Remember that amazing children's book Where the Wild Things Are? I'm pretty sure everybody has read this book at some point in their life, and it's definitely a big part of many people's childhoods. With that in mind how could a movie based on this beloved classic be bad? Well for starters the book is less then 50 pages so stretching it out over an 1h 30min while still keeping it interesting is hard but they pull it off nicely.
First lets talk about Max, he was very well portrayed by Max Records who make us all remember what it was like to be a little kid again. He put us in the mindset of a child and how different they see the world. His reactions for his mother and sister show how much he cares about them, and yet how alone he feels when they don't always notice him. When he gets to the island his whole perspective changes as he now sees how hard it is to be in charge. Unfortunately in the end you don't get much of a resolution besides him coming home.
Now when I first heard they were making this movie I completely expected them to make the wild things CGI, but much to my surprise they went back to old school filmmaking and made giant puppets. To me, that makes a movie so much better when you have something real in front of the camera, and it takes so much more creativity then to simply say this is what I want on the computer when your in post. Nowadays everything is CGI because nobody wants to take the time to say "how do i make a bunch of giant monsters?". At the same time it can be a risky choice as if done wrong you can wind up completely ruining the film, but no this film took the risk and pulled it off beautifully. When you can take a bunch of monsters and make us care about them and have serious scenes with them without having people laugh you know you did good. This movie didn't go with the flow of every other modern movie and that's one of the biggest redeeming factors.
Next lets talk about the monsters themselves. To me each one of them were representational of different traits of Max and children in general. Carol being most like Max and of course the loneliness he feels, Alexander being the feeling of never being noticed or heard, Judith being the rebellious wild child, KW being the softer side of him and also representing his mother, Douglas is the artistic imaginative one, and of course all of them are like children themselves. Each of them are unique and interesting characters which we each can relate too in some way. Like I said before when you can have a giant monster on screen and still have emotional scenes, you know you made a good film.
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As you might already know by far the worst part of this movie is the ending. So from the beginning of the movie you expect for Max to gain some new moral values after his adventures, but that's where you are wrong my friends. Now don't get me know there is definitely an overlaying theme of the importance of family, but you expect that message to be reinforced at the end with a heartwarming scene between Max and his mother and sister otherwise none of the kids are going to get it. BUT NO! In the end he leaves the island, runs back home, finds his mother, they hug, he gets cake, roll credits. No dialogue, no i'm sorry, no I love you, absolutely no resolution between him and his sister, and to top it all off he is rewarded with cake! I mean I know he's been missing and his mom was worried about him, but seriously he kind of bit her and ran away from home! Don't worry that's okay, you came home so all is forgotten, oh here's some cake! That's a great message for children right? Do whatever you want just make sure that you run away for awhile afterwords then when you come back they'll forget all about it and there's CAKE!
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So overall it was a good film, it just wasn't what I expected from a film 20 years in the making. I would definitely recommend it for anybody who read the book, and I also recommend you see it with the family. Like I said it had a great theme of the importance of family, and if you make up your own ending it really is an amazing film. 6/10