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'Where the Wild Things Are': These Trix aren't for kids!
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For Where the Wild Things Are, the journey to the big screen has been a very long and treacherous one, filled with a mountain of script revisions, re-shoots, and several release date shifts. It once looked as though the film might never see a theatrical release or worse, when it did finally get released, it would not come in the form director Spike Jonze had intended.
What we do finally get from the filmmaker though, is not exactly the costly disaster we might have feared or the action-packed PG thrilling adventure others might have wished for. In fact, Where the Wild Things Are is really nothing like its advertisements suggest. (The teaser trailer featuring Arcade Fire’s “Wake Up” was enough to wet the appetite of just about anyone who saw it.) The final product is actually superior for the sole reason that it does nothing we would expect it to do and takes the original tale in darker, more mature directions that introduces a contemporary and fervent element to the children’s classic.
The movie tells of Max (Max Records), a young boy, who, after fighting with his mother (Catherine Keener) and biting her, runs away from home, escapes on a small boat, and sails away before arriving at a mysterious island populated by a group of unusual creatures known as The Wild Things.
Once our protagonist reaches the island, the story really begins to build momentum. The mixture of animatronics, costumes and CGI is done well enough so that The Wild Things appear realistic in large part. The switching of costumes to animation is not entirely seamless but it looks sharp enough not to steal from our suspension of disbelief. Jonze’s wise decision to incorporate animatronics and costumes helps add another layer of credibility. Considering the work Jonze has achieved here, an all CGI Wild Things would have been a digitized disaster and might have seemed more impersonal than this live-action version.
The Wild Things even have very human voices, mannerisms, and dilemmas. The notion that despite their outward appearances, the creatures are quite similar to the human race is a recurring theme that eventually leads Max to a slightly better understanding of his unique place in the world, even as a 10 year-old boy. Records, as Max, gives a memorable lead performance as the child at the center of the wildness. The character’s emotions vary greatly throughout the film and Records makes every moment of transformation seem earned and greatly articulates the emotional hell that childhood can sometimes be. The Max character eventually develops a strong bond with Wild Things, KW and Carol, charmingly voiced by actors Lauren Ambrose and James Gandolfini, respectively. However, Max’s relationship with the group of Wild Things turns chaotic when they discover he is not who he claims to be.
It is this type of somber and occasionally violent tone that may catch viewers off-guard, ones who were hoping Jonze’s adaptation would adhere more to the younger fans of Maurice Sendak’s tale. Be warned, this is not a children’s film. More precisely, Where the Wild Things Are is essentially a story of what it is like to be a kid from a very adult perspective that just happens to be based on a children’s book. The basic elements of Sendak’s story are still intact, but the original publishing only had approximately 48 pages, whereas this film adaptation clocks in at almost two hours. Needless to say, many liberties had to be taken with the plot. Some might call it literary blasphemy. Others might label it as disloyal to the fans and the book’s author. But, as Sendak himself has suggested, Jonze’s Wild Things only enriches his story and in no way tries to detract from it. It merely plays as a supplement and compliment to Sendak’s work.
The film is not likely to attract new fans to the original story. Yet, in spite of its extensive literary following, the movie Where the Wild Things Are finds its own success and relevance, working best as a genuine tribute to all the grown adults who were once deeply affected by the original book and now have a completely new form in which to savor it.
Where the Wild Things Are is not always kind. It’s not always sweet. It’s life in an emotionally bewildered nutshell. It does, however, leave our protagonist with an optimistic grin on his face. What more could one ask for?
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