"Where the Wild Things Are"
by: Paolo Sardinas

Spike Jonze, the director of some fairly creative and intelligent films (Adaptation, Being John Malckovich), took on the incredible tasks of adapting one of the, if not the greatest, children's books of all time. The book, originally written by Maurice Sendak, has been around for nearly 50 years. While it's something thats been enjoyed by many generations before, its message about childhood and the many wonders about it has never ceased to be meaningful. In fact its only gotten more meaningful as the times have flipped on from bad to good and vice versa. While its nearly impossible to create these gigantic "wild things", Jonze makes it a task that seems almost easy, if only it were.

The story as many of us know follows a young boy named Max who, while wearing a wolf costume, makes quite a rumpus(take note of that it comes in handy later), and gets sent to his room for punishment. The movie changes that a little bit with Max creating a mayhem when his mother brings home her new boyfriend but hey we'll let that one slide. While there in his room he follow Max on his imaginary trip to the land of the Wild things. Once there he declares himself of all the "Wild things" and embarks on an imaginary trip through all of the trials and tribulations of "Wild land". Along with that they all start a rumpus, sing and dance, and just have a great time. Even though these people are fairly scary, Max is able to have the time of his life. While the movie differs from the book, mostly in small things, you still have to give them osme amount of credit. I mean they only had nine sentences to work with.

The main role of Max is played by Max records a boy who you can almost vividly imagine him being Max. And no its not because of the name. He delivers a quite fine performance as the little child with an wild imagination. But also too it can't be easy when all of you're co-stars are, well, inanimate. The other two co-stars which are alive are Catherine Keener as Connie(Mom) and Mark Ruffalo as the new boyfriend. Along with these three stars we also have the amazing talents-voices- of some of the greatest actors currently residing in tinsletown. Which is a nice surprise because I could never imagine them as doing these voices.

James Gandolfini plays Carol the giant poster boy for the "Wild Things". Then we have the likes of many other stars: Forest Whitaker, Lauren Ambrose, Chris Cooper, Paul Dano, Catherine O' Hara and Angus Sampson. All of these actors lend a hand or voice in helping to bring these characters to life. The only real concern with these monsters is that, at an attempt to bring some realness to the characters, the writers instead made them a bit too real and created some characters which are a bit too real for its target audience. While the film is a true embodiment of the spirit of children, the overall tone and intensity might be something to off pit parents in their decision making process.

Don't let the PG rating fool you. "Where the Wild Things Are" is a truly masterful film. Though most of that greatness comes through in the technical department. Sure they sing and dance, but along the way we soon realize that these monsters are quite real. They are little humans stuck inside of some fairly large monsters. These cross images might cause some young viewers(their main target audience) leave the theater in either bewilderment or just plain confused. Becuase when the fun happens, there is plenty of fun, but there is also the same question that arises throughout the entire film, "Why are the monsters so sad"? I mean sure they're huge monsters but some are a bit too depressed to really make much sense to a six or seven year old. Unless if you want to describe to them about anti depressants, than that is for a while other day.

Director Spike Jonze truly does create something masterful here. He manages to use some CGI without using CGI. These gigantic monsters truly where built from scratch and are very tangible. Without going over board with the whole visuals and animation he still was able to make a truly convincing world no matter how confusing it may be. And while the entire performances throughout the film are very well done, you still can't help but feel that you're younger sisters, daughters, sons brothers aren't necessarily going to jump right into the whole complex narrative. While it is a childrens movie that overall concept focuses on having as much fun as possible, but still trying to through in some real drama. It's a kids movie, let it be a movie for kids. "Where the Wild Things Are" shines more in technical department and sets new heights, but fall a bit short in the narrative field. But hey at least Max had plenty of fun. "Woo-Hoo!" Grade: B

Rated PG: mild thematic elements, some adventure action and brief language