Where The Wild Things Are (Spike Jonze, 2009)

[dx23]

Funny thing is that Michael Phillips and A.O. Scott were talking about this very same topic on this week's At the Movies. They kind of feel the same way we do. Parents treat their kids today as pussies. They don't let them do the stuff that kids did 10 years ago, much less what they did in the 80's. You see all the sanitized crap they are fed by media and what that is only doing is just creating a bunch of sissies while at the same time underestimating and underrating childrens' intelligence and capacity.

[milk114]

This, however, is the opposite extreme.

[Jeff]

DVD/Blu-ray announced. No word on supplements yet other than the fact that the Blu-ray will have an exclusive new short film (an adaptation of Sendak's Higglety Pigglety Pop! Or, There Must Be More to Life). Here's hoping Jonze's acclaimed documentary short, Tell Them Anything You Want: A Portrait of Maurice Sendak, will be there too.

[HarryLong]

the Blu-ray will have an exclusive new short film (an adaptation of Sendak's Higglety Pigglety Pop! Or, There Must Be More to Life).

Ironically HIGGLETY PIGGLETY offers more possibilities for feature adaptation than WILD THINGS.

[AWA]

I agree Higglety Pigglety looks much better than Where The Wild Things Are.

I would like to promote Higglety Pigglety a little bit here, as a good friend of mine, Canadian songwriter Al Tuck, is in this - see a clip of him as "Milkman Cat" here.
The link also includes other clips and photos from the film, which looks very similar to the style of Fantastic Mr. Fox and looks far better than WTWTA.

[Jeff]

Here's hoping Jonze's acclaimed documentary short, Tell Them Anything You Want: A Portrait of Maurice Sendak, will be there too.

Turns out that Tell Them Anything You Want is being released separately on DVD by Oscilloscope. I wish it could have been included as a supplement on the Where the Wild Things Are disc, but at least it looks like the doc has some good supplements of its own.

[mfunk9786]

Here's hoping Jonze's acclaimed documentary short, Tell Them Anything You Want: A Portrait of Maurice Sendak, will be there too.

Turns out that Tell Them Anything You Want is being released separately on DVD by Oscilloscope. I wish it could have been included as a supplement on the Where the Wild Things Are disc, but at least it looks like the doc has some good supplements of its own.

There's a great deal for this on eBay (through Buy.com's seller account). $15.89 including shipping.

[MitchPerrywinkle]

This was my favorite film of 2009, and I think it's a damn shame it wasn't as successful as it should have been. I think people went in expecting a film that bore resemblance to films like E.T. or The Black Stallion, but instead got something that had more in common emotionally and thematically with something like Fanny & Alexander (which, like Where the Wild Things Are, makes a profound statement on the passage of childhood by utilizing magic realism).

I can understand why it would rub some the wrong way, but I don't see how anyone could percieve this film as a negative experience. I'm reminded of a story my ex-girlfriend told me once about when she was at work and she saw two young kids help their grandmother and display genuine courtesy. The grandmother kindly explained that they had gone to see Where the Wild Things Are, and when my ex asked what the kids thought of it, they enthusiastically said how they thought it was funny and scary and sad and great.

What I'm trying to get across is that I think ultimately the message in the film that I think Jonze and Eggers wanted to get across for kids and adults was that one of the first steps of growing up is adapting empathy. In the end, Max realizes that there is no such thing as kings who have magical powers or who can save an entire world. People are flawed, and often make mistakes. However, that doesn't mean there is no love in their actions. Max realizes what it must be like for his mother to raise kids, and thus learns that she is not perfect herself. Yet that is all right, because she'll always love him for who he is. And by the final shot, he sees she falls asleep, and smiles because it's ok. She's tired. He finally understands.

So I commend Jonze and his talented cast and crew for making this gutsy, unorthodox, and sad film that bears a surprisingly uplifting message. It's one of the most beautiful children's films to have graced the screen since Miyazaki's Spirited Away, and I sincerely hope that at the very least the film becomes a cult classic.