Let The Wild Rumpus Start

Upon entering the theatre to view Where the Wild Things Are, one thing was so glaringly obvious, so blatantly apparent, so gosh darn clear; despite the rating of PG and the film having been based on a childrens' book, the number of children could be counted on one hand. From it's Arcade fire track in the trailer to it's general feeling of melancholy-nostalgia, we knew from it's advertising genesis that Where the Wild Things was no Golden Compass; it had the aesthetics of a children's film with the content of light-hearted film for adults.

That's not to say Where the Wild Things Are isn't suitable for children, it still a wonderful adventure featiuring a child protagonist that many young people can relate to. But Spike Jonze still manages to explore some of the most prominent features of the human experience; lonliness, betrayal, emptiness, unadulterated joy and largely above all, love and accepting it.

The original Where the Wild Things are isn't the most complex of stories; Young boy named Max sporting a wolf outfit get up to three kinds of mischief and is sent to bed without supper. His room grows into another lands and he sails to land of Wild Things. Naturally, Max becomes king of the Wild things but eventually wants to go back home where he finds his supper waiting for him...and it was still hot. Of course, it were directly translated into a film, it would probably be less than five minutes long. Jonze makes Max (Max Records) the child of a workaholic mother and a departed father and the sibling of sister who is edging closer to adulthood. Max is not extraordinary, he is just a child at the cusp of adolescence not wanting to take that final jump.

Our story opens with our protagonist Max having a snow fight with his sister and her friends culminating in Max's igloo being destroyed. The moment is apsolutely crushing, Max is destraught and furious. In revenge Max ransacks his sister's bedroom before guilt begins to trickle in. In these moments, any reservations about our leading actor's acting ability are put to rest. In these moments, we become fully aware of who we are in this tale as we see a moment from our childhood on screen.

Enter Katherine Keener. Katherine Keener plays Max's mother; a stabilising influence and source of comfort and love. For the moment I'll refrain from gushing Katherine Keener love over this keypad. Like most other aspects of the story, Spike Jonze adds an addiditional dimension to the reasoning behind Max's mischeif. Unlike the book, where no explanation is really given, Max's mischief is the result of seeing him mother with a male friend, someone attempting to take the place of his father. After standing in a table and biting his mother, Max is told that he shan't be having any supper resulting in him sailing off to the land of the Wild Things and made king.Max is appointed to do one thing in particular; keep lonliness at bay, as Wild Things too can get lonely.

Maurice Sandak's 1963 story, in all it's nine sentences, naturally doesn't feature a great deal of character exploration, particulary in the Wild Things. Jonze makes what were previously nameless colour pictures into 3 dimensional characters (literally and figuratively). There's Carroll the emotional and creative one, caring and empathetic K.W., the logical Douglass, negative "downer" Judith, pushover Ira and the quite Bull, each depicting a different facet of of our protagonist and like Max facing the problems that define adolescence; friends making new friends, wanting the make everyone happy, wanting to be heard, wanting to try new things and accidentally pushing the people who love you away. Yes, this is a film for those who are going through these problems or who have gone through them already, 'tis not for young children, they aren't yet prepared for it.

Despite the names voicing characters (James Gandolfini, Lauren Ambrose, Forrest Whitaker, Paul Dano, Catherine O'Hara, Chris Cooper), at no point do they distract the viewer, each actors voice adds a great deal to the characters they play.

One of the central themes of Where the Wild Things Are is parental love. This is epitomised by Katherine Keener's performance as Max's mother. As mentioned previously, Max Records is splendid, the fact that this is his first performance is not apparent.

This, to me was a wonderful film. The performances were superb as was the casting, the combination of CGI and live action was perfect, the soundtrack was absolutely fantastic and fitting. All in all, I believe it to be a great adaptation of a childhood favourite.