Artist Where The Wild Things Are

Spike Jonze’s adaptation of Maurice Sendak's classic children's story Where The Wild Things Areleaps from the starting gate, careening through the emotional peaks and valleys of a 9-year-old’s mind but never succumbing to cutesy kid-movie tropes. In a breathless early scene, Max—played by newcomer Max Records in a serendipitous coincidence—engages his sister’s friends in a snowball fight, rushing from ecstasy to rage in mere seconds, from a sense of belonging to that sense of total isolation peculiar to children. Those feelings quickly drive Max to where the wild things are, an island full of giant, mystical creatures beset by their own confusing human emotions.  

Updated 06/30/2010