The Pelican’s Perch

Where the Wild Things Are
Directed by: Spike Jonez
Perch Score: 8.899/10

It goes without saying that I was more than excited to finally see Spike Jonez’ film adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are.  All the controversy with the studios and that whole backstory was almost old news to me by this point, and I was just ready to see the movie at last.  So, what did I think?  It’s a mixed bag of thoughts honestly, but after sitting on my thoughts for a couple of days, I think the good far outweighs the bad.

This film is weird.  I’ll get that out of the way first and foremost.  And I was surrounded by kids who were visably scared and either crying, or definitely wanting to get the heck out of the theatre.  The Wild Things are Max’s creations in his imagination, and from the first couple of scenes, I could tell this wasn’t your typical children’s story.  The real life scenes were dark, and add monsters that basically represent the people and emotions surrounding Max in his everyday life, and we’re left with a great portrayal of the array of human emotions, from lonliness to joy, and how we treat each other every day, which isn’t great most times.

I was wondering how they would transistion from real life to Max’s imagination, but it was done pretty seemlessly, and since I went into this knowing it was Spike Jonez and that it would be strange, the transition to the land of the Wild Things seemed to work just fine.  Once on the island, that’s when Jonez goes to work.  The intial scene where he first meets the Wild Things is pretty funny as Max scrambles to come up with something to say to keep them from eating him, and eventually convinces them he was a king where he came from before, and they decide he should be their king to solve all their problems.  Among them being lonliness, jealousy, fear, and depression.

I won’t mention much more about the plot, even though most of you have read the book and know what happens, but I’ll just say the other stand-outs besides the morals that are so well presented throughout, are the creature designs.  I’ve told most of my friends to see the film for the creature design, then for the message, then finally for the plot.  That’s how neat it was to see the Wild Things on the big screen.  The trailers really don’t do justice to how well done Carol, Ira, Douglas, Judith, and the rest of the Wild Things are.  I’m curious to see the behind the scenes features on the dvd talking about what went into creating these elaborate monster costumes.  As huge as they were, I had no trouble believing they were real living, breathing creatures, and that’s a testament to the great job done by Jonez and crew.

If you’re still on the fence whether or not to see this in theatres, I say definitely go see it.  I personally won’t see it again in the theatres, and won’t be in line to buy the dvd the first day it comes out, but as a unique experience, this movie takes the cake and should be experienced by everyone at least once.  If you’ve got kids, I’d just use your own judgement to how they’ve reacted to past movies.  The only really scary parts are when Carol gets mad and chases Max around angrily trying to eat him.  That probably would’ve scared me as a little kid, but there were still plenty of kids around me who were glued to the screen wanting to see more.

Where the Wild Things Are is one of the most unique movies we’ve been given this year, and that alone should be reason enough for you to see it.  Plus, we’ve all read the book and I can’t imagine it being pulled off any better on the big screen than this.  I’ve seen a lot of great movies so far this year, and I can’t say anything I’ve seen even comes close to being this original, both visually and emotionally.  Go see it.  You won’t regret it.