Wild Things

Posted on 17 October 2009

Administrivia: Sorry I’m a day late, have been ill with a bad head cold.

So last night, I went and saw Where the Wild Things Are.  I’ll go ahead and say: yes, it is a very good movie.  Oddly enough, I never doubted that it would be,  and I honestly don’t know why.  After all, the source material is, as one other reviewer pointed out, only nine sentences long.  I had terminal dread over adaptations of children’s books with far more to work with, such as Cat in the Hat and the newer Grinch.  The new Christmas Carol is kind of up in the air with me, as is the new Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland thing.  Yet, I knew from the first time I saw the preview that Wild Things would be great. (spoilers below the fold)

So, I’ll examine this in two parts, my pre-movie feelings and post-movie feelings.  From the trailer, there was something to it that said this was going to capture the feeling of the book.  Yet, what was that feeling?  Why is it that among so many books for children, Wild Things is so amazingly quintessential.  Well, I’d say it is because it is one of the few books that doesn’t more or less tell kids to sit down and shut up, but instead encourages them to figure things out on their own.  The book tells the story of Max, a wild child who is sent to bed without supper, who instead of sulks, goes on a adventure where he gets to truly be  Wild Thing, has his rumpas, then after he’s had his fill, goes home.  The trailer conveyed that very feeling with a little something extra that I think really added, the whole “Inside all of us is Hope/Fear/a Wild Thing.”  I think the last thing that really had me on board for the movie is that the author of the book was on the production crew.

So, post movie: I think I have actually come to understand some of what the book was getting at even better.  Yes, I understand nine sentences better.  The movie deals not just with juvenile wildness, but with a very common thing for children, which is the demystification of the world.  Learning that things don’t stay static and rosy, and everything has to eventually change (at one point in the movie, they are worrying over the sun dying.  Wow.)  When Max is made the King of the Wild Things, he is charged with keeping away the sadness, and despite his best attempts to make everyone happy, that just isn’t possible, and he has to come to terms with it.  It even gets to the point where the Wild Things turn on him.  I’d dare say, it was actually pretty durn dark.  Yet, in the end, even the Wild Things come to realize that things can’t always stay the same, and Max then goes home.  You get the feeling that everything isn’t better, but it will be more manageable.

So yeah, I think Wild Things did well to keep the wonder of the original story and the core message, which I have come to see as a complex thing revolving around gaining your own understanding of things instead of just accepting what “Mom and Dad” say.  Strong messages of overcoming fear, understanding friendship, and even unconditional love all play a strong role, but through all of it, Max never has a single person there to act as a guide or mentor.  He figures it out on his own.  It is rather empowering to a young child to get that message, and perhaps that is why I have always loved that book.