Where the Wild Things Are

One of the worst movies I’ve ever seen and definitely wouldn’t recommend it for children. Awful, depressing, boring as hell, almost glorifies acting out mental illness with absolutely no resolution or attempt to help from the boy’s mother. The only good quality was the special effects of the monsters, but that only gives a greater painful reminder of this piece of filth when I go back and read the original masterpiece children’s book and am reminded how close the monsters in the movie look to the book. Whoever was involved in this should be ashamed!

They took Maurice Sendak's wonderful, innocent fantasy world and turned it into a trauma dump full of emotional abuse, random violence, abandonment, divorce and erratic, unpredictable behavior - every adult nightmare - and then marketed it to children. My children never picked up another Sendak book again. It ruined it for them. This movie was disturbing and pointless. Shame on everyone involved.

This movie is genuinely disturbing to children. It a meandering, humorless interpretation of a wonderful book, about a child learning to connect to his family and home after exploring cruelty and antisocial behavior. The only thing linking the two was the excellent costume interpretation of the famous illustrations in the original book. It is relentlessly dark, with mumbly, formless dialogue which is neither humorous or even coherent in terms of following a logical plot. The head of the wild things crush the houses of the other creatures, destroy trees, beat each other, none of which was in the book. It literally explains the eventual burning out of the sun repeatedly, which was extremely disturbing to the child watching. It's a total mess of a movie. I love Gandolfini, who is totally wasted in this. Avoid it and watch the animated version as well, or just read your kid the book.

It's one of the most original fantasy movies I've ever seen. Very unique subject matter/underlying message. I get why critics like this and also why it didn't resonate with audiences at the time. I like it's style also and the direction here isn't bad at all. But that being said, this is defintely an acquired taste and not for everyone. The acting is just ok. Max is hard to like because he's so over the top aggressive, annoying, and spastic. Yes I get that's how kids are but you also need to make him more realtable and I think most parents would agree that's not the normal for a kid. The other issue is the creatures I really like the designs but the voices and personalities all just blend in. the jokes they make also don't feel like they fit the world there in, feel like they belong in a Jonah Hill/Seth Rogan comedy, and the voices don't match the character designs. There also just isn't much individual personality to the other creatures. I remember the female one and that's about it. The rest all blended in despite remembering the designs quite well. I did like Max towards the end but most of the time I didn't care. Everythign else though is half decent. It's a dark world design that reminds of something like the PS2 game Shadow of Colossus. But half the time it's so dark you can't see it that well. Than once he arrives in this world it feels like it jumps around and stuff sort of just happens. It makes sense enough but it just feels rushed to me. Who doesn't like who, who is Max's favorite, building the new world, it's hard to remember which arc goes with which. This needed probably another 30 minutes or so tacked on to build out this world, make the characters more distinct and memorable, and not rush things. I really like the desert and the dead forest but I wanted more honestly to resonate. The odd lines/humors, rushed plot lines, and not really exploring that much of this world really makes it hard to let the ideas here flourish. I like the coming of age message here where you can't just go nuts and have no rules. It feels almost like a Dr. Suess story in that regard. But it just gets bogged down by the issues meantioned previously. I think though someone who is a big fan of the source material, the director, any actors in this, or very quirky kind of dark fantasy films should check this out. I kind of would like to see this remade. I think the potential here is worth it to resonate with a wider audience and the profits to boot Warner Bros.

One of the worst movies I’ve ever seen. Couldn’t wait for the 101 minutes to end.

Is it different than the book? Of course it is. you can't make a feature-length film out of a few pages very easily. Is the adaptation true to everything I know about Maurice Sendak and the original text? 100% absolutely yes. Is it for kids? 100% absolutely not. but, by the standards of the time, neither was the original book. PS - while it's long overdue, I created a RT account just for the sake of posting this review.

I recently rewatched this (I watch it when I was a kid for a school project but don’t rennet too much) and all I got to say it this is a masterpiece. This is a good example of redapting a book to a movie. They still respected the book to this day and while at it stand alone and adding it own thing ( unlike some movie these days cough cough). This is also another one that made the character come to life and don’t look absolute sh#t ( cough cough don’t always live off of cgi) and remover everyone that this was release 2009 where most thing don’t look to great since back then we don’t even have equipment that we have now didn’t exist. I’m somewhat disappointed how low the score is when the story and filming/editing is a masterpiece and should have been a classic and must watch for everyone (even if you didn’t read the book witch you should) I understand it more depressing in this movie then the book but god dam it it better then most thing I seen recently. Great job to cast and crew

Beautiful movie with beautiful visual effects. I don't think this was meant to be a children's movie at all, but in the most positive sense. Max gets to live in a world where archetypes of adults one would usually see in the real world are violent monsters. He learns that everyone grapples with their own inner struggles like he does, and he can't always "own the world"—own the attention of everyone—like he wants to. Those who complain about Max's violent and wild tendencies completely miss the point of the film, as he learns in the end that being "wild" can't solve every problem.

The story of a violent, bratty, out of control, dog-hurting, mentally ill future serial killer kid who spends time destroying things and being violent with his Jim Henson friends in his delusions. Literally, that's the most accurate explanation you'll ever read for this movie.

This is a visually stunning adaptation of a childhood imagination and family relationships. The performances are heartfelt, but its darker tone may not appeal to all. Overall, it's a beautifully crafted film.