personally didn't have a problem with that part changing because instead we see Max being caught in a storm at sea and get to wonder how the hell he doesn't end up drowning. This also allowed me to make the picture up above, and by make, I mean downloading the picture from the WtWTA site, editing the title out from another picture, and changing "things" to "waves" by scavenging letters from the rest of the title. Anyway, I don't think I should explain the whole movie or give it an analysis that you could probably find elsewhere and leave the rest for you to discover the kid in you, if you aren't aware of its presence.
