The classic and almost legendary story of Where The Wild Things Are finally made it’s debut on the big screen this past fall and had a mix of criticms regarding the children’s story to movie adaptation. The movie was directed by Grammy Award Winning Spike Jonze and his raw Indie movie feel makes the movie really come to life. I feel he was the perfect person to do this movie because of his style of directing and taste in music for the soundtrack that really added emotion to the storyline. I know this movie didn’t get the reaction most people expected but to turn a short children’s story into a hour and forty minute movie isn’t an easy task so obviously some filler scenes are added to make some more drama to the movie. The soundtrack really sets the mood of the movie and expresses alot of what’s going on with instrumental Indie rock music. The music was made by Karen O from the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s and she recruited many indie rock artists to come in the studio to create music for each scene, a huge plus to this movie! If you were a fan of the book growing up then I highly suggest seeing this movie because I really enjoyed watching the tale come to life and realized just how sad and real the story is compared to some children’s books. If you were deprived as a child from reading this book then here is the crash course of what happens.
The story starts off with a very imaginative boy named Max who most of the time is just playing by himself creating fictious stories in his mind to have an adventure. He wears a homemade wolf costume when he pretends to be an animal and runs around his house causing ruckus. He gets annoyed when his mother isn’t paying attention to him because of her new boyfriend and decides to act up and try and get her to play with him. He stands on the dinner table yelling “Feed me Woman!” and gets his mother annoyed to the point that she picks him up and yells at him, but Max gets annoyed and bites her like an animal to the point that she screams at him to go to his room. Max runs away crying from home as his mother is upset and chases after him, he goes into a fake world he creates for himself and sails a small boat to a place where the wild things are. He lands and meets interesting creatures who are at first hostile to him until he conquers them by saying he is a king who has conquered things much bigger then them. This contrasts with the book in that he runs to his room instead where he makes things up and stares down the monsters to tame them instead but it’s more dramatic in the movie so hence the running away from home. He starts doing animal type things with all the Wild Things and creates a close friendship with the fiercest one Carol who accepts him as a king until Max and him get in an argument. Both of the characters are parallel’s to each other in that they feel different from everyone and almost lonely and this causes them to conflict at the end of the story. Feeling lonely and sad about what he has done, Max feels he should let them be and that he should go back home. Carol chases after him as he sails away and gives out a roar as if he’s saying sorry and Max roars back as Carol watches Max sail away with both tears in their eyes. Max returns finding his supper still ready for him and hugs his mom in apology for what he has done to nicely end the movie. The book and movie are different in many aspects but the plot is still the same so I’d have to say I really enjoyed the adaptation despite the many differences.
