“Max: Wow! Did you make this?....[looking at a sculpture of an idealized version of the island and its creature inhabitants] Carol: Yeah. It was going to be a place where only the things you want to happen would happen.”
Viewer's Annotation
Max is pretty upset with his mom and sister, and wonders why neither of them is paying much attention to him. So in full wolf costume, he runs away from home to a local park, hops on a boat and sets sail for an island unlike any other…
About the Author and Screenwriters
Having to spend much of his New York childhood indoors due to illness, Maurice Sendak found joy in reading and drawing. At age twelve, he was greatly impacted by Walt Disney’s Fantasia, and its world constructed from the imagination. After high school, Sendak took art classes, and produced almost 50 books in the 1950s. In 1963 he published the Caldecott Medal-winning Where the Wild Things Are, on which the present movie is based.
Born Adam Spiegel, Spike Jonze grew up on the east coast and drove off to California with a friend the day after graduating from high school. There he began writing articles for a dirt-biking magazine, having been very involved in the sport in his childhood. In his career since he has created award-winning movies, music videos, and television commercials. Jonze helped write the screenplay for and directed Where the Wild Things Are.
Chicago native Dave Eggers, co-writer of the screenplay for Where the Wild Things Are, has written several award-winning books, and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for the 2001 A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. He now lives in San Francisco, and is very involved in a non-profit youth writing program which he cofounded, as well as the building of secondary schools in Sudan.
Genre
Fantasy, Adventure
Interest Age
9-14 years
Plot Summary
This film adaptation varies from Sendak’s book in certain plot and character details, but the overall storyline and themes, although expanded, are fairly true to the original. The film begins at the home of Max (whom director Spike Jonze chose to portray as a nine-year-old, see Jonze link above), an imaginative boy literally bursting with energy. Like many children faced with a multi-year age difference between himself and his sibling, and a mother who is dating, Max feels left out and seeks attention as reassurance that he is loved. Early on in the film, Max’s sister’s friends begin destroying an ice fort which he has built, and his sister, caught up in her own teenage need for peer acceptance, does not stop them. This greatly upsets Max, who proceeds to make a retaliatory mess in her bedroom. Later that day Max becomes angry at his mother while her boyfriend is over for the evening. This leads to an argument between mother and son, and Max runs out the door, still in his hooded wolf outfit, to a local park. While in the park he falls asleep and dreams that he has sailed away to a wooded island inhabited by enormous furry creatures. He encounters the creatures just as a prominent member of their society, Carol, is destroying all of the creatures’ houses because he is upset that K.W., his best friend (and I believe romantic partner) is now spending much time with her new friends. Some of the other creatures on the island include Douglas, a bird and peacemaker; Judith, a self-deprecating and slightly unpleasant creature; her partner, the easy-going Ira; and Alexander, a goat creature who feels ignored. Max soon becomes king of the creatures, convinced that he can create an environment in which everyone is happy all the time. After a short period of utopian cooperation between the creatures, however, feelings of anger, loneliness, and rejection surface among various members of the group. It becomes apparent to Max that a constant state of happiness is as impossible in this island world as it is in his own home. Through conversation with K.W., Max comes to understand that although creatures (and people) who love each other will argue and disagree at times, the strength of their love and a spirit of forgiveness has the potential to conquer all. Max then decides to sail home, where he finds his mother waiting for him with a hug, a hot dinner, and a loving gaze.
Critical Evaluation
The pacing of the film is varied, with the crazy exuberant energy of scenes such as Max’s damaging of his sisters room balanced by long desert walks and contemplative talks about feelings between Max and creatures on the island. While several of the wild creatures are one-dimensional – yet very humorous in their human mannerisms and often mundane and childish concerns -- Max is very believable, so caught up in his moment-to-moment emotions about the changing nature of his relationships at home that he needs to run away from it all in order to view it with more objectivity and put himself in his mother’s and sister’s shoes. The camera angles help the audience to identify with Max and his emotions, from being inside the snow fort with him to running and crashing through the island forest during the “wild rumpus” and the dirt-clod fight. And setting is a major component of this film. The creatures’ island is forested and rustic, and their structures are basic yet beautiful in the way that they have used sticks of wood to create pleasing curved and rounded forms which shelter them from the elements. These creations appear to be refined reflections of Max’s own sculptures which we see in the earlier scenes of his waking life. Moreover, the unadorned nature of the setting removes extraneous elements that might distract from the focus of this movie on the central interpersonal issue that the creatures must somehow resolve: namely the challenges of friendships, relationships and living in community with others, given that we each have different and sometimes conflicting needs and desires. This is a one-of-a-kind film, whose cinematography and costuming provide as much stunning escapism as its themes and storyline provide optimistic hope about our capability to love those dear to us unconditionally.
Filmtalking Ideas
• Give a character filmtalk from Max’s point of view, including his happiness about becoming king of the island and eventual discovery that the job is not so easy.
• Give a character filmtalk from Carol’s point of view, contemplating his feelings about the challenges he perceives in his relationship with K.W.
• Give an episode filmtalk about the dirt-clod fight and its aftermath.
Curriculum Ideas
• Art: Students create their own puppet “wild things” from found materials of their choosing.
• Literature: Students discuss how the film is similar to and different from the book, and how the format of each work may contribute to this.
• Social science: Students discuss the nature of group dynamics (both families and other groups), and brainstorm concrete examples of how people can show their love for those they care about.
Potential Challenge Issue & Defense
Some violence:
• Become familiar enough with the movie’s content to promote its artistic merits.
• Refer to library’s collection development policy.
• Refer to movie reviews from authoritative sources such as ALA, School Library Journal, etc.
• Obtain movie reviews from tweens who have seen it.
Why I Chose This Film
I hadn’t considered this film for this blog initially, because I remembered Max being very young in Sendak’s book. However, when I saw the film, Max appeared to be somewhere between eight and ten years old, judging by his appearance and vocabulary. An article on director Spike Jonze (see above link), confirmed that he intended the film to show what it feels like to be nine years old. Given this, I thought it important to discuss this current and unique film which so many tweens will doubtless be seeing.
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