Baby Got Books

Where the Wild Things Are – The Movie

After spending over 12 hours of the first part of my weekend immersed in baseball (Go Yankees!!), my boys and I tore ourselves away from our home screen and headed out on Sunday to the big screen to see Where the Wild Things Are.

There has been so much hype (much on this site) and I had read so many reviews that I almost expected to be disappointed. To my delight – the movie exceeded my expectations and and was truly one of the best family movies I’ve seen in years. When everyone in your family (ranging in age from 9 to 40something) gives the movie a 9 out of 10 rating – you know it’s good.

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For those of us that are Dave Eggers fans, his writing style and depth of emotions are front and center in the screenplay. The movie expertly depicts how deeply children are filled with emotion through the main character, Max, but even more so through the Wild Things. Carol, the “lead” monster who is voiced by James Gandolfino is such a complex character – wild and crazy one minute and deeply hurt by his monster friend’s abandonment in the next scene – that you can almost hear your own child’s voice in the dialogue.

The hopes and desires that the Wild Things have for their king are what most humans want in life – stability, friendship and fun. Where the Wild Things Are is as much an adult movie as it is a children’s movie. About 20 minutes into the movie – I was concerned that it would be over my kids’ heads. Not only did they completely get it but afterward wanted to talk about why the different characters behaved the way they did. When was the last time you saw a kids movie and actually had something to discuss afterward?

The costumes were fantastic and overall the movie is visually stunning and a complete joy to watch. It was worth the admission price to hear my own son, Max, get out of the car this morning and turn to me with an impish grin and say “Let the wild rumpus begin!

***Great post, Nicole, and Ima let you finish, but because we are a blog that explores the intersection of books and music (and film) – be sure to check out the excellent soundtrack to the movie by Karen O (of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs) and the Kids — Tim****