Review of Where the Wild Things Are (2009) by Serge L — 12 Mar 2016

Where the Wild Things Are is based on the children's book by Maurice Sendak, directed and co-written by Spike Jonze, and it stars Max Records in a story adaptation about a crazy kid who got in a fight with his mom, he ran away, and got in a boat to sail away.

He come across an island, filled with monsters, and when they come towards Max, he tells them that he's king, and they basically just do whatever they want. I remember watching this in probably my pre-teen years, and I actually did liked it, but I wasn't quite sure why although I remembered how it got dark which I was fine with and didn't get nightmares.

So I was watching a Nostalgia Critic video about the film, and how some people didn't like it, so I got to watch it again, and it's actually better than I thought of it. Max Records is really good as a kid actor, and the actors who play the monsters like James Gandolfini, Lauren Ambrose, Chris Cooper, Forest Whitaker, and some others are great in it.

The costumes and the effects are very real and creative looking, and the story is really well thought out, even if it's based on a 40 page book. I find it fascinating that the island that the main kid is in, is pretty much his imagination, or his childhood, coming to life, and the monsters were somewhat his consciousness, like how he thinks of these monsters as either part of himself, his mom, dad, or sister, which you are not quite sure what they really represent, but it leads to your interpretation of it which I'm glad that it did.

There are some dark moments that the little kids are going to be scared of, but the film doesn't make it too dark that it'll start to scar them for life. The script by Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers is very well written and the direction by Spike Jonze is very good.

Where the Wild Things Are is a fantastic movie that has the spirit of the book, and it makes me think that he should also do justice to Dr. Seuss books.