HuffPost Review: Where the Wild Things Are: The IMAX Experience

Where the Wild Things Are: The IMAX Experience
2009
100 minutes
Rated PG

It is often said that The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is a children's novel that adults can enjoy, while The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is an adult novel that children can enjoy. This statement in itself constitutes a form of elitism. Just because Huck Finn is a better, richer novel than Tom Sawyer, it must be presumed that the second story must not have been truly intended for children. This idea rears its ugly head in the discussion of family films as well, as poorly made family films are often labeled 'just for kids', while superior family entertainment is often accused of being secretly made for adults. The very idea of high-quality entertainment that is specifically directed at children seems to be some kind of oxymoron in the critical community. I have no idea for whom Spike Jonze crafted Where the Wild Things Are, but the film is a very much a high-quality children's movie.

A token amount of plot: Coping with his parents' divorce and having few friends, Max (Max Records) has taken to dealing with his pain by acting out in a somewhat animalistic fashion. After an argument with his mother (Katherine Keener), Max runs away and sails off to another land, a truly wild place where the animal inhabitants decide to make Max their king. But Max quickly realizes that being a ruler of such an untamed world may be more complicated that he realized.

Technically, the film is a glorious achievement. More or less eschewing CGI, director Spike Jonze creates his fantasy creatures the old-fashioned way, with puppeteers in costumes and animatronics. By having real costumes and thus the illusion of real monsters, the film reminds the viewer how much more powerful an image is when you can actually believe your own eyes. While the vocals are provided by name actors, the most emotional moments often come from the silent facial work of the 'wild things,' a staggeringly lifelike effect that makes the viewer forget that they are watching special effects and allows them to simply marvel at the performances of these non-existent creatures. Needless to say, the both gritty cinema vérité shooting and editing style and glorious fantastical compositions look even more striking in the IMAX format, where this world literally envelops you in its dreamlike haze.

Visual wonderment aside, the film does suffer a bit in the second act. Once the fantasy world is solidly introduced, we do little but wait for the third-act conflicts to raise their ugly heads. But the lack of incident in the second act sets you up for the genuinely powerful conclusion. The emotions in this film are shockingly raw for a children's adventure story, and there is a certain primal fury lurking just underneath the surface. So while children may be upset by the emotional violence at play in this story, the film will surely play as a healthy outlet for youthful frustration, as well as a cornerstone for any number of discussions about the burden of childhood and the complications in the 'real world'. The finale is both uplifting and heartbreaking, I was sincerely moved.

I have not read the original Maurice Sendak book in twenty-years, so I cannot say how faithfully his vision was executed. But the film is a stirring and often powerful meditation on the painful process of growing up. The film quickly becomes a skewered variation on The Wizard of Oz, where the hero learns to both appreciate what he has in the real world and sympathize with those entrusted with his care. The creatures that Max meets are not literal fantasy translations of the people in his life, but the problems that they are dealing strike a chord with the young adventurer. With the roles reversed and Max now burdened with being the emotional caregiver, he realizes the difficulty of being all things to all creatures. At its core, Where the Wild Things Are is a story of a young boy who takes a first step towards manhood by learning empathy.

While the picture deals with issues that are somewhat unusual for a would-be family film, it is absolutely appropriate for children. Spike Jonze has crafted a fable that resembles a childhood daydream, but with the messy complications of human existence. It is serious without being dark, it is moving without being a downer. It is a flawed but compelling adventure parable that is occasionally magical. Where the Wild Things Are is a fine film, no matter how we choose to classify it.

Grade: 4/5

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Comments

[bmull]

When we saw the movie, wich I would compare to a moderately bad acid trip, there were bored kids running through the theater aisles. My wife said this is a movie for adults who are reprocessing their childhood and I think that's about right. This movie has been done before, and better, in the form of the Boards of Canada album, "Music has the right to children"

[ChelseaC]

I have not seen this movie yet but I LOVE the IMAX experience. I have been to IMAX in Washington, DC and Louisville, KY (my favorite)--I highly recommend taking family and/or friends.

[rosemacaskie]

I started whatching childrens films when i had children, or re-whatching and i was suprised by how much more content they have than most grown up ones. The film and tv. series, industry seems to have some idea of being responsible for children, while it only produces a series of car chases, fights explosions and romances for adults.
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Lots of adults discourage niceness in their children except to parents, themselves, so the real problem is children who have been taught to be hard rather than children who can't sympathise. Some parents want winners rather than kind people in their children. Not to recognise this is to make a mistake when you deal with the unkind, it is not so much that they are unfeeling as that they have been taught not to be sissy, that if they are rough on others they are really being kind because they are teaching them, the darwinian way. That people who are kind are only more cunninngly manipulative so you can be horrible to them this cunning deserves punishment. That you must not let others think they can mess with you, that to be soft is to be homosexuala terrible fate, people who are kind are reffered to by the parents as incompetent and stupid and to turn yourself into an incompetent and stupid person another terrible fate. rose macaskie.

[Duff51]

I saw the film with my 6 year old grandson at a preview Thursday and, while it's visually stunning and a good story, I think it's a long way from the original. I don't think Sendak would ever have had Max bite his mother and run away from home in such disturbing way. My Grandson's review of the film was "It was sad." Nothing like the book about a child's imagination run wild in his own room. I guess that scenario was a little too pedestrian for a hollywood blockbuster. The ending didn't make much sense. What mother would sit waiting for her kid to come home and not have police, FBI and the balloon boy media all over the place. I thought it was very telling that at the end of the film only about 2 people clapped and everyone else was virtually silent. I don't think it's appropriate for kids under 10, which I think was the the original audience for the book. All the kids who've seen the commercials for it are dying to see the story they loved so, on the big screen. And , frankly, I thought it was too long.

[SaulZ]

IMAX technology is the best thing that has happened to big screen in ages. I always take my children to watch movies on IMAX - Star Trek, Disney's Earth, etc. and my children love it. Thanks to IMAX I have a new generation of Star Trek fans in my family LOL. It is Canadian technology that takes the experience of watching movies on big screen to a whole new level.

[knkosanke]

My daughter turns 3 on November 9th and has loved me reading the book to her and seeing the characters come to life in the previews and she watched the making of the movie. I made sure to remind her that the mommy and Max might argue but in the end everything is fine and they love each other. I am still starting to wonder if she should see the movie. I'm absolutely not worried about the animals being violent, that will not bother her, but if there is a lot of arguing, then I worry. Tell me your thoughts. (oh, and she sat through Labyrinth that was playing at Center for Puppetry Arts a few months back, and I feel that would be just as scary as this)

[Kisha Coleman]

I just took my kids to see it today. I loved the book as a kid and they did enjoy the movie. But I couldn't help thinking that the entire cast of characters seemed like they needed a dose of Zoloft, Adderall and/or Ritalin. They were enough raw emotions and up and down behavior to keep a therapist occupied fo r years to come.

[mattrett]

I took the film as directly addressing what you're talking about—the Ritalin generation. Sendak's book predated the drug, but it and the film speak to the kids who are good but who feel the urge to be bad, whether it's from boredom or problems at home or perhaps even a problem with their own hard-wiring. As such, I thought it was a welcome change of pace from typical kid movies that are shiny and happy or about mean girls or other clichés. I definitely felt slightly bored in the middle, but overall I thought it so perfectly captured that kid's mindset it was touching.

[michaelejahn]

I just saw it. I cried. I am 54 years old. I am a father. I am a step father. i went by myself. I cried. I caied as the child who bit his mother and hatted frozen corn. I cried as the father who became divorced and left my two sons. I cried that I was both Max and was the casue of Maxes pain. But I was moved. I will forever be a fan of the book and of this movie - which are bothg different and the same. Amazing. Thanks to all that made it. Go see it. But like Max, go do this thing by yourself - just like Max did.

[afrographia]

Thanks! Posting this to my friends...We're going to see the IMAX this weekend!

[johnsopinion]

Perhaps, and I'm just saying, perhaps you don't understand kids
as well as you think you do.

This 66 year old kid sits enthralled with the previews to this movie.
He is immediately drawn into the sketches and especially to the
characters who are so different than I am and wants to see more,
experience more of their world.

As a critic I understand your dwelling on the technicalities of bringing
the story to the screen. As a viewer, I want to be part of the world I am
viewing, hopefully one I've never been in before. I want to experience
what they experience. I want to know that this could very well be
something I may possibly encounter regardless of what the characters
look like, whether like a Cat in a Hat, a big ball of fur or like Superman,
and I want to know how someone else handled their encounter because
I am open to all possibilities that this world can present. If a film can't
do this for me, it wastes my time and chances are I will leave before
its over.

I suspect I will sit through this film in its entirety. Just a guess.

[puddnpeep]

Great review, but the book is a children's picture book of 48 pages, with but a few sentences per page - if that. Don't you think you could have found the time to read it again as a refresher? That could have added a little more substance to the review. That said, your comment about made for kids verses adults at the beginning of your piece is right on.

[Scott Mendelson - Huffpost Blogger]

Nope... I wanted to be able to judge the film as its own thing.

[Myshkin57]

Well, I think that could have been achieved by reading it again after having seen the film and formed some thoughts. If it had been a spectacular departure from the book or too concerned with keeping with the parts of the book that don't help the picture, those would have been important and relevant insights.

[Pathophile]

Scott, what age do you think is old enough? Is a 5 year old boy too little to understand and enjoy? I appreciate your input.

[Scott Mendelson - Huffpost Blogger]

A five-year old will certainly not get the subtle undertones and/or what the story is really about. But assuming they aren't frightened by the creatures when they first appear and/or during the climactic confrontations, they should enjoy the film's surface level adventure. No promises though. :)

[Pathophile]

Thanks!