Where the Wild Things Are

Jonze has filmed a fantasy as if it were absolutely real, allowing us to see the world as Max sees it, full of beauty and terror. The brilliant songs, by Karen O (of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs) and the Kids, enhance the film's power. more

Not since Robert Altman took on "Popeye" a generation ago, and lost, has a major director addressed such a well-loved, all-ages title. This time everything works, from tip to tail. more

His (Jonze) obvious affection for, and veneration of, Maurice Sendak's 1963 Caldecott Medal-winning children's book is palpable in his near-perfect live-action adaptation, a dreamy -- and, like Sendak's book, faintly nightmarish -- exploration of one child's tantrum-y side. more

This is one of the year's best. To paraphrase the Wild Thing named KW, I could eat it up, I love it so. more

What he's (Jonze) ended up with strikes me as one of the most empathic and psychologically acute of all movies about childhood -- a "Wizard of Oz" for the dysfunctional-family era. more

With Where the Wild Things Are Jonze has made a work of art that stands up to its source and, in some instances, surpasses it. more

As wish-fulfillments go, this is a movie lover's dream. more

In elaborating on the original book so boldly, and repopulating it so richly, Jonze has protected Where the Wild Things Are as an inviolable literary work. In preserving its darkest spirit, he's created a potent, fully realized variation on its most highly charged themes. more

Spike Jonze has recently said in interviews that his chief goal ...was to try to capture the feeling of being 9. By that measure--by just about any measure, really--he succeeded wildly. more

His film captures the wonderment of dreaming - and the reality of waking. more

It's a funny thing: adults have no problem loading films with whizzing bullets, raging flames and bellowing anger and slap a PG rating on it, but the moment the protagonist is a child they back off and claim "Whoa - this is too intense and scary!". Nuts. The claims that this film is a little intense are true - it IS intense because it's much more honest and real than any other films for children available in the last thirty years. By 'for children' I mean ALL children, any age. Those who can't recall what it was like to be a kid aren't going to get it. They will be those who don't recall... more

Directed by the wonderfully inventive Spike Jonze, WTWTA follows young Max as he runs away from home following an argument with his mother and finds solace in a world of his own. He sets sail and washes up on an island inhabited by furry beings who take him in and crown him as their new king- unfortunately they have eaten every other king they have ever had. The boys relationship with the wild things is loving but often strained at times. He finds in them what he found back at home- love, jealousy, rivalry, acceptance... Let me say that this film looks stunning. The voice acting is... more

Perhaps I didn't read far enough in the other reviews...but it seemed pretty much like a bunch of adults discussing the deep psychological imagery, etc., but not how the movie makes a kid feel. A kid, I said, not an over-intellectualizing adult. So I'm going to tell you how my twin, almost 7 year old, very well-behaved, socially well-liked, intelligent and yet, quite tenderhearted girls responded. I'm grateful that I watched it with them, I'll tell you that. I did have to comfort them a little because Max was having a pretty rough day for a little guy, and it made them feel very bad for... more