Review of Where the Wild Things Are (2009) by Lobna H — 26 Sep 2011

EDITED.

Visionary director Spike Jonze brings Maurice Sendak's beloved children's book to the big screen with the help of hipster icon Dave Eggers, who teamed with Jonze to pen the adapted screenplay. A mixture of real actors, computer animation, and live puppeteering, Where the Wild Things Are follows the adventures of a young boy named Max (Max Records) as he enters the world of the Wild Things, a race of strange and enormous creatures who gradually turn the young boy into their king.

Staring, Max Records, Catherine Keener, James Gandolfini, Paul Dano, Catherine O'Hara , Forest Whitaker , Michael Berry Jr. , Chris Cooper , Lauren Ambrose , Pepita Emmerichs , Max Pfeifer , Steve Mouzakis , Mark Ruffalo.

Directed by the Visionary Spike Jonze, who directed Being John Malkovich and Adaptation.

This is a fantasy drama movie based on a children book of 1963 by Maurice Sendak. the budget of this movie was surprisingly high, a 100 Million. this movie is a mix of live action, CGI, animatronics and performers in costumes. the weird creatures are called Wild Things and some actors did voice overs for them.

This movie tells story of a child named Max who one night misbehaves with his mother, runs away and sails away to find an island with these weird wild creatures who makes him their king. Max seems lonely and depressed. he watches tension growing between that group of monsters and assure them that he is a King with great powers that will re unite them, but that is not true. you will see great amount of violent behaviors in this movie. smashing trees, throwing rocks and what not. depressed angry behaviors. to some extent I thought it was a bit too dark for the children, I haven't read the book but if its according to that them I don't have any problem. it might scare very young Children and generally the whole look of the movie suggests its not for young viewers. 10+ years would be fine.

Many viewers didn't liked this movie at all while on the other hand many Critics kept it in their Top 10 of the year lists. it is one of the year's best and I may keep it in my Top 25 but not in Top 20. this was the kind of movie that was meant to deal with polarizing reviews.

Direction was good but not the best. screenplay was well written. plot was a bit uneven in the beginning. the whole imagination and vision of the director is appreciable to be exact, I liked it. good and lovely cinematography. I loved the songs that were used in it, outstanding songs. I remember playing the trailer over and over again just for the songs. out of Jonze's 3 movies, this is the weakest but still good.

It was really sad, dark and just too depressing but emotionally engaging. it brought tears into my eyes towards the end. well see this movie just for his vision it is different and I appreciate that.