Where The Wild Things Aren't!

Yesterday I took my kids to see "Where The Wild Things Are". What a depressing movie.

I don't recall ever reading the book to my kids, my daughter said she remembers it being one of her favourite books when she was little, they might have had it at daycare. I vaguely recognize the characters, ugly as they are. My son, has no recollection of the book at all. It was his choice to see this movie, he received a movie gift card for his birthday so I let him choose the movie. He had been talking about seeing Where The Wild Things Are for some time so the choice was obvious. What wasn't obvious was exactly how bad this movie is.

As we were approaching the theatre from the parking lot I noticed that Astro Boy was also playing and suggested we should see that instead, which my daughter replied "I'm not interested in watching Astro Boy". Fine, we'll see Where The Wild Things Are. So in we go, wait in line to get our tickets and over priced popcorn and drinks. The three of us for the movie and treats, $45.00! That is unbelievable, now I know why I buy DVD's, but I digress. We go in and pick our seats which are in abundance because the theatre isn't packed or even marginally full. The seats are comfy which is nice they even recline a bit, which I found a little annoying when my son decided to use it as a rocking chair.

The previews start, and there appears to be some interesting movies coming, one of which is "Blind Side" with Sandra Bullock, mental note, rent that one. The new CG A Christmas Carole looks good too, maybe a good one to own. All in all, the previews were short which was a nice change from what could be a half hour of commercials before the movie you paid for actually starts. And so the feature presentation begins.

In the opening scene, you see the main character Max tearing down a flight of stairs in pursuit of what I guess to be the family dog, flailing his arms and making a hideous noise that can best be described as that of a crazed animal. He tackles the poor dog in the living room and is being nothing short of way too rough with him to the point were I was waiting to hear the snap of the dogs neck. I don't think I was the only one either, a few rows back, a very little voice pipes up at the end of this scene "I don't want to see this movie" to which the audience laughed, it certainly broke the tension caused by this scene, and it goes downhill from here.

The story line in the book was basically (I googled it) that a disobedient little boy is sent to bed without any supper and he creates this imaginary place with the wild creatures and he's the king. Sounds harmless to say the least. The movie didn't really follow this story line and really that is unfortunate because at least it might have made sense.

The rest of the movie did nothing to develop the characters or set a plot or have any semblance of a story line, the scenes were random and confusing, inconsistent and the dialog was far beyond the audience it targeted. Half way through I leaned over to my daughter and said "we should have gone to Astro Boy" to which she replied "no kidding". All through this movie I sat waiting for something relevant to happen so it would all fall together and make sense. Yah that never happened, at all. The movie from what I could gather was an exploration of emotions and personality types, all of which were represented by the creatures. This would make a great movie for psychology students, they would be the only people who would understand it and get something out of it, and not be entertained.

My son loved this movie. At the end he said, "that was a great movie". Once my shock and disbelief subsided and I gave some thought as to how he could have possibly enjoyed this movie my conclusion is this. This movie was made in the same way that he thinks. As I mentioned in a previous blog, he is ADHD, and his though patterns are so random that following this movie which in itself was random and non-sensical made sense to him. Considering it was his choice, I'm glad he enjoyed it, and who knows maybe other kids his age did too. I certainly didn't in fact for some time afterwards I was left trying to make sense of it, it was to me a very depressing movie.

Maybe I'm over analysing, maybe I didn't get the gist of the movie, after all it's a kids movie and maybe that's what kids like, am I loosing touch as my kids grow up as to what is entertaining to them? My daughter being 12 (almost 13) didn't enjoy it like she presumed she would, yet my son at 11 thought it was great, but this is the same kid at a very young age loved the B movie Eight Legged Freaks" so go figure.

My advice, if your planing on taking your kids to see this one, don't. Save your money, rent it when it comes out on DVD, or better yet wait until it's on TV and free. I'm still having a hard time letting this one go, it's disturbed me to the point that I'm hoping blogging about it releases this demon from my mind. I would have to say, if Spike Jones was hoping for an M. Night Shamalan feel to this movie, he failed miserably. At least M. Night Shamalan's movies have a story line, plot and substance.

I can honestly say, this is the worst kids movie I have seen and I have seen allot of kids movies, in fact we own allot of kids movies and this one was horrible. Maybe for me it's comparable to Borat. (I didn't like that one either for similar reasons). Hmmmm maybe it's just me. Maybe I need a formula to the movies I watch, who knows. What matters most is my son liked it, and it was his choice so I'm gonna leave it at that.

With much love, light and confusion,
Tammy.