Where The Wild Things Are

** WARNING: some spoilers.

I just watched this movie last night (opening night) and still mulling over what I saw, so forgive me if this entry goes into too many directions.

The movie is adapted from a children's book of the same name, written by Maurice Sendak. Filming first started in 2005, but creative differences caused the release of the movie to be pushed back until now. At one point, Warner Bros. Studio, which released the movie, wanted Sendak to re-film the $75 million project because it wasn't as family-friendly as they expected, so Sendak was given more time to change it to satisfy himself and Warner Bros. After I saw the movie, I had a hard time thinking what it must've been like before Sendak changed it because if I had been a kid watching this, I think I would be scared.

I can identify three main themes of Where the Wild Things Are, although this movie is so unique, I wouldn't be surprised if others find other themes to be more dominant. The three I thought of are belonging, loneliness, and self-identity. Max, the bratty protagonist, makes revelations for all three of these themes, yet the movie doesn't quite resolve his issues with them. The monsters in Max's fantasy world represent various aspects of him, overtly displayed for him to address; he acknowledges each monster, although he deals with some better than others. This child's imagination knows little boundaries, casts aside logic, and throws caution into the wind.

Slowly, I grew to love this movie, yet it wasn't what I had expected. Definitely, this movie is an English teacher's delight because it was chock full of symbolism and imagery. I love how the movie was shot, literally, from a child's point of view. I worried that my husband would get motion-sickness because the camera moved with you as you jumped, ran, dodged, and slid. Most of the scenes were filmed as if you were the child and everything else was so much bigger than you. The movie had humour and satisfyingly brought a child's imagination to epic proportions. My favourite parts included Max and Carol howling together, which occurred twice in the movie and with different purposes each time.

What I did not expect, and can't figure out even at this point whether I'm ok with it or not, is the fact that the monsters are portrayed as depressed, self-pitying, angry, spiteful, and lonely. This is what holds me back from embracing this movie fully. I was interested in seeing how a plot could be formed from a picture book, but I was blind-sided by how each character was saturated with just one emotion and never quite developed out of it. I expected Max or Carol or KW to be changed by conflict, but they stayed as static as the other characters who had more minor roles, and to this end, I am a bit disappointed.

Overall, I am satisfied with this movie. Growing up for almost six years without a proper companion, three of those years hidden in an apartment because the superintendent didn't allow children to live in his building, I had to rely on my imagination to stay entertained. My parents worked as custodians who worked the graveyard shift in various buildings in downtown Vancouver and strip malls in Richmond and I had to tag along. Some nights, I pretended to be in jail, hiding among boxes of supplies, and plotting my escape plan. Other nights, I was a movie star, a rock star, an astronaut, a spy dog, or a beauty pageant queen. While other children fell asleep to the voices of their parents reading a bedtime story, I fell asleep on waiting room couches to the sound of the industrial vacuum cleaner. I'm not sure how and when Where the Wild Things Are landed in my lap, but I couldn't put the book down and I memorized each picture; I created tableaux of the pictures with my dolls and I, of course, was Max, except instead of a cat costume, I had my hooded blanket that I used to get married in. This movie awakened in me the lonely, yet highly imaginative, child within -- I bet I was the only person crying in the theatre that night.