Tuesday, 27 October 2009

• Just How Wild Are the Wild Things, Anyway?

  If you asked me my favorite children's book ever written, I'd have a hard time answering, but rest assured Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are would certainly be on the list. Which is why it should be no surprise to you that when I saw Spike Jonze's film adaptation, released in theaters last weekend, I wept. The sight of those those “wild things” moving and talking was like seeing something come right out of my imagination and come to life in front of me--like being Max.

  I read a lot of reviews before seeing the movie, and I wasn't surprised to see many people criticizing the adaptation for its darker elements. Of course the director would have to quite liberally apply his artistic interpretation to the ten-line book in order to draw out the story, but many suggested the film was an adult take on a children's story, too mature for the youngsters for whom the book was written.

  In a recent Newsweek interview, Jonze describes the film as a “movie about childhood,” not a children's movie. Despite that fact, he still wants children to watch it, though he wants to be clear; it isn't sugar-coated, as most children's movies are.

  Perhaps the criticism derives from expectations made due to the portrayal of the film in its trailer. “It’s the complete absence of the feeling the trailer gave us—one long wild rumpus coming to life to Arcade Fire’s 'Wake Up,'” writes Paste Magazine editor-in-chief Josh Jackson in his blog,  High Gravity. “That sense of triumph and whimsy is the exact opposite of the actual movie. That song doesn’t appear in the film because there’s nowhere it would have fit.”
  

  He's got a point. The trailer, which you can watch below, makes the movie appear carefree, exciting, and inspirational—almost like a children's movie. In contrast, the film is about a protagonist who can't seem to do anything right, who is defeated at every turn. And the 'wild things,' well, they're anything but wild. They're just as broken as the boy whose imagination they came from.

  
  

  
  

  But that's kind of how life is sometimes. We all get the feeling that, no matter how much good we try to do, we'll never be triumphant. There will always be some new problem, some new evil rearing its ugly head, and maybe children need to hear that, despite feeling beaten up, there is always someone who loves us. In fact, they may even have a limited understanding of this notion already.

  “Children, it turns out, aren’t as naive about evil as we assume they are,” writes Christian Post guest columnist Russell Moore. “Children of every culture, and in every place, seem to have a built-in craving for monsters and dragons and 'wild things.' The Maurice Sendak book appeals to kids because it tells them something about what they intuitively know is true. The world around them is scary. There’s a wildness out there.”

  With that in mind, maybe the criticism isn't that the movie is too scary. After all, the 'wild things' in the film adaptation are hardly wild. They're actually quite human in nature, discussing their psychodrama and feelings like normal adults would. Instead, maybe the criticism is that it's too real, and reality is scary.

  Yes, Where The Wild Things Are is not a movie made for children and might bore those kids who are used to the fast-paced, computer generated cartoons most children's movies are made of these days, but the underlying theme is an important lesson children will one day have to learn. We are imperfect, and we will sometimes feel like the weight of the world is on our shoulders. We will want to run and hide, or be king of our own little world, but in the end, we know we can't be. We know we don't have the power to create everything beautiful and wonderful. Only one person has that power, and that's the one who waits patiently at the kitchen table for us to come home and realize how, no matter how screwed up we are or how far we decide to run, He loves us unconditionally.

  "And his dinner was still hot."
  

  Is there a point where a film about children becomes too real for children audiences? Should children still watch these movies, or are these lessons they should learn in other situations?
  

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