Amber (9), my mom and I went to see Where The Wild Things Are this weekend. I wanted to love this movie. I ended up with mixed feelings. I suppose that’s not surprising, considering they took a story that was truly only nine or ten sentences long and transformed it into a whole movie.
Amber enjoyed it a lot. She went home and told David all about Max standing on the counter shouting for his dinner and about the Wild Things. She even made a picture of her own Wild Thing, a wolf-dragon mixture. She noticed that some scenes were exactly like ones in the book, but her question was how did Max know which way to sail the boat.
See, that’s the problem. At heart, I don’t know if this is a kids’ movie. Max’s relationship with his mom, who is single and dating someone, and sister, who of course has her own friends, is echoed in his friendships with the Wild Things, and kid don’t get that, but I don’t think they should either. And Max is a brat. I’m sorry, but biting your mother, even if you’re pretending to be a wolf is ridiculous.
I loved the way the movie looked, it truly is gorgeous, and loved that it wasn’t 3-D, but wish it had kept the storyline simpler and funner. It wasn’t a fun movie, there was too much bickering and fighting. There are a couple of odd spots too, like when one wild thing tears the other’s arm off or when a wild thing gets her owl friends to come down to her by hitting them with rocks. I have to say I’d rather stick to the book. This is not a DVD I will be buying.
My mom treated us to the movie and the above is my honest opinion. I am an Amazon Associate.
We just saw it too. I loved how the visuals were done- but we really missed seeing the scene where his bedroom turns into a forest. I felt like leaving that out took a large part of the magical element out of the story.
I wondered how they would make a full length movie out of such a short book.
Hmmm…I’ve now read a few reviews that are making me question whether or not to take Aidan to see this movie. We are both looking forward to it so I don’t think I will be able to get out of it but I will now go in with a open mind about whether I will like it or not.
I just realized why my avatar has been different the last few times I’m commented on your blog. I had two letter transposed in my email address.
Hmm, I’d still like to see this movie for the stunning visuals, but that’s too bad that it didn’t quite live up to the hype.
I think I must have been the only one who didn’t like this book when I was growing up. So I haven’t really had a desire to go and see the movie anyway.
Oh, that’s fun! I haven’t seen this and would love to if I can get it over here.
I thought it would be hard for them to make it a movie, and it looks like I was right. Too much hype! I’m not sure whether I will see this or not.
I’m surprised you weren’t all that into it.
I read the book as a kid and was fascinated by it. I have been looking forward to seeing the movie adaption for some time. I thought it would be a great movie!
I sort of lost interest in this one when I read the author’ s comment, when asked if the movie was too scary for children…
“I would tell them to go to hell,” Sendak said. And if children can’t handle the story, they should “go home,” he added. “Or wet your pants. Do whatever you like. But it’s not a question that can be answered.”
here.. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/oct/20/maurice-sendak-wild-things-hell ..is a link to the Guardian story about it.
Well, I really liked it. Even though I felt some parts of the story were left out (and how can you do that from a book that has less than a dozen sentences?) my husb and I had had a fantastic time taking our daughter to see it. Even three days later we’re still talking about it!
The movie does look great (especially the appearance of the wild things), and I’m sure I’ll be seeing it at some point because The Girl wants to. However, I’m still not sold on whether this is a book that should’ve been made into a movie.
Thanks for the review. I’ve been wondering about this movie and how it would compare to the book. I’ll have to add it to my Netflix queue and save my money.
Thank you for your very honest review, Carol. I’ve been really really curious about this movie. I adore the book but how do you stretch it out to a full-length feature? I guess by adding in a lot of drama. Maybe I’ll just wait to rent it.