Where the Wild Things Are

One of the latest crazes in Hollywood is to take things from our childhood and make it in to a movie. Usually, hype builds with hopes that the director or producer at the helm of these projects can get it right. Some do, in amazing ways, for example when "Transformers" came out, it was "more than meets the eye." The characters, the "All Spark", the transformation noise, and even some of the cheesy lines, were all there. Now add a main story to make it more relatable, with the Shia LaBuff 's Sam Whikiwiki, and it was an awesome movie. And a lot of times Hollywood fails...lets just say the "G.I Joe's" I know my brothers played with never needed special suits to help save the world. So for today's flick "Where the Wild Things Are", well all I can ask is, where are the wild things? In Spike Jonze's adaptation of one of the best children's book ever written, felt more depressing than fun.
This movie was just a miss instead of a hit. I was one of those people who thought it was going to be amazing and fun, and with it's "fluff" I was left disappointed. Now the reason I say "fluff" is because the book being a children's book, it is short, so when it comes to making the movie they had to add some story. Having Max's teacher say to the class in the start of the movie, "Someday the sun will die, and then the Earth will die...", definitely set the tone of the movie. Your telling 9 and 10 year olds that we will all die in a world with no sun light...come on. Then later in the movie, when Max is trying to talk to the Wild-things, he ask "Did you know that one day the sun will die?" Carol does reply, "No, I don't think that could happen." Still, what a miserable way to get the movie going. You have wild things that are mean, depressed, and one even feels ignored, all feelings Max has...but Max should be escaping to the land and having an crazy time, then realizing rules are good, a mom is good things to have. Not go to a land and continue to feel miserable.
Now for the few things I did enjoy, and I do mean a few. The suit created for the Wild Things were beautiful done, exactly spot on. So was the costume and crown they had Max in. Plus I have to give the actor Max Record, who played Max his credit, because for a first movie...wow. Also the story that Max tells his mom in the begining, the one about the vampire with no fangs, was very entertaining and shows that this is a kid that uses his imagination... which in the end is something the source material supported too. Lauren Ambrose loaning here voice to KW was also pretty great.
Okay, so this Ingénues opinion, is really don't waist your time, if your a fan of the book. You might like it if you haven't. I' missed it in theaters and was bummed, but glad I didn't pay a $9.00 ticket fee. I would rate this movie as a 4 out of 10.