Where the Wild Things Are
The film Where the Wild Things Are is inspired by Maurice Sendak’s book and illustrations. The film is a good blend of real life experiences of a little boy and the imaginary world that is filled with wild things. It is commendable attempt by Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers who have made an honest effort to present you this children’s film.
The audience who have read the original book will easily recognize and associate with Where the Wild Things Are. So far the film has received quite a good response form both the audience and the critics.
Actors James Gandolfini, Paul Dano, Catherine O’Hara, Forest Whitaker, Chris Cooper and Lauren Ambrose have rendered the voice for the wild creatures in the film. The story is about this little boy Max (Max Records) who is the central character of the film and how he becomes the leader of the like-minded wild creatures from the imaginary world.
Max gets into an argument with his mother (Catherine Keener) and moves into his room and then in his imaginary world he is adopted by some wild creatures and they crown him the king. And it is no surprise why Max has to be crowned as the king of these wild things, obviously it his fancy and anybody can be or do anything they feel like in their imagination, isn’t it?
The movie Where the Wild Things Are thus revolves round this journey of Max into his imaginary world that is filled with adventures and of course the wild creatures who give wings to Max’ imagination. The movie is a fine combination of fun and mysterious and at times scary too, especially for younger kids might find some of the a little scary.
Where the Wild Things Are
Each and every wild creature is characterized with a name and a specified role to play, which adds to the easy story-telling feature of the film. The story is simple but do not search for some serious meaning in the film. The voices provided by the actors for the wild things in movie give a sense of genuineness and the fantasy characters are more believable.
The costumes of the wild creatures is nothing to boast of and they look rather weird and do not trouble your brain in researching about their species, as you might not find any resemblance to what you have actually seen in the wild. And yes, the other thing to keep in mind is it is Max’ imagination and he can imagine anything right? So we need not question that aspect of the film.
The film also seemed to be a little lengthy and in some parts and it could have been cropped a bit and when compared to Sendak’s book, which narrates most of the story through illustrations and the movie seems to be dragged a little longer in this regard. The technical aspect of the film is also not up to the mark but nevertheless you can watch the film without pondering over the ‘why’ kind of questions.
| Film | Where the Wild Things Are |
|---|---|
| Cast | Max Records as Max Pepita Emmerichs as Claire Max Pfeifer as Claire’s Friend #1 Madeleine Greaves as Claire’s Friend #2 Joshua Jay as Claire’s Friend #3 Ryan Corr as Claire’s Friend #4 Catherine Keener as Mom Steve Mouzakis as Teacher Mark Ruffalo as The Boyfriend |
| Director | Spike Jonze |
| Writers | Spike Jonze Dave Eggers |
| Producers | Bruce Berma John B. Carls Gary Goetzman Tom Hanks Jon Jashni Vincent Landay Scott Mednick Maurice Sendak Thomas Tull Emma Wilcockson |
| Runtime | 1 Hour 31 Minutes |
| Rating | 4/5 |
Posted on Sunday, October 25th, 2009 at 7:04 pm