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warmsoxJournalWhere The Wild Things Are

October 18th, 2009

Where The Wild Things Are

The much anticipated Spike Jonze adaptation of the Maurice Sendak book is wonderful, beautiful, haunting, amazing and for 90% of it the most depressing movie you've ever seen that still ends on an incredibly uplifting note.

It is the story of how Max gets into a fight with his family and retreats into his imagination to work out the issues he's been having. It is very true to the spirit of the book and is really just hauntingly beautiful throughout even through some of the scarier parts.

The interesting thing about it is that it's only going to be that depressing for adults, mainly because we see the issues that we worked through as young adolescents reflected on the screen. We saw the movie with Martha, Jared and Silas, and Silas really liked the movie but most of the allegorical and depressing aspects bounced off of him because he has no experience with the issues, if anything he was probably a little bored during the middle.

Performances were amazing all the way around, punctuated by the voice acting of the Things, all were spectacularly done in terms of voice acting and the acting of the characters. The amount of emotion they were able to show was truly great, not to mention that they looked like they jumped right off the page. And a special mention to the absolutely mind blowing sound track and score. Definitely going to have to pick them up because they were just flat out amazing.

All in all, a wonderful movie that goes really well with the book (which I looked through again when we got back to Martha's) and it should be seen by everyone, because while some kids may be sad about it, if they are fans of the book, they will love the imaginary world that is shown to them, and miss the sad parts.

Comments [ Add a Comment ]   [ Watch Comments ]   [ 1 ]
Strider165
Strider165
workworkwork
FORUM MOD
#1   Posted 1 month ago
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Seriously. Such a great movie.
hellosteph
hellosteph
Sponsor
#2   Posted 1 month ago
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Max and his mom, and Max and his sister -- those interactions were almost painful for me to watch, they hit a little too close to home. But the movie overall was great - I loved it and thought the creatures were unbelievable. Just so good. Also, I think the boy they found to play Max was perfect.
sphinxter
sphinxter
#3   Posted 1 month ago
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I've heard nothing, but good things about this movie. I plan on seeing Paranormal Activity first though. I've heard that it is impossible to see it and not be scared at least once. I'm calling BS on that. It just looks like another movie that "scares" people by actually "surprising" them. I don't consider being surprised being scared.
Quarters
Quarters
Brosworth
#4   Posted 1 month ago
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Sigh, next weekend. :(
Japan_books
Japan_books
sicky
#5   Posted 1 month ago
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This was the first book I read. I really can't wait to see the movie, but since it's not coming out for several more months in Japan, I can only assume that they are dubbing it. *sigh* So I'll have to wait until I'm back in the states. Boo!

Post edited 10/19/09 2:24AM
MarthaMarin
MarthaMarin
Sponsor
#6   Posted 1 month ago
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perfect.
Jimmerz
Jimmerz
Cutz
#7   Posted 1 month ago
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I've been looking forward to this one, especially since I found out Dave Eggers co-wrote the adaptation. Out on video now is another movie he wrote, Away We Go, which was intelligent and funny. He's a good writer, read a semi-autobiographical book by him years ago, and it left a lasting impression.
SloeBombFizz is online
SloeBombFizz
anal nathrac
#8   Posted 4 weeks ago
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Glad to hear they didn't dumb it down or add side-wacky adventures as filler.
The absolute worst thing they could have done was give it the JimCarrey/SteveCarell/WillFerrell treatment.

That story was healing therapy to every unhappy little kid whether they just had a tantrum or they were hiding from the yelling in the other room... the disappointments don't last. Those mixed up monsters really appealled to my imagination and fantasy every time I opened that book.
I also think it does more to convey a mother's love than any other child's story I know of and it's entirely because of the dark times in the beginning and the redemption/return at the end that it is able to do so.

If the movie can only capture a part of that, then it must be amazing.
Hamstar
Hamstar
DOT COM
#9   Posted 3 weeks ago
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I'll mention it to Jen and see if she wants to see it this date night
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