Warner Bros. | 2009 | 101 mins. | Rated PG
As a child, Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are was a regular part of my bedtime reading routine. As a matter of fact, it was one of the first books I learned to read. Suffice to say, I have found memories of the story, and still keep a copy of the book in my personal library. That being said, I had serious doubts when I heard Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich) had signed on to direct and co-write (with Dave Eggers) a film adaptation of the beloved tale. I didn’t doubt his talent; one just had to wonder if an illustrated children’s book that consists of nine sentences and just twenty pages, could realistically be turned into a feature film.
The film expands on the opening pages of the book, showing us the lonely existence of Max (Max Records), a rambunctious and imaginative 11 year old who is too young to hang out with his newly pubescent sister and who receives little attention from his overworked, dating single mother (Catherine Keener). As a result, Max has an active fantasy life. When he sees his mother’s new boyfriend (Mark Ruffalo) in the living room and reacts with a fit, biting her and running out of the house.
Running into the forest, Max finds a sailboat and travels through rough waves across the sea; landing on a rocky island he encounters six monsters. Carol (James Gandolfini) is throwing a fit because the group isn’t together enough anymore. Jonze does a nice job of introducing us to the giant cast of monster characters, voiced by a host of amazing talent (Forest Whitaker, Catherine O’Hara and Chris Cooper make valuable contributions as characters who, sadly, don’t really contribute all that much to the story).
Max comes up with some fanciful stories to avoid being eaten, which leads to him being named king. Given his new power, Max can declare things like building a giant fort and the wild rumpus necessary activities. Aside from that, he spends his time watching the interactions among the wild things, where typical family squabbles usually turn into something more than the situation calls for. Specifically Carol is upset with K.W. (Lauren Ambrose) for making new friends (who turn out to be two small 0wls), and Alexander (Paul Dano) is tired of always being the butt of a joke.
In retrospect, the similarities between Max’s real life and that of the wild things are obvious, but Jonze does a solid job of not making it to obvious. He has the audience follow plot strands involving fort making, relationship issues between Carol and K.W. and the nearby desert. All of this is pointless, and sheds no real light on the wild things, or Max. The films central message seems to be that being a kid is far from carefree and even fun and games come with hurt and confusion. A good message for sure, but it rarely comes through, amid all the inter-wild thing drama and endless montages of running, jumping and playing.
The biggest issue I had with the film was the characterization of the wild things. They are so oversized that they border on the grotesque. The attempt to humanize them by generating a serious, sincere bond with Max falls short, as they look too much like odd shaped, big headed creatures to be taken seriously. All of this means, the film never got under my skin, and I never cared about the characters the way I did when reading Mr. Sendak’s book.
The Blu-ray is presented using a VC-1 encode to bring the film to disc in 2.40:1 ratio. The transfer looks very impressive. The high-definition image is extremely sharp most of the time, with rich, vivid colors. The screen remains clean throughout, with a thin veneer of fine film grain providing appropriate texture and depth to the picture, and facial tones are realistically rendered. The only slight disappointment is that nighttime scenes do not have the kind of deep black levels I expected, but that may be a condition of the original print.
Where the Wild Things Are comes to Blu-ray with a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track; it creates a nice ambient musical experience in the surround speakers, as well as place miscellaneous other noises like those of a dirt-clod fight nicely in the rears. This is well-detailed sound, with crisp transient response, strong deep bass, and wide, strong dynamics and impact. Voices are a touch forward, it won’t be noticed by most, or interfere with the viewing experience. English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese spoken languages; French, Spanish, and Portuguese subtitles and English captions for the hearing impaired
Since this is a Combo Pack, it contains a high-definition Blu-ray disc, a standard-definition DVD, and a digital copy of the film for iTunes and Windows Media, the offer expiring February 28, 2011. The following special features are also included:
• Higglety Pigglety Pop! or There Must Be More to Life (HD, 24 minutes): Actress Meryl Streep and Where the Wild Things Are star Forest Whitaker lend their voices to this pseudo-animated short about a dog who encounters a bizarre cast of characters.
• HBO First Look (HD, 13 minutes): More candid and engaging than HBO’s usual “First Look” television specials, this speedy overview of the book’s adaptation and the film’s production is an fascinating one.
• Maurice and Spike (HD, 3 minutes): Author Maurice Sendak, writer/director Spike Jonze, and co-writer Dave Eggers discuss the filmmaker’s approach to Sendak’s classic children’s tale.
• Max and Spike (HD, 7 minutes): This featurette that tracks the development of Jonze and first-time actor Max Records’ unique bond, the challenges the young performer had to face on set, and the cast and crew’s impression of Records and work.
• The Records Family (HD, 7 minutes): After auditioning hundreds of kids, Jonze found his perfect Max in Max Records. Its clear Max isn’t just a talented performer, but a humble kid blessed with great parents.
• Carter Burwell (HD, 5 minutes): Step into the recording studio with co-composer Carter Burwell as he crafts several pieces of the film’s score.
• The Absurd Difficulty of Filming a Dog (HD, 6 minutes): It documents, well, the absurd difficulty of filming a dog running and barking at the same time.
• The Big Prank (HD, 3 minutes): Assistant director Thomas Smith and Special Effects mastermind Marty Bresin orchestrate a scattershot prank that was probably more amusing on set than it is here.
• The Kids Take Over the Picture (HD, 5 minutes): The cast and crew were encouraged to bring their children to the set, allowing Records and his stunt doubles to enjoy their time on the film and make plenty of new friends.
• Vampire Attack (HD, 1 minute): Jonze dons vampire fangs to scare Records.
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