Count me in among the millions that wanted Spike Jonze's head on a platter if Where the Wild Things Are wasn't fantastic. I went in assuming I'd either leave the theater bitter and disappointed or ecstatic and giddy and raving about how great it was. Instead I came out wanting to kick and throw things, run, climb trees, and fall down exhausted. It made me quiet and moody and inarticulate. In other words, it is fantastic, and in way I never expected.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
There's one in all of us.
Count me in among the millions that wanted Spike Jonze's head on a platter if Where the Wild Things Are wasn't fantastic. I went in assuming I'd either leave the theater bitter and disappointed or ecstatic and giddy and raving about how great it was. Instead I came out wanting to kick and throw things, run, climb trees, and fall down exhausted. It made me quiet and moody and inarticulate. In other words, it is fantastic, and in way I never expected.
Strange. My 10 year old grandson (who loves the book) walked out bothered by the darkness and violence. His father liked it though. I haven't seen it yet. Do you think it's reaching the kid within the adult more than the child?
ReplyDeleteI'm shocked. This is exactly how I felt about it. But you put words to it, and I was just sitting in a daze.
ReplyDeleteI loved it, and definitely think it spoke to the adult child. Aaaoo!
ReplyDeleteKim - I;m not sure how kids will react. They put Max's 10yr old emotion and reasoning into very large an powerful bodies and adult voices. It's truly scary at times. Uncomfortably so. And when it's impossible to express an emotion the answer to throw someone, jump on top of them...it's completely physical movie.
ReplyDeleteI was really torn up at the end, I got really emotional about it. Quite a fantastic movie, I went in trying not to let expectations put it up on some unattainable pedestal, much to my surprise, it exceeded them. Such dark moments at the end, I almost forgot that it's a PG film.
ReplyDeleteI would say it speaks to adults more than kids. The colors, the music, the situations, the symbolism. What is implied rather than said. Even the kid running away instead of going to his room (the only thing I was disappointed in was not seeing his room transform) - and seeing max's parents' marriage fall apart through the wild things - yeah - I'd say it reaches the adult more than the child. And I thought it was really good and really captured the spirit of the book.
ReplyDeleteI got completely lost in the visual beauty of every character and every scene.
ReplyDeleteIt is the first time, in along time the CGI was not an obvious distraction.
It was so unlike any movie I have seen.
I can't wait, here in France it will be released in December! But reading your thoughts kinda makes me want to see it even more! haaaaa!
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