Review: Where The Wild Things Are

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Title: Where The Wild Things Are
Distributor: Legendary Pictures(Warner Bros. Pictures)
Director: Spike Jonze
Writer(s): Spike Jonze (screenplay), Dave Eggers (screenplay), Maurice Sendak (book)
Staring: Max Records, WILD THINGS VOICES: James Gandolfini, Paul Dano, Catherine O'Hara, Forest Whitaker, Michael Berry Jr., Chris Cooper, Lauren Ambrose
MPAA Rating: Rated PG for mild thematic elements, some adventure action and brief language.
Running Time: 94 min (1 hr and 34 min)
Synopsis: An adaptation of Maurice Sendak's classic children's story, where Max, a disobedient little boy sent to bed without his supper, creates his own world--a forest inhabited by ferocious wild creatures that crown Max as their ruler.

Other Reviews

Critics:

Roger Ebert: 3 Stars
Michael Phillips: 4 Stars
EW: Lisa Schwarzbaum: A

Other Sites:

At The Movies: A.O. Scott: See It, Michael Phillips: See It
Rotten Tomatoes: T-Meter: 68% (Fresh), Top Critics: 68% (Fresh), RT Community: 77% (Fresh)
Metacritic: Critics: 71 out of 100, Users: 7.7 out of 10
MRQE Metric: 72: (30.0% A, 40.0% B, 26.0% C, 3.9% D, and 0.0% F)
Yahoo Movies: Critics: B+ Users: B

My Review

Source Material: Based on Maurice Sendak's children book with the same title.

Acting and Dialogue: A: The performance were good and puppetry was even better. The voice actors were good but I doubt that they are the people in the suits creating those believable emotions and expressions.

Art Direction: A: The fantasy world Max creates is beautiful on it's own. So, I am glad that beauty was carried over form book to the film. It also helps that this film had the craftsmanship of the The Jim Henson Company working for them.

Cinematography: A+: The shot choice was down right awesome and beautiful.

Direction: A: The pace of the film was good and I like Spike Jonze style, if he keeps up the good work he could shimmy his way to my top ten list of filmmakers. This film seem like it going to be a good achievement in Spike Jonze career because he not not known for much but skater movies and commercials

Screenplay: B+: This is a very simple story. If my memory severs me correctly the book has less then fifteen pages and the word count is less that an average paragraph. But the plot is thicken with a wide range of human emotion. These emotion are played through the eye of child (MAX) via metaphorical representation (WILD THINGS). This film also did a great job at mixing homage to the book and creative freedom/ modernization.

Sound and Music: A: The sound track was complied of many "folk" type of musicians which brought the emotive language of the film out, making it a more powerful film.

VFX: A+: Fanatic, I love how it combined the old school technology from Labyrinth with today's CGI. The two technology created a very realistic environment. There were very few "fake"moments, if any at all.I hope to see some Oscar nomination in this category

Overall: A: This film not only fulfill my fantasy/ sic-fi "addiction" but it also hold it's own as a great drama. Notice I say drama, yes it is PG but it deals with some issues that children may not fully understand yet...Even though it is based on a children book doesn't mean the movie is also made for children. As far as my recommendation goes this film is technically a family film but I suggest that nobody under ten should see this film bases on the fact that they won't enjoy it.