Where The Wild Things Are

I suppose technically this is a children’s/family movie, given the source material and the big, hairy, friendly monsters. That said, it’s not exactly a typical family movie, since it’s directed by Spike Jonze and scored (partly) by Karen O of the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs. So if you happen to have an indie hipster kid to whom such things will likely appeal (and who isn’t going to feel too cheated by the fact that the version of Arcade Fire’s “Wake Up” used in the trailer isn’t in the movie itself), this could be just the movie for them. And you.

It’s a simple story, really. Disruptive wild child doesn’t like how big sis is growing older and apart from him, disruptive wild child dresses up as dog, disruptive wild child bites his own mother and runs away, finds a boat and sails to an island of big, hairy, celebrity-voiced monsters all of whom are allegorical equivalents of people in the Real World  (including himself), disruptive wild child learns enough life lessons to come of age and return home a different person.

That’s a trite enough summary, I’ll admit, and one that’s also a little unfair because it makes Where The Wild Things Are sound like something Dreamworks Animation would spit out for the holiday season. It’s more or less the tried and tested coming of age Hero’s Journey stuff (and the film features several on-the-nose metaphors that’ll give the Freudians a field day). It’s one of the base-narratives we always return to, so there’s nothing wrong with that, as long as the story gets told in an interesting way.

Which, to be fair, it does. If there was one phrase or description that most suits the film, it’s rough and tumble. The movie revels in it from the opening moments as the camera crashes around chasing wild child Max around his house, as he in turn chases his dog. That pretty much sets the tone for the film. There’s always movement, there’s always energy, it’s always a bit manic, in that “running down the side of a mountain not sure if you’re about to trip but not really caring if you do because tumbling and rolling would suit you just fine too” kind of way. There’s a lovely graininess to the image as well, which gives everything a fitting dreamlike quality, but also makes it somehow more real and tactile.

Special praise should be reserved for the decision to minimise the use of CGI in portraying the Wild Things of the titles. The delicate play of autumnal sunlight through their fur, and the sheer physicality demanded of them in terms of interaction with Max could never have been so perfectly achieved with a computer. That said, their expressive faces — which I assume are CGI — convey a great deal of very genuine emotion, helped no doubt by the voice talents of James Gandolfini among others.

In many ways, it’s a movie in which not very much happens, but at the same time, like an afternoon in a children’s playground, everything happens; leaders emerge, alliances are forged, battles are fought and individuals discover themselves… but all in time to get home for dinner and cake by the end.

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