Where the Wild Things Are (2009)
Average Rating: 6.9/10
Reviews Counted: 251
Fresh: 184 | Rotten: 67
Some may find its dark tone and slender narrative off-putting, but Spike Jonze's heartfelt adaptation of the classic children's book is as beautiful as it is uncompromising.
Average Rating: 6.5/10
Critic Reviews: 48
Fresh: 31 | Rotten: 17
Some may find its dark tone and slender narrative off-putting, but Spike Jonze's heartfelt adaptation of the classic children's book is as beautiful as it is uncompromising.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.3/5
User Ratings: 281,941
My Rating
Movie Info
Visionary director Spike Jonze brings Maurice Sendak's beloved children's book to the big screen with the help of hipster icon Dave Eggers, who teamed with Jonze to pen the adapted screenplay. A mixture of real actors, computer animation, and live puppeteering, Where the Wild Things Are follows the adventures of a young boy named Max (Max Records) as he enters the world of the Wild Things, a race of strange and enormous creatures who gradually turn the young boy into their king. ~ Jason
Watch It Now
Cast
-
Max Records
Max -
Catherine Keener
Mom -
James Gandolfini
Carol -
Paul Dano
Alexander -
Catherine O'Hara
Judith -
Forest Whitaker
Ira -
Michael Berry Jr.
The Bull -
Chris Cooper
Douglas -
-
Pepita Emmerichs
Claire -
Max Pfeifer
Claire's Friend -
Steve Mouzakis
Teacher -
Mark Ruffalo
The Boyfriend -
Joshua Jay Santiago
Claire's Friend -
Ryan Corr
Claire's Friend -
Vincent Crowley
Carol Suit Performer -
Sonny Gerasimowicz
Alexander Suit Performe... -
Nick Farnell
Judith Suit Performer -
Sam Longley
Ira Suit Performer -
Angus Sampson
The Bull Suit Performer -
Mark McCracken
The Bull Suit Performer -
John Leary
Douglas Suit Performer -
Alice Parkinson
KW Suit Performer -
Garon Michael
KW Suit Performer -
-
ADVERTISEMENT
Where the Wild Things Are Trailer & Photos
All Critics (253) | Top Critics (48) | Fresh (187) | Rotten (68) | DVD (6)
'Where the Wild Things Are' stands out for its unusually potent evocation of the timbre of childhood imagining, with its combination of the outré and the banal, grand schemes jumbled up with delicate feelings and the urge to smash things up.
Top Critic[Jonze has] achieved with the cinematic medium what Sendak did with words and pictures: He's grasped something true and terrifying about love at its most unconditional and voracious.
Wild Things, you do not make my heart sing.
Intellectually interesting, visually arresting and filled with invention, there's just one crucial thing Where the Wild Things Are is missing: wildness.
Spike Jonze, we salute you.
Director Spike Jonze gets that Max's subsequent journey to the far-off island of the wild things is nothing less than an odyssey into his mind.
Jonze has created a world in which even "wild things" can be full of personality and fun to be around.
Stretches to spectacular, big-screen proportions the soaring, roaring fancy of Maurice Sendak's classic 1963 bedtime tale.
It's kind of astonishing when something this odd slips through the cracks of the Hollywood mainstream.
If you want something light and fluffy to take the kids to see, you're better off looking elsewhere.
It's almost as if they were afraid to redefine the book, and left things as free-floating and ambiguous as possible. ... it's all meandering, abstract non-story that isn't helped by the muddy color palette
This is not a coming-of-age film. It's an end-of-innocence film. And that makes every moment, be it funny or sad, so beautiful and so heartbreaking at the same time. You'll want to hug it and hold onto it, as if it were your childhood sailing away.
Lo atractivo de la película es que no pretende "aleccionar" a los niños sobre nada, sino simplemente permitirles vivir una aventura con el mismo espíritu fantástico de los cuentos infantiles.
If you ever laughed uncontrollably while engaged in a childhood snowball fight, built intricate forts out of your grandmother's afghan blankets, or made up the rules to complex playground games, in the middle of the game, then this film is for you.
A beautiful and languid testament to the importance of remembering how powerful our childhoods really were.
Never having read the book, it must be better than this.
It was as if Jonze had decided to remake Conrad's Heart of Darkness for children. (Blu-ray Edition)
For me, it was a hard, uphill climb just to say I'd reached the top.
Spike Jonze's great, undervalued film gets an underwhelming DVD package.
Sendak sums up the joy and miracle of creative passion, even as he acknowledges dreaded mortality lurking in the existential shadows.
Sendak sums up the joy and miracle of creative passion, even as he acknowledges dreaded mortality lurking in the existential shadows.
Where the Wild Things Are imaginatively evokes the childhood fears and wonders experienced when trying to make sense of the world.
Audience Reviews for Where the Wild Things Are
Super Reviewer
-
- Douglas: Will you keep out all the sadness?
- Max: I have a sadness shield that keeps out all the sadness, and it's big enough for all of us.
-
- Carol: I don't apologize to owls. Owls are stupid.
-
- Judith: Happiness isn't always the best way to be happy.
Discussion Forum
There are no discussion threads for Where the Wild Things Are yet.
Latest News on Where the Wild Things Are
May 8, 2012:
Maurice Sendak: 1928-2012Celebrate the award-winning author's career by watching Spike Jonze's documentary about his life.
December 11, 2009:
The Effects of Where the Wild Things AreSpike Jonze's eagerly-anticipated adaptation of Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are was...
December 7, 2009:
Exclusive: The World of Where the Wild Things AreIt has taken Being John Malkovich and Adaptation director Spike Jonze more than five years to bring...
What's Hot On RT
Bradley Cooper's Best Movies
Fast & Furious 6 is Certified Fresh
Fast & Furious cars gallery
Blockbusters ranked!
Featured on RT
- Weekly Ketchup: Fox and Marvel Both Courting Quicksilver for Comic Blockbusters 12
- Critics Consensus: Fast & Furious 6 is Certified Fresh 58
- Red Carpet Photos with Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Gina Carano and More 0
- Video: The Hangover Part III Cast Interviews 0
- Total Recall: Bradley Cooper's Best Movies 48
- Parental Guidance: Epic and Beautiful Creatures 2
- Comic Book Movies You Can Watch Online 13
Top Headlines
-
Evan Peters Joins X-Men: Days of Future Past
0
-
Toby Jones Talks Captain America: The Winter Soldier
1
-
The Poltergeist Reboot May Actually Be a Sequel
16
-
Will Forte Promises MacGruber 2
3
-
Universal Plans Timecop Reboot
2
-
Return of the Jedi Turns 30
1
-
Vin Diesel Says Fast & Furious 7 Will Take Place in L.A.
0
Fresh Links
Featured
Star Trek Movies Ranked
HitFix offers their own take on the worst-to-best of the Enterprise crew's cinematic adventures.
Top 10 Star Trek Villains
Rolling Stone unveils the Enterprise's most irksome adversaries.
Celebrity Yearkbook Flashback
We'll bet you never realized how many stars were cheerleaders and high school athletes!
50 Most Classic Movie Moms
In celebration of Mother's Day, TimeOut offers up 50 iconic matriarchs from the big screen.
Weirdest Movie Siblings
From Twins to The Royal Tenenbaums, Moviefone explores cinema's oddest siblings.
Promos
Follow RT on Twitter!
Spice up your feed with hourly Tomatometer updates!
Foreign Titles
- Wo die wilden Kerle wohnen (DE)
- Max et les maximonstres (FR)
Where the Wild Things Are is visually fantastic pice of work and has this emotional rawness that makes it something truly touching to sit through. At it's core this is a heartbreaking story about the end of childhood but it is also so much more. Jonze's approach to Maurice Sendak's source material is fresh and adds nice little details into the story. Of course there has been some expansions made here because Sendak's story is basically quite simple and short. With these expansions writers Dave Eggers and Jonze succeeds.
Overall there is nothing to complaint here when it comes to story, actors or the fantastic production and creature design. My personal complaints, which are minor, are mostly towards the film's score that just does not live up to the rest of the film. Karen O is a gifted artist but here her music is mostly distracting when it should be something that pulls you in. There is basically nothing wrong in composer Carter Burwell's sections in music but Karen O's material just sounds too hip and sadly lessens the film's overall impact. Lead actor Max Recors is fantastic as a young Max and all the supporting voice actors does equally impressive work. Catherine Keener and Mark Ruffalo instead does not get enough room to show their talents and their roles are a bit too hollow to become important enough here.
Where the Wild Things Are is a film with big heart. It has rare warmth in it and it is equally suitable for kids and adults too. It is no masterpiece but it is a damn fine entertainment with a unique vision in it.