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Where the Wild Things Are Our rating: Your rating: 1 2 3 4 Your Comments: see all MPAA rating: PG (for mild thematic elements, some adventure action and brief language) Genre: Adventure, Children, Drama, Family Theater release: October 16, 2009 by Warner Bros. Directed by: Spike Jonze Runtime: 1 hour 34 minutes Cast: Max Records (Max), Catherine Keener (Mom), and the voice talents of James Gandolfini (Carol), Catherine O'Hara (Judith), Forest Whitaker (Ira) Related: Talk About It/Family Corner

If you find a steady diet of Hollywood a little bland, here is a recipe for something completely different. First, take an enduring and iconic children's literary classic—Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are (about a rambunctious boy who discovers and conquers a world of giant monsters in a kingdom where he makes the rules) will do nicely. Next, bring in a rule-breaking, visionary, surrealist director like Spike Jonze (Adaptation, Being John Malkovich) and give him close to $100 million to bring Max and his monsters to the big screen. Then, find a gifted author (albeit one who's never written a screenplay before) like the ironic and whimsical Dave Eggers (A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius) and stir him in as a co-collaborator on the script. Season with the alt-acoustic stylings of musicians Karen O and Carter Burwell; bake for a very long time (at least two years of revisions). Then proudly serve Where the Wild Things Are, a beautiful and disturbing movie about childhood that isn't particularly palatable (or appropriate) for children.

Max (Max Records) get a bit uppity with Mom (Catherine Keener)

Where the Wild Things Are is in many respects a creative triumph. The casting is terrific—young Max Records brings just the right mix of wild energy and delicate vulnerability to the role of Max, and Catherine Keener is thoroughly believable as his nurturing but over-extended single mother. Equally strong is the voice acting; the diverse roster (including James Gandolfini, Catherine O'Hara and Forest Whitaker) brings the monsters to wonderfully quirky life.

The film is visually stunning. Though Jonze was reportedly advised repeatedly to render the creatures via CGI, the director was determined to somehow create monsters that Max could physically interact with. To that end he devised a plan in which the fantasy characters were first voiced on a sound stage, with all of the actors acting out the scenes together while their body language was filmed. Giant, elaborate puppets were then fashioned at Jim Henson's Creature Shop. Actors clad in the creature suits then re-enacted and adapted the original actors' movements on location in Australia. Animation was later used to enhance the facial expressions of the monsters. This multi-layered process produced a species of creatures wonderfully evocative of Sendak's original drawings, and brought a special realism to the fantasy of Where the Wild Things Are.

Carol (James Gandolfini) gives Max a lift

The writing is equally fresh. The film's opening scenes introduce us to a kid who is a conflicted jumble of aggression and tenderness that will be very familiar to anyone acquainted with a young boy. Max has an appetite for destruction, and while some of his unruliness is simply innocent exuberance, part of it is more seriously routed in fear and rage over changes in his life. When viewed from his perspective, Max's behavior (donning a wolf costume and obnoxiously acting out for attention) makes perfect sense, and the film offers a painfully accurate reminder of the emotional tumult of childhood.

When Max's angst boils over and he runs away, he encounters the perfect foil for his unmanageable feelings—unmanageable monsters who are hilariously neurotic and vulnerable. Though the parallels between Max's emotions and the giants are almost too obvious—Gandolfini's impulsive Carol is unmistakably Max's psychological doppelganger—the incongruity between the monsters' imposing stature and their childish behavior keeps the proceedings highly entertaining.

Crowned the king of all wild things

But for all the elements that are delightfully right about Where the Wild Things Are, there are two problems that plague the film and seriously undermine its appropriateness for kids. The first issue is the tone of the violence in the film. While there is none of the cartoonish gore common to current action-adventure movies, there is a threatening undercurrent to much of the drama that will definitely scare some children. There is no doubt that the monsters might turn on Max and eat him; this fact seems particularly troubling and sinister because the creatures are otherwise friendly and likeable. Even Max's battle with an angry ocean is somehow more frightening than one would expect, because the sea, like the creatures, is unpredictable. The instability and insecurity of Max's world might be part of what makes the film so believable, but it also makes it potentially very disturbing for kids.

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