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Where the Wild Things Are

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Where the Wild Things Are (2009)

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Reviews Counted:187

Fresh:131

Rotten:56

Average Rating:7/10

Consensus: Some may find its dark tone and slender narrative off-putting, but Spike Jonze's heartfelt adaptation of the classic children's book is as beautiful as it is uncompromising.

Rated: PG [See Full Rating] for mild thematic elements, some adventure action and brief language.

Genre: Childrens

Theatrical Release:Oct 16, 2009 Wide

Box Office: $73,440,413

Synopsis: Innovative director Spike Jonze collaborates with celebrated author Maurice Sendak to bring one of the most beloved books of all time to the big screen in “Where the Wild Things Are,” a classic... Innovative director Spike Jonze collaborates with celebrated author Maurice Sendak to bring one of the most beloved books of all time to the big screen in “Where the Wild Things Are,” a classic story about childhood and the places we go to figure out the world we live in. The film tells the story of Max, a rambunctious and sensitive boy who feels misunderstood at home and escapes to where the Wild Things are. Max lands on an island where he meets mysterious and strange creatures whose emotions are as wild and unpredictable as their actions. The Wild Things desperately long for a leader to guide them, just as Max longs for a kingdom to rule. When Max is crowned king, he promises to create a place where everyone will be happy. Max soon finds, though, that ruling his kingdom is not so easy and his relationships there prove to be more complicated than he originally thought. --© Warner Bros [More]

Starring: Paul Dano, Forest Whitaker, Mark Ruffalo, Catherine Keener

Starring: Paul Dano, Forest Whitaker, Mark Ruffalo, Catherine Keener, Catherine O'Hara, Max Records, Lauren Ambrose, James Gandolfini, Chris Cooper

Director: Spike Jonze

Director: Spike Jonze
Screenwriter: Dave Eggers, Spike Jonze
Studio: Warner Bros.

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Reviews for Where the Wild Things Are

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I think it's brave and smart and expects its audience to be the same: it refuses to spoonfeed what it's doing to anyone.

Full Review Source: Needcoffee.com | comment Comment
11/21/09
Widgett Walls
Widgett Walls
Needcoffee.com

Wild Things might have been just another crass cartoon. Most filmmakers would have made the monsters' wild rumpus the film's raison d'être. Instead, Jonze and Eggers have crafted a poetic, personal interpretation.

Full Review Source: Looking Closer | comment Comment
11/20/09
Jeffrey Overstreet
Jeffrey Overstreet
Looking Closer

Feelings of loss and frustration, acted out so loudly, raucously, and repeatedly, are at the center of Where the Wild Things Are.

Full Review Source: PopMatters | comment Comment
11/19/09
Cynthia Fuchs
Cynthia Fuchs
PopMatters

Occasionally I will mitigate opinions when I reviewing a film I know carries an emotional charge for people... to impart a sense of fairness. This is not one of those times. Where The Wild Things Are made me want to punch someone in the face.

Full Review Source: Cinerina | comment Comment
11/19/09
Karina Montgomery
Karina Montgomery
Cinerina

The emotionality that is aspired to doesn't rise to the occasion and leaves you as deprived of dramatic nourishment as the poor boy who went to bed without his supper.

Full Review Source: Cinema Signals | comment Comment
11/15/09
Jules Brenner
Jules Brenner
Cinema Signals

Jonze creates perhaps the most artful film aimed at children since The Red Balloon, and one with unusually deep emotional resonance.

Full Review Source: Northwest Herald (Crystal Lake, IL) | comment Comment
11/11/09
Jeffrey Westhoff
Jeffrey Westhoff
Northwest Herald (Crystal Lake, IL)

Jonze's choice to once again drain the color from the film and use hand-held camera amidst the surreal is what gives Where the Wild Things Are a strange naturalism different from all other films that tend to be aimed at children.

Full Review Source: Examiner.com | comment Comment
11/06/09
Adam Lippe
Adam Lippe
Examiner.com

The book is about anger, while the film is as much about sadness. Here is a film broken-hearted over the messiness of the world. It is sad, and beautiful, and true.

Full Review Source: Decent Films Guide | comment Comment
11/06/09
Steven D. Greydanus
Steven D. Greydanus
Decent Films Guide

When it's over you just want to sit there and sigh for awhile then go home and have a cup of tomato soup and a grilled cheese and be tucked into bed and cry yourself to sleep. As long as mom is nearby.

Full Review Source: Windy City Times | comment Comment
11/03/09
Richard Knight
Richard Knight
Windy City Times

Odd pacing nearly trips up Wild Things.

Full Review Source: Illinois Times | comment 1 Comment
11/02/09
Charles Koplinski
Charles Koplinski
Illinois Times

In many respects, a creative triumph. The film is visually stunning, and the writing is equally fresh.

Full Review Source: Christianity Today | comment Comment
10/31/09
Carolyn Arends
Carolyn Arends
Christianity Today

What stays with you is the sadness. There's an almost unbearable undertow of melancholy in director Spike Jonze's awkward, arty adaptation of Maurice Sendak's 1963 picture book.

Full Review Source: Philadelphia Weekly | comment Comment
10/27/09
Sean Burns
Sean Burns
Philadelphia Weekly

Jonze and Eggers do an admirable, and at times alchemic, job of transforming the slim volume into something decidedly weightier in terms of plot without sacrificing the essence of the book's focus on the darker edges of childhood

Full Review Source: Q Network Film Desk | comment 1 Comment
10/26/09
James Kendrick
James Kendrick
Q Network Film Desk

The fact that Jonze and Eggers are revealing so much of themselves in this emotionally crabbed tribute to the unending hell of childhood is itself reason to see the film.

Full Review Source: Antagony & Ecstasy | comment Comment
10/26/09
Tim Brayton
Tim Brayton
Antagony & Ecstasy

They're all militantly dreary, like a Prozac-starved version of the seven dwarfs. (There's Lugubrious, Needy, Fretful, Disconsolate, Remorseful...)

Full Review Source: CinePassion | comment Comment
10/26/09
Fernando F. Croce
Fernando F. Croce
CinePassion

Charming, affecting and heartbreaking. It could have gone wrong in any number of ways, but never does

Full Review Source: The Trend | comment 1 Comment
10/25/09
Stephen Silver
Stephen Silver
The Trend

An intimate epic, Jonze's film is nearly unique among modern kid fare for its total lack of condescension to the core audience.

Full Review Source: minnpost.com | comment Comment
10/25/09
Rob Nelson
Rob Nelson
minnpost.com

It's all very clever and very creative. It's intellectually stimulating. But how much of it actually had any emotional impact?

Full Review Source: Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC) | comment 5 Comments
10/25/09
Ken Hanke
Ken Hanke
Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

Better not set foot, hoof or paw on this isle of pain.

Full Review Source: Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA) | comment 15 Comments
10/23/09
John Wirt
John Wirt
Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA)

A near-perfect live-action adaptation ... Where the Wild Things Are is a brilliantly conceived and artfully realized translation of Sendak's beloved story.

Full Review Source: Times-Picayune | comment 1 Comment
10/23/09
Mike Scott
Mike Scott
Times-Picayune
 
 
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Latest News for Where the Wild Things Are

October 18, 2009: Box Office Guru Wrapup: Audiences Eat Up Wild Things
Three new releases hit the multiplexes while one indie sensation expands nationally hoping to strike gold and shake up the establishment. Leading the charge is the family film... More...

October 15, 2009: Critics Consensus: Where the Wild Things Are Is A Wild Rumpus
This week, we've got a wild rumpus (Where the Wild Things Are, starring Max Records and Catherine Keener), a legal skirmish (Law Abiding Citizen, starring Jamie Foxx and Gerard... More...

October 08, 2009: Being John Malkovich director Spike Jonze's oft-delayed kiddies movie finally makes it to the big screen! Opens in new window
More...

October 05, 2009: Spike Jonze and Max Records Talk Where the Wild Things Are Opens in new window
You've still got to wait a little while for it to reach theaters, but in the meantime, you can get a small taste of what to expect from "Where the Wild Things Are," thanks to a... More...

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