DVD reviews: Where the Wild Things Are

By blending the fantastic with vague threat, Maurice Sendak’s Where The Wild Things Are riveted whole generations of kids. Now bearded and deep in therapy, director Spike Jonze is out to shake up those same kids by radically, though lovingly, reinterpreting their childhood favourite.

Where The Wild Things Are is a movie about children, not for them. From the book’s original 10 sentences, Jonze and writer Dave Eggers unravelled 100 minutes of surreal adventure set on an island occupied by monster children, all unable to understand let alone control their fierce emotions. Fear of being alone, turbulence, rage and curiosity about death are pretty heavy themes for what appears to be a children’s film, but real kids can come up with some pretty heavy stuff.

Newcomer (and recipient of the award for best name) Max Records embodies rather than acts out his role as the wolf-suited kid (also conveniently named Max). When a teacher describes the inevitability of the earth being engulfed by the sun, Max looks genuinely horrified. The brilliantly understated Catherine Keener plays Max’s overworked mother, James Gandolfini deftly delivers gruff vulnerability and almost-unhinged threat, and Lauren Ambrose deploys those tones of world-weary teenager she perfected in Six Feet Under.

Blending puppetry and costumes from Jim Henson’s Creature Shop with computer-generated animation was inspired. The shaggy, stinky wild things appear incredibly tactile while remaining true to Sendak’s illustrations.

Where The Wild Things Are is brilliant on Blu-ray. The naturally lit sets shot in southern Australia reproduce beautifully on HD video, and probably work better at home than they did in the cinema. Karen O’s soundtrack is quirky, fresh and fitting.

Extras are relatively standard, with a couple of behind-the-scenes featurettes providing some insight into the flick.
I suspect many viewers are going to feel short changed by Where The Wild Thing Are; it’s certainly not the rollicking rumpus implied by the studio’s marketing campaign. On the other hand, Jonze’s take on the children’s classic is provocative, thoughtful and enviably skilled in its execution. Perhaps once it has shrugged off the expectation to recreate the experience that thrilled so many as kids, Jonze’s Where The Wild Things Are reveals itself as being something even better: something new. TG

Movie: 4

Sound: 3 1/2

Vision: 4