Where The Wild Things Are Not

So yes, I saw it today. And I'll admit, I was stoked about it. And I'll also admit that I made sure I read nothing about it beforehand, other than what Maurice Sendak thought about the film. I wanted no one else's opinion clouding my viewing of the film.

Now I'll tell you why that was a bad idea.

This is most definitely NOT the story that I fell in love with as a kid. That's not to say that it doesn't make for fantastic viewing or that it doesn't stand up as good cinema on its own right. It does. It's just not *my* Where the Wild Things Are, that's all. And chances are, it's not yours either.

Let me also add here, if you were planning on taking your small children with you, please reconsider. I don't want to tell you how to parent your children, but mine were afraid of E.T. when he made that scream sound. These are violent grown-up monsters acting like giant children. If they were voiced by child actors, that might have taken the edge off of them. But we're looking at Tony Soprano threatening to eat people and worse... threatening God-knows-what that everyone is frightened he might do. He's bipolar. And the other monsters are suffering from all sort of other very adult ailments, like severe depression and anger management issues.

And Max is not easy to like either. He's a spoiled, narcissistic momma's boy with severe ADHD and anger issues, who can't seem to cope with his mother's single status. We don't know how long she's been single, or even why she's alone, just that he doesn't like not having all of her attention.

Honestly, after 30 minutes of that mix of monstrous personalities, I felt like I was right back where I was last year, when I was living with my boyfriend's Borderline Personality Disorder coming head-to-head with my son's amphetamine-fueled rebound spats (Adderall was the wrong ADHD med for his body chemistry). It was all things flying, monsters running and screaming, doors being broken, wood being splintered everywhere. I really didn't want to be traumatized like that again today. And because I wasn't expecting it (like I wasn't expecting it back then), I just wanted to get up and leave the theater. It wasn't fun at all. And not funny either, even when it was.

The looming threats of violence take away from what's supposed to be childlike imagination. It borders on abusive, really. Actually, no... not borders... it is. Even the opening credits when Max is chasing his dog around the house and then wrestling with him. It's not cute at all... and if that was a real dog he was doing that to, I don't know how the ASPCA wasn't called.

I'll watch it another time on dvd, perhaps, and let the genius that is Spike Jonze settle in on its own. Now that I know it's not the story that I read... as I read it, that is... but a whole, different kind of beast, I should be able to see it from another perspective. Much like how my opinion has changed of my now ex-boyfriend and my son.

On a different note, the soundtrack was SUPERB... Karen O (of Yeah Yeah Yeahs fame) did a great job, although her pieces were very Animal Collective meets Danielson Famile. Wonder if the stress of dating the director caused their eventual split?

And one of the last credits of the movie goes to Final Cut Pro. That makes me very happy.

Finally, I also don't think I realized that I was Tzippy/KW when I read the book, or that I would grow to become her... but now I know. I still don't know why Jonze or Dave Eggers (who adapted the book) allowed the monster characters' names to be changed. They were all originally named after Sendak's uncles. If anyone knows, please enlighten me. Thanks!

And thanks for reading!