There are some books that are so beloved and iconic, they’ll probably never be made into films. “Catcher in the Rye,” for one. Or “A Confederacy of Dunces,” for another. And for decades, the children’s book “Where the Wild Things Are” seemed to be among those topping that list as well.
Of course, there were a couple of factors that added to the burden of anyone willing to take a swing at “Things.” The book is only 10 sentences long and takes about eight minutes to fully absorb even when one drinks in the stunningly detailed and otherworldly drawings of its creator, Maurice Sendak. So to stretch it into the 90 minutes or more needed for a feature film, filmmakers would have to invent massive amounts of material, creating the risk that their newly added sequences would upset rather than delight the fans who made the book a mega-seller in the first place.
Thankfully, the 46-year wait to bring it to the screen has paid off due to the ingenious collaboration of visionary director Spike Jonze (“Being John Malkovich,” “Adaptation”) and writer Dave Eggers, who in his own book “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius” showed his own insights into the melancholy side of growing up. Together, in collaboration with director of photography Lance Acord and production designer K.K. Barrett, they’ve brought Sendak’s wildly inventive alternate world to rich life.
As anyone who’s ever taken a couple minutes to look over the book knows, “Wild Things” follows the adventures of a lonely boy named Max who gets a little too rebellious one night and is banished to his room without supper by his mother. While in his room, a wild jungle and sea appear in his imagination and he sets sail for another land far away that’s inhabited by monsters. He becomes their king and lives the high life before realizing he’s lonely, sets sail back to home and finds that home is not so bad after all since he has his hot dinner waiting for his return.
Max embarks on his journey in a more elaborate way in the film, and his trek across the land of the wild things is vastly expanded to incorporate some of the most stunning scenery this planet has to offer (the film was shot in Australia). The film also departs from the book in giving the various monsters names and extensive dialogue with Max, but thanks to a wonderful performance by literal newcomer Max Records in the lead and transfixing vocal characterizations by actors including James Gandolfini and, costumes and large-scale puppetry for the wild things, it almost all works.
A few brief moments drag here and there, and the film adds in some messages about friendship and inclusion. But these thankfully do not come off as forced PC goodness – rather, they are actually a rare modern example of how the children’s classics of decades past used to pull off being both entertaining and influential without being heavy-handed.
Above it all, crashing and soaring in equally stunning measure throughout the film is one of the most unique scores in movie history (I know it sounds hyperbolic, but you seriously won’t find a comparable score anywhere). Co-written and co-produced by Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeah and sung by Karen O along with a massive children’s chorus billed as The Kids, it captures perfectly the mix of jubilant madness and occasional sadness that form the happy-sad hallmarks of any childhood.
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