Movie with Abe: Where the Wild Things Are

Where the Wild Things Are
Directed by Spike Jonze
Released October 16, 2009

It’s risky adapting an illustrated children’s book into an animated movie. There’s even more pressure when the classic images of childhood are turned into something real and tangible. Putting Maurice Sendak’s book in the capable hands of wildly creative director Spike Jonze, whose previous projects include “Being John Malkovich” and “Adaptation,” certainly guarantees it a careful, effortful treatment, and turning it into a live-action film seems like just another challenge for a filmmaker who has defied reason and reality in the past to produce works of arguable genius. Even if it’s not entirely fulfilling, the journey to get to where the wild things in fact are is a notable, enthralling one.

The first positive step taken for the film version of “Where the Wild Things Are” is the casting of young actor Max Records as protagonist Max. Records is immensely talented and capable of conveying his yearning for a life full of adventure and acceptance with only his eyes. Starting the film off with Max burrowing himself in his igloo, only to find it carelessly destroyed by his sister’s friends in the midst of a snowball fight, is a fantastic way to begin and to establish Max as someone for whom the real world isn’t right and isn’t enough. The terribly short 1963 children’s book admits only that Max was creating mischief, and showing his discontent with the world around him makes his voyage to another world all the more mesmerizing.

Max’s exodus to the land of the wild things is a transformative experience for him, and the cinematography and landscape make his trip an absolutely worthwhile passage for the audience as well. The visuals are simply stunning, and the way that the wild things stand out from their surroundings is stark and magnificent. The sense of welcoming and community Max elicits from the wild things is wonderful, and communicating his finding happiness is perhaps the film’s greatest accomplishment. Max being accepted opens up the path for the audience to share, delight, and revel in the fact that’s he located this fantastic place where things work differently from the real world.

The film starts to falter when it adds too much to Sendak’s original work by giving the wild things ordinary dialogue, which they use to insult, berate, and joke with each other. The land of the wild things is supposed to be a magic place, and there’s something that doesn’t feel right about them speaking so casually. Looking at them connotes something grander about the way they live, and hearing them talk in such everyday language without really saying anything meaningful is a disappointment. Additionally, after a strong, intriguing start, the film doesn’t save any of its emotional punches for its latter half, and as a result it’s not entirely fulfilling. Even so, taking time out for a trip to where the wild things are is still a dazzling, worthwhile endeavor.

B

Watch the Minute with Abe here.