Where the Wild Things Were

How many of you remember reading "Where the Wild Things Are" as children? I certainly do--it was one of my favorite short stories. So, of course, when the movie advertisements came out, they certainly seemed appealing. My daughters kept telling me they wanted to see it, so as a treat, my husband rented the movie for us. Either I had extremely high expectations, or my sense of what makes a good movie is off, despite what many critics hailed as a good movie!

The movie begins with Max as a lonely child who gets paid no attention by his sister, little by his mother, and his dad appears out of the picture--with no real explanation. He throws an awful fit, climbing up onto the kitchen counter top in front of his mother's boyfriend, and tells his mother, "I'll eat you up!" However, I missed where his mother called him a "wild thing" as the book states. He thrashes around the kitchen as his mother chases him down, and he goes as far as biting her, and then runs out the door, down the street, through the woods, and to the boat that sails to the island of Wild Things. Upon arrival, he tells them he is a king and can do magic, but the movie doesn't show him staring into their yellow eyes to prove his magical talents. He tries to live with the Wild Things, but they have family problems (just like his, I'm assuming was the theme of the movie), and he eventually sails back to his mother, who is waiting with a huge hug, a warm dinner, and chocolate cake--wait--he was given chocolate cake for biting his mother and running away? Is something a little off here?

I immediately went back to my children's book and read through the story as Max is obviously bad (although not biting his mother), sent to his room (he couldn't out-run this mother) without supper and a jungle grows in his room. He goes to where the Wild Things are, although none seem to have the emotional dysfunctional family problems the movie portrays, convinces them he has powers, but soon sails back to his bedroom once he smells good things to eat. He wakes up and finds his supper in his room, but it doesn't seem like a blatant reward for bad behavior as it does in the movie. Maybe it's just me. My husband and I had to keep telling our girls the boy was bad to disobey his mother, to yell, to bite, to run away at night, walk through a forest, get in a boat by himself, and climb dangerous rocks. Oh, and of course the movie had to contain at least one bad word. Why? Yet another reason to unplug the TV...