Growing up most of us had exposure to the children’s book Where the Wild Things Are. It was in virtually every public and school library despite being banned when it originally came out, and if it wasn’t constantly out on loan, it was in our libraries because we begged our parents to get it for us. Many have tried to transform Where the Wild Things are from book to feature film but it hasn’t exactly worked out as hoped. Patience however has paid off and Maurice Sendak’s book has finally come full circle.

As with the book, Max (Max Records) is the central character and it doesn’t seem like anything is going right for him. He’s from a single parent home, his sister’s friends pick on him, his mother has a boyfriend that Max doesn’t seem to like, and the final straw for him comes after being punished by his mother. Going to be without dinner doesn’t seem right and so Max runs away, dressed of course in the wolf costume that he loves, and imagines himself in a place far, far away, an island that he can only get to by boat.

Although this place doesn’t have a name, Max soon meets with the inhabitants of the world. Strange, large monster-like beings call this place home and while their appearance might seem frightening to some, Max isn’t afraid at all. He quickly makes friends with Carol (voiced by James Gandolfini) who seems a lot like Max. Carol and the others are curious about Max who tells them tales of his “adventures” and they soon decide to make him their king. At first, everything seems to be fantastic for everyone, but soon it starts to fall apart with the monsters fighting amongst themselves and discovering that Max isn’t who he says that he is.

Spike Jonze really summed up his version of Where the Wild Things Are best by explaining that this isn’t a children’s film as much as it is about being a child. This is really the most accurate description of the movie that anyone could come up with. Where the Wild Things really does focus greatly on childhood, but perhaps in a different way than expected; Max is something of a troubled child, a result of his broken home, concerns over things that he’s heard at school, and a number of other things. Just like many of us have done, and perhaps might even still do, the best solution at times is to try and escape from the troubles of everyday life is to create a world within your mind where you’re in control of everything which is exactly what Max does.

In the book the monsters didn’t have names but they do here to make them easier to identify with. Carol is the monster with stripes that most should be familiar with and is the sum of Max himself. He’s prone to doing crazy things, throwing fits if he can’t have things his way, and temperamental at times. K.W. (voiced by Lauren Ambrose) acts as more of the mother of the band of monsters, Alexander (voiced by Paul Dano), the “goat”, is ignored, Douglas (voiced by Chris Cooper) tries to keep things peaceful when troubles arise, Ira (voice by Forest Whitaker) is easily taken advantage of while his girlfriend Judith (voiced by Catherine O'Hara) is quite the opposite and finally there is Bernard the Bull (voiced by Michael Berry Jr.) is quite and actually says absolutely nothing until near the closing of the film.

In many ways the “monsters” are all representations of Max, or at the very least things in his life, the difference here is that he’s in complete and total control, at least to some degree. Even though each of the monsters thinks and acts on their own accord, they usually tend to do whatever Max wants to. He is their new king after all, but being ruler doesn’t come with a huge amount of stress to deal with. There are no real threats to be found in the movie, no enemies to fit, but instead just the monsters trying to get along with one another at times, impress Max at some points, but even without any true issues to deal with, at least not physical ones, there are still things that Max is trying to overcome. Obviously it’s emotional strife that he’s going through in his life and again, the monsters that he has befriended are representations of this though he doesn’t even seem to be aware of this at first.

All of the monsters are done extremely well. They are a combination of costumed actors, computer animation and animatronics which all blends together perfectly. Where the monsters completely computer animated it would look incredibly awkward and there are things such as their hair being blown by the breeze that wouldn’t be captured in the way that it should. Jonze has also done an excellent job at getting just the right look to the film. There are a lot of earth tones used, not bright and vibrant colors, which I think really reflects Max’s emotions perfectly. Also, his decision to actually have the voice cast act out their roles together on mock sets really gives a much better feel.

The magic of high definition really makes Where the Wild Things Are shine fantastically. Although there are a few shots that are a little grainy, for the most part Where the Wild Things Are becomes a rather surreal adventure that pulls you in almost as soon as it starts and if it doesn’t manage to get you interested in the first ten minutes, once Max arrives on the island, that should be more than enough to pull you in and not let go. There’s almost a hypnotic feeling to the movie and Jonez has managed to bring this across beautifully during the course of the movie, something that DVD might allow for but blu-ray captures magnificently.

The blu-ray also features Higgelty Piggelty Pop!, a short that is also based on a story written by Sendak. The HBO First Look is really worth watching; it covers a lot of details and really gives a great inside look at the production of the movie. There are a number of webisodes included as well. Not all of them are good, but some of them are rather enjoyable but I really wish that there was a little more extra content than what is included.

Where the Wild Things Are is really an enjoyable film that should allow some to connect with childhood emotions and feelings on a number of different ways, though that might not be true for everyone. Some definitely won’t get it, others will and there are still others who might get it, but it may bring up some darker, forgotten things in their life. Where the Wild Things Are isn’t an uplifting movie, it is rather depressing in many ways, and yet there is a certain beauty to it that makes it captivating, enjoyable, and worth watching again and again.

-mike-