Where The Wilds Things Are, originally published by Maurice Sendak in 1963, has recently been adapted from the mere 10-sentence children’s book into a feature film.
Most UCF students are probably familiar with the story. For those who aren’t, it follows Max, a young and adventurous boy who is known worldwide for his antics and his wolf costume. When Max is sent to his room for misbehaving, it is transformed into an unknown forest where he meets the Wild Things. They subsequently make him their king. Despite this achievement, Max begins to miss his family and decides to return home where he finds his dinner still waiting for him.
Spike Jonze, most recognized for directing “Being John Malkovich,” does an incredible job seamlessly transforming the small book to film. If you plan on seeing this movie, you should know upfront that this is not a children’s film, but rather a film about childhood.
The film opens with Max, played by young actor Max Records, encompassing the fearlessness and innocence of youth as he wages a snowball war on his sister and her friends. It soon becomes apparent that Max feels overlooked by his sister and mother, played by the talented Catherine Keener. After throwing a wild tantrum, Max runs away from his home and into a mysterious place in his imagination. He soon arrives on an island where he meets the Wild Things. After convincing them not to eat him, the Wild Things declare Max their king and set off on a joyous celebration.
Max quickly forms a relationship with Carol, voiced by Soprano’s star James Gandolfini, who helps Max settle and become acquainted with the other Wild Things. Eventually the they realize that Max does not posses magical powers and that he was never a king before meeting them. With this, Max knows that his time with them is over and that he has to return home to his family.
Carol and KW, played by Lauren Ambrose, often try to mentor and take care of Max during his stay. Qualities of Max’s mother can be found often in their attention to his needs. Their inability to ever truly be pleased with each other also hints at the divorce of Max’s parents. Max uses the place where the Wild Things reside to escape the frustration and anger of his real life. Much to his dismay, he finds that he cannot escape conflict, something we all inevitably realized throughout our own childhood experiences. Seeing the world through Max’s eyes, however, makes this notion easier to deal with.
To round out this exceptional film is the soundtrack done by Yeah Yeah Yeah’s singer, Karen O. The soundtrack is truly beautiful and carries each scene effortlessly into the next.
So if you were a fan of this book as a child, or perhaps would like to see a story take you back to your childhood days and memories, definitely see Where the Wild Things Are.
