Where The Wild Things Are

I have no idea whether children will enjoy, or even get, this film, but for adults it's a total delight. It's never saccharine or sentimental, instead brimming with youthful exuberence while retaining an admirable edge. There's tremendous fun to be had with Max and the Wild Things, for instance when they hurl clods of mud at each other, or charge around yelling but there's always an underlying sense of danger. We don't forget (nor does Max) that his crown is retrieved from among the skeletal remains of previous kings of the Wild Things (eaten by their subjects for presumably not keeping the sadness away) and his essential vulnerability is emphasised by the way he is dwarfed by his new friends, who come complete with sharp teeth and even sharper claws.
The events on the island spring logically from the framing story: the clodfight itself refers back to the snowball fight with his sister's friends, while the wonderful fort that Max and the Wild Things construct echoes both the igloo carelessly destroyed as a result of the snowball fight (further emphasised when Carol threatens to tear down the structure) and the "spaceship" Max constructs in his room, complete with the stuffed toys that will be saved (and who subsequently mutate into the Wild Things in his imagination). Meanwhile, the heart-shaped gift to his sister, which Max rips to pieces in a fit of rage, is echoed twice on the island.
The Wild Things themselves represent various facets of Max's personality but it's not done in a heavy-handed way. Carol's creativity and temper remind us of Max, but so does Alexander's lack of confidence. It works because the framing story has given us such a vivid impression of this boy in such a short space of time. Max feels very much like a real child as opposed to the Hollywood idea of what a child is like. One particularly lovely grace note is the scene where Max curls up under his mother's work desk and plucks at the toe of her stockings as she works, while the later scene of Carol's model of the island makes one catch one's breath. Carol's destruction of this work of art produces the same emotional pang as did Max's tearing his sister's present to pieces. The damage has been done and can't be repaired. It's not exactly the book but it's a lovely film. And never underestimate the appeal of men in (furry) monster suits ...