This review will be short and concise...
Where the Wild Things Are did just about everything right.
The story stayed pretty much the same, and the areas they fabricated were enjoyable and fit the feel of the sentence-per-page material they were working with. i couldn't help but compare it to Polar Express which also did a good job of taking artistic liberty...
i used my girlfriend as an excuse to watch this movie and i enjoyed it thoroughly. the settings, the characters, the voice acting, and the animations all look really good. i was expecting a muppet/barny style mascot brigade, but the costumes are actually very intricate with just enough cgi on the faces to make it look like the creatures are actually talking. i found myself laughing at a lot of the interactions of the character as opposed to one liners and shenanigans that you'd find in most kids films. Max Records plays his role perfectly, so perfectly, it leads me to believe they just threw him into every situation and let him believe he was really in a world with 7 monsters who made him king.
the ending did kind of fall off for me though, but i will not spoil it. of course it does not appeal to a lot of the comic book movie audience, but it is definitely enjoyable. perfect movie to bring a girl to, and I'd love to see someone who has know idea about the book watch this film, just to see the "wtf?" expression on their faces.
a 4.5/5 for me... this movie did what it set out to do, a lot of cool imagery, funny lines and memorable quotes.