Monday, October 19, 2009

Where the Wild Things Are-not what I expected


After finding out that I was going to be out of town on the opening day of Where the Wild Things Are Hanna and I made the management decision to see the midnight showing. In the past this type of decision making is usually a success, this time it was a let down. Not only was our crowd unexpected(De Paul kids sneaking beer into the theatre), but the film just didn't deliver.

This film is an adaptation of Maurice Sendak's childrens story where a little boy Max is sent to his room without any dinner, here he creates a forested in-habited world full of creatures three times the size of him.

With only 10 sentences in the book, writers Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers had a blank canvas to create this story from. I think with that sort of creative freedom, too many ideas can come to life. In the film, when Max enters the world of the Wild Things he finds them in total conflict. This conflict or even there way of life is never explained. I was confused for most of the movie and kept looking for clues to tell me why the characters were acting the way that they were. Where the Wild Things Are was originally suppose to debut last year, when Warner Bros pulled it and told Director Spike Jonze that it had to be more kid friendly. Since this wasn't his original plan for the movie, the final product came across misunderstood with child like aspects and special effects, with an adult centered story line.

1 comment:

  1. Just heard this from a friend. Rings completely true.

    "Take your kids to this movie if you want them to grow up alone with no friends and hating their parents. And feel free to get up and use the restroom at any point during the two hours, because nothing happens."

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