Where The Wild Things Are: Max’s mythology more for adults than kids | OU Review

By Christopher Spencer
Ozarks Unbound

Final Score: 4 out of 5 Wild Rumpus dances for adults (2.5 for children)

FAYETTEVILLE – There are young children who will enjoy director Spike Jonze’s latest film, Where The Wild Things Are, but they are as rare as Max, the little boy who takes refuge in his own imagination.

For a child who is creative and a little angry, imaginative but unfocused, this movie could be a revelation with its latent unconscious symbols. Such a child will find kinship with Max.

Archetypal images and themes abound  in this film that are bound to bubble back up to the surface later in life. Like The Secret of NIHM, it has staying power in a child’s memory.

For most children, there are moments of visual enjoyment in the film, but the dark themes and silent, ponderous moments outweigh the glee and easy accessibility of a Pixar or Disney film. Many children will find it boring in parts.

Still, the great, lumbering Wild Things are stunning in their animatronic glory. They lend a tactile feel to the rich visual world created from the 1963 book whose entire text is one long paragraph. In a film culture that favors computer-animated graphics, these creatures create a “wow” effect as each monster’s personality unfolds on the screen.

Max (played coincidentally by Max Records) is a troubled boy, creative and passionate, but powerless and prone to fits. He lashes out at Connie, his single-parent mother, and his older sister.

In one scene, Max’s mother struggles on the phone with her job, money troubles evident, and later asks Max to sooth her with one of his deeply imaginative stories. That’s Max at his best, spontaneously creating from his own imagination.

Max is at his worst while in his Wild Thing outfit. He howls, he torments his dog and, in his frustration, he even attacks his mother.

The first part of the movie shows us just how far Max has retreated into his own mind and the anguish this creates within his small family.

The second part of the movie introduces the other Wild Things, a cast of characters drawn from Max’s own psyche that reveal his splintered insides. The concept is much like Herman Hesse’s Magic Theater from The Steppenwolf, but for a child.

These figments of his own psyche are well-drawn and fun at first. The voice acting is great and the Wild Rumpus is a pleasure to watch. Each of the Wild Things is distinct and feels genuine and required for the story. Max is named their king not long after he arrives.

No longer powerless, he is free to create and craft the world as he wishes. He decides to build the best fort ever, a structure any boy would be proud to have. Unfortunately, the harmony and hope evident when Max first arrives dissolves into conflict.

Max quickly gravitates to Carol (voiced by James Gandolfini) the de facto leader of the Wild Things. Carol is creative and prone to fits of rage, just like Max, and a prime symbol of his own unconscious, like the Jungian animus.

Carol is paired against K.W. (voiced by Lauren Ambrose), a female monster who is at first cold toward Max, but later protects him from Carol’s desire to kill him. She reveals the feminine principle of an anima.

She literally swallows him in order to protect him and for a moment it’s unclear if she’s going to let him leave her belly again.

“Don’t go. I’ll eat you up, I love you so,” K.W. says to him just before he decides to return to the world. The words are chilling and illustrate that too much motherly nurturing, like the violence from an angry father, can also stifle a boy’s development.

The other Wild Things play various roles as nagging and encouraging voices. The viewer will likely recognize those impulses and voices from their own thoughts.

Things grow dark toward the end of the film, but a scene where all the Wild Things join their howls together as Max leaves, reveals he has achieved a deeper understanding of himself, what Jung calls individuation.

The movie doesn’t have to be given this psychological interpretation. It holds its own as a straightforward film, but a reading of the symbols can be helpful and deepens the experience.

Where The Wild Things Are ends like the book as Max returns and his anxious mother sets out dinner for him. Max’s wild side is tamed again for the time being.

SIMILAR POSTS

• Where the Wild Things Are delivers at the box office | CF at 12:32 pm on October 19, 2009
• ‘Cause you can’t, you won’t and you don’t stop’: Top 10: The Best Spike Jonze Directed Music Videos | Clipped Fresh at 4:29 pm on September 3, 2009
• The Ten Most Anticipated Movies of Fall 2009 | Clipped Fresh at 3:03 pm on September 2, 2009
• Names released in investigation into 14-month-old Carsyn Alexis Reaves’ death| Community Announcement at 2:17 pm on August 16, 2010
• The Ouija lunchbox and other items: Craziest stuff on Etsy at 11:25 pm on August 16, 2009