Writers: Spike Jonze/Dave Eggers
Director: Spike Jonze
The Plot
Max, a rambunctious and sensitive boy feels misunderstood at home and escapes to where the Wild Things are. He lands on an island where he meets mysterious and strange creatures whose emotions are as wild and unpredictable as their actions. The Wild Things desperately long for a leader to guide them, just as Max longs for a kingdom to rule. When Max is crowned king, he promises to create a place where everyone will be happy. Max soon finds, though, that ruling his kingdom is not so easy and his relationships there prove to be more complicated than he originally thought.
The Review
There is more depth than that, however. Max, the main character, is pretty complex for a 10 year old boy. At one minute he's happy, another he is acting out for attention by wearing his animal costume and running around causing a ruckus. You can feel the fact that he is depressed and lonely, and for a movie to get that deep about a kid who hasn't even hit puberty yet is unheard of nowadays. If someone else had directed this, he would've just made corny one liners and have been played by one of the Rodriguez kids. Max Records, the actor who plays Max, is fantastic and will definitely have a future in film...at least until he goes through puberty and ends up working at PacSun with Jake "little Ani Skywalker" Lloyd.
The voice cast of the wild things themselves are great too, especially James Gandolfini, who nails it as the main wild thing, the bi-polar Carol. I forgot it was Tony Soprano belting out those lines and he was so intense that I feel like he should be nominated for something or at least start to be known for something other than being Tony Soprano.
The plot itself is pretty much Max making up a world inside of his mind with the wild things all having parts of his personality and emotions. By learning from them, he learns about himself and grows a little bit during his time as "king". In doing so, he rolls around and hangs out with the wild things, instructing them on how to live, and then listening to them as they bicker like kids, since they are pretty much kids anyway. I will admit...some of this had me bored and annoyed, but I kept with it, because it was interesting and appealing enough to not tune out.
This isn't your run of the mill kids movie. Hell, I doubt it is even a kid's movie. It just happens to be PG. This is a film adults more than kids will love I think, just due to the layers that children will miss because they don't have the cognitive ability/attention span to understand what is going on. I say if you're 13 and up, definitely see the movie, it is great and absolutely one of the best of the year. Just be wary on bringing the younger kids. Take them to Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs instead.