The Children's Book is Tame, the Movie is Where the Wild Things Are

Well, I just returned from watching the movie, "Where The Wild Things Are." One of my childhood favorites, somewhat disappointed. The original story line is lifted from the pages of Maurice Sendak's classic tale about a kid named Max (played by Max Records,) who is tired of being harassed by the neighborhood kids and ignored by his mom, so he decides to venture in his sail boat far from home. Unfortunately, the films script and direction tends to venture far from the author's original book right along with him.

In the opening scene in the film, Max is so upset about the way the neighborhood kids destroyed his igloo, as well as his life in general that he takes it out on his Mom (Katherine Keener) by biting her. This upsets her terribly and really sets him off and he runs away and finds his sailboat and heads out to open sea. He sails night and day to a place, "Where The Wild Things Are." This is steering quite away from Sendak's story, where this little boy is having a frustrating time at home so he gets into one sort of mischief or another and his Mother calls him, a "wild thing," and he is so mad that he snaps back at her with, "I'll eat you up" and goes to his room and the room transforms into an ocean, and his bed into a sailboat and carries him away to far off lands and outrageous adventures. What little boy or girl has not entertained the idea of running away from home to find excitement in a remote place?

In the movie, Max arrives at the distant shore where he sees the wild things destroying one of their members homes. Max joins in and Judith, (Katherine O'hara) who's home is being destroyed conferences with the others as to what to do and one of them threatens to eat Max and the rest join in. As they advance on him Judith asks, "You are not gonna taste like bird bones are you? Max replies, (while backing away,) "No, I don't taste like bird bones." and Judith retorts with, "You did not even think about what you might taste like when you got here, did you? God, you are so selfish." So, Max at that point thinks quickly telling the monsters to back off because he has special powers. Quite simply, their attitudes change a little after that and they make him king. While it is a very funny scene, it is not at all like what the author portrayed which is Max simply glancing at the wild things and they all become tame and declare that he is ruler of them all. At this point, in the film all of them join in the wild rompous to celebrate him as the new king, dancing around the fire and chanting, he being the loudest of them all.

While the story line begins to take on some of the toughest and most fascinating questions that we as a society face everyday, such as what brings true happiness and contentment and the mythical based idea of whether there is a God in charge or not, the violence is a bit over the top, such as the scene where one of the wild things gets its arm ripped from its socket and bleeds sand during the dirt ball fight, the purpose of which, decreed by the king was to make everyone feel happier about the way things are going. This film smacks more of William Golding's, "The Lord of The Flies," than anything else, where English boys stranded on an island become involved with primal rituals, involving animal sacrifice. Both films probe the darkest recesses of the human psyche. Needless to say, while Sendak's book is a children's book, the film is definitely not a children's movie.

All in all, the movie was pretty good, with the usual amazing technological special effects combined with Jim Henson's creative genius resulting in huge loveable, terrible, and believable characters. The story line and script though, veered way off course from the original classic and into needless violent territory. If it were not for that, this film would have shot into the upper stratosphere of one of the best movies of the year.