Where the Wild Things Are

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Riley S. A beautiful, bittersweet ode to childhood imagination and emotional growing pains. Spike Jonze takes Maurice Sendak’s 10-sentence book and turns it into a hauntingly tender journey through the mind of a lonely boy. Max Records is incredible as Max, capturing the wild joy and aching sadness of a kid who feels misunderstood. The creatures—brought to life through an eerie blend of practical effects and CGI—aren’t just monsters; they’re messy, complex parts of Max’s psyche. The film’s tone is melancholic and dreamlike, more for introspective older kids and adults than toddlers expecting a fun adventure. Karen O’s score is magical. The cinematography is raw and immersive. It’s not a conventional kids’ movie, but that’s what makes it so special. A wild thing, indeed. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 07/21/25 Full Review Michael B One of the worst movies I’ve ever seen and definitely wouldn’t recommend it for children. Awful, depressing, boring as hell, almost glorifies acting out mental illness with absolutely no resolution or attempt to help from the boy’s mother. The only good quality was the special effects of the monsters, but that only gives a greater painful reminder of this piece of filth when I go back and read the original masterpiece children’s book and am reminded how close the monsters in the movie look to the book. Whoever was involved in this should be ashamed! Rated 0.5/5 Stars •  Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 06/22/25 Full Review WT 3 They took Maurice Sendak's wonderful, innocent fantasy world and turned it into a trauma dump full of emotional abuse, random violence, abandonment, divorce and erratic, unpredictable behavior - every adult nightmare - and then marketed it to children. My children never picked up another Sendak book again. It ruined it for them. This movie was disturbing and pointless. Shame on everyone involved. Rated 0.5/5 Stars •  Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 05/28/25 Full Review carol H This movie is genuinely disturbing to children. It a meandering, humorless interpretation of a wonderful book, about a child learning to connect to his family and home after exploring cruelty and antisocial behavior. The only thing linking the two was the excellent costume interpretation of the famous illustrations in the original book. It is relentlessly dark, with mumbly, formless dialogue which is neither humorous or even coherent in terms of following a logical plot. The head of the wild things crush the houses of the other creatures, destroy trees, beat each other, none of which was in the book. It literally explains the eventual burning out of the sun repeatedly, which was extremely disturbing to the child watching. It's a total mess of a movie. I love Gandolfini, who is totally wasted in this. Avoid it and watch the animated version as well, or just read your kid the book. Rated 1/5 Stars •  Rated 1 out of 5 stars 03/24/25 Full Review Blu B It's one of the most original fantasy movies I've ever seen. Very unique subject matter/underlying message. I get why critics like this and also why it didn't resonate with audiences at the time. I like it's style also and the direction here isn't bad at all. But that being said, this is defintely an acquired taste and not for everyone. The acting is just ok. Max is hard to like because he's so over the top aggressive, annoying, and spastic. Yes I get that's how kids are but you also need to make him more realtable and I think most parents would agree that's not the normal for a kid. The other issue is the creatures I really like the designs but the voices and personalities all just blend in. the jokes they make also don't feel like they fit the world there in, feel like they belong in a Jonah Hill/Seth Rogan comedy, and the voices don't match the character designs. There also just isn't much individual personality to the other creatures. I remember the female one and that's about it. The rest all blended in despite remembering the designs quite well. I did like Max towards the end but most of the time I didn't care. Everythign else though is half decent. It's a dark world design that reminds of something like the PS2 game Shadow of Colossus. But half the time it's so dark you can't see it that well. Than once he arrives in this world it feels like it jumps around and stuff sort of just happens. It makes sense enough but it just feels rushed to me. Who doesn't like who, who is Max's favorite, building the new world, it's hard to remember which arc goes with which. This needed probably another 30 minutes or so tacked on to build out this world, make the characters more distinct and memorable, and not rush things. I really like the desert and the dead forest but I wanted more honestly to resonate. The odd lines/humors, rushed plot lines, and not really exploring that much of this world really makes it hard to let the ideas here flourish. I like the coming of age message here where you can't just go nuts and have no rules. It feels almost like a Dr. Suess story in that regard. But it just gets bogged down by the issues meantioned previously. I think though someone who is a big fan of the source material, the director, any actors in this, or very quirky kind of dark fantasy films should check this out. I kind of would like to see this remade. I think the potential here is worth it to resonate with a wider audience and the profits to boot Warner Bros. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 03/08/25 Full Review Audience Member One of the worst movies I’ve ever seen. Couldn’t wait for the 101 minutes to end. Rated 0.5/5 Stars •  Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 01/11/25 Full Review Read all reviews

Where the Wild Things Are

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