Ein kleiner Junge, der sich nach Abenteuern sehnt, läuft von zu Hause weg und segelt zu einer Insel, auf der fremde Lebewesen wohnen, die ihn zu ihrem König machen.Ein kleiner Junge, der sich nach Abenteuern sehnt, läuft von zu Hause weg und segelt zu einer Insel, auf der fremde Lebewesen wohnen, die ihn zu ihrem König machen.Ein kleiner Junge, der sich nach Abenteuern sehnt, läuft von zu Hause weg und segelt zu einer Insel, auf der fremde Lebewesen wohnen, die ihn zu ihrem König machen.
- Regie
- Drehbuch
- Hauptbesetzung
- Auszeichnungen
- 7 Gewinne & 54 Nominierungen insgesamt
- Judith
- (Synchronisation)
- Ira
- (Synchronisation)
- Carol
- (Synchronisation)
- The Bull
- (Synchronisation)
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What? Why did it become such a crime to make an abstract art film within the spineless confines of the Hollywood system? Doesn't Spike Jonze get credit for personalizing, therefore, retaining a substantial amount of voracity while delving into one of the most revered children's books of the last fifty years? What the hell is wrong with that? I understand that some people just don't respond to the abstract, pseudo-verisimilitude of pretentious art films, but there's a stripped-down purity to this picture that cannot be denied. It's not pretentious, but emotional and honest.
It's bold, it takes chances...why is it being chastised in the media? How often do we get movies like "Where the Wild Things Are"? It should be celebrated, not snidely dismissed (Ex. Lou Lumenick, NY Post).
It's not a movie about imagination or childhood at all, and it's only vaguely concerned with themes of growing up, family or maturity.
It's not wacky or funny. Not colorful or exciting. There's only about 10 minutes of what I'd call "fun" in the whole 2-hour package.
That doesn't make Where the Wild Things Are a bad movie. It just makes it completely defiant of the viewer's expectations, and thus a rather confusing film to watch.
The first time I saw this I wasn't sure how I was supposed to be taking things. Was that supposed to be funny? Is she being sarcastic, or serious? Is Max in real danger now, or not? That's not because the movie is actually confusing, but because it all seems vaguely wrong and inappropriate. I left scratching my head saying "I guess that was good?"
In the end I decided I didn't like it. I felt that this was either the wrong script for this movie or the wrong movie for this script. Either way, it didn't click for me and felt awkward to the end.
Nevertheless there is quality here, and I recommend you watch it yourself and reach your own conclusion.
Well, that didn't happen this time.
We follow Max (Max Records), a boy who is lonely and misunderstood. His sister doesn't pay attention to him, his mother is busy with work and her boyfriend, and he has worries at school. All he wants is attention and to belong. One night, he finally breaks and runs away. He makes his way to the woods and to the waters edge. There he finds a small boat and set out on the open sea, leaving everything behind him.
He comes across an island and goes ashore. There he finds a group of monsters in turmoil. Max seizes his opportunity and confronts the group. He tells them that he is a great king and help them solve their problems.
I don't want to give too much of the story away because I feel like telling it would ruin some of the magic. This is one of the most visually pleasing films I have seen in a long time. Jonze filmed in Australia. We are given vivid landscapes of lush forests, arid deserts, and beautiful shorelines, culminating in an almost Lord of the Rings like experience. These spectacular settings would rarely be beaten in magnificence in another film, but here they come second to the unbelievable special effects used for the monsters.
There are seven monsters on the island. Carol, Ira, Judith, KW, Douglas, Alexander, and The Bull. They all have unique features and are of massive size. Jonze could have gone two ways here. He could have completely made them all CG or he could have gone Jim Henson and turned them into Muppets. Instead, he carved a third path and combined the other two options. Max is able to interact extremely well with the gigantic puppet/suits, but the faces are edited with computer graphics, giving them startlingly realistic features and expressions. Making these monsters any different way would have been disastrous.
Another key aspect of the monsters is giving them a voice. Jonze chose excellent voice actors with James Gandolfini, Forrest Whitaker, Catherine O'Hara, Lauren Ambrose, Paul Dano, and Chris Cooper. They each have their own personality that compliments their physical and emotional characteristics.
Aside from the monsters, I was very impressed with Max. He is asked to do a very demanding thing: be a kid. That sounds easy, but it is very easily messed up. I'm interested in finding out how much freedom Jonze gave Records in certain scenes that called for him to go "wild". I can imagine directing young actors is not the easiest thing to do, but sometimes you catch a break when you get a talented one.
Giving life to these characters is a spectacular screenplay by Jonze and Dave Eggers (who wrote Away We Go). Their writing speaks to both kids and adults, using language that is meaningful and easy to understand. The things Max goes through every child feels growing up: loneliness, fear, belonging, etc.
There is so much to love about this movie. It speaks to the heart. But before you head out with the whole family, heed this warning. Some parts of this film might be too intense for younger audience members. Certain scene involving the monsters might be a bit too overwhelming. Yes, these monsters are friendly, but they are monsters, meaning they are large, intimidating, and somewhat scary.
Where the Wild Things Are will satisfy, entertain, and open your eyes. Spike Jonze poured everything he had into this film and the wait was well worth it. I hope you will fall under its spell just as I did.
If you don't know the story by Sendak- and to be fair it's only several pages long and its story was *loosely* used for this film- is about Max, who, not entirely pleased with his life in the real world ventures into the world of the 'Wild Things', a place where he can be king (or rather makes himself one) and tries to create a paradise with his fellow creatures. This is the main bit of what the story is "about", but how it's about it is a whole other matter. It's a movie children can see and hopefully adore, but it's more than that. What it's going for is childhood itself, what makes up a young guy who has little experience in the real world and can only really see things through imagination and in a prism of what the 'real world' represents.
We see Max in class, for example, learning about how the sun works in relation to Earth. It's a truthful but pessimistic lecture (considering to elementary school kids no less) about how one day the sun will die, and so will all life. This is carried with Max when he ventures into the world of the Wild Things, and when he mentions this to Carol there's a perplexed response to this. "It's so small," Carol says of the Sun, and while it doesn't bother him at the moment it later comes back as a bit of real inner turmoil that Carol can barely contemplate. Or anyone else for that matter. Can one really be expected as a child to understand the full scope of the sun dying out and life as everyone knows it ending? It may be billions of years away, but to a little boy it could be just around the corner.
That, by the way, is one of the brilliant things about the movie - all of Max's collected experience, and who he is as a person, and what he can see and understand around him in his family and surroundings, is represented in the bunch of Wild Things. All of Max, indeed, is split among all of them: Carol, KW, Douglas, Ira, Alexander, and a particular 'quiet' Wild Thing that barely says a word, they're all Max, and yet because of their split pieces they're never fully whole either. This makes it easy, perhaps, for Max to be crowned as their king (hey, he did lead vikings after all!), and to lead Carol's dream of a fortress for them all where "everything you would want to happen would happen." There's magical moments experienced among them, and all of the Wild Things, thanks to the Jim Henson creature shop work, are all in front of us and live and breathe as real things in this set of 'wild' locations (woods, desert, beach, rocky coast). As soon as you can open up yourself to these being real beings, not just animatronics, the whole emotional core of the film opens up as well.
But oh, it's also such an unusually, beautifully realized film. From its vivid and in-the-moment use of hand-held cinematography (and, sometimes, the stillness of looking at the creatures and Max in the backdrops), to the songs from Karen O. that are always supportive of the scenes (never the obtrusive kinds in other kids movies), to the complex relationships between all of the characters that one can see reminiscent of the Wizard of Oz, it's a piece of pop-art that lets the viewer in. Its welcoming, refreshing and kind of staggering to see someone who knows the way children think, and how we don't have to be a mixed-up little boy to identify and see ourselves in Max (and, also, how we can't fully identify with things as a child like divorce, re: Carol and KW's 'friendship'). Where the Wild Things Are works as spectacle and comedy, and as the best Jim Henson movie the man never made, so it works for children. But for adults, because it's really about *us*, it can work wonders for us too.
Let the wild rumpus start!
Max is not a spoiled brat, but a kid dealing with heavy emotions. When he puts on his wolf suit, he can channel this emotions by becoming very naughty. He crosses boundaries and therefore gets send to bed without dinner.
The fact that many viewers can't stand Max seems to me a job well done by the director. Children are supposed to be a little shocked when they see how naughty Max behaves. That won't happen when he takes a cookie from the jar.
I love animals and won't harm them. But people that are shocked to see a child chasing a dog in a world where children shoot up schools, seems a little strange in my European eyes.
His fantasy travel to The Things is how he deals with his regret. It's not supposed to be 'logical' or 'linear', as children fantasies seldom are. As a viewer you're invited to come along for the ride, but it can't resonate with everybody.
The Things are scary at first, that's the point. My 3 year old finds only some of them scary in the book. Nothing wrong with being a little scared, this happens every day.
I love this adaptation and the fact that the late great James Gandolfini have his voice to a character. It's visually spectacular and an emotional rollercoaster.
Wusstest du schon
- WissenswertesIn July 2006, less than six weeks before the start of shooting, the Henson-built monster suits arrived at the Melbourne soundstage where Spike Jonze and his crew had set up their offices. The actors climbed inside and began moving around. Right away, Jonze could see that the heads were absurdly heavy. Only one of the cast members appeared to be able to walk in a straight line. A few of them called out from within their costumes that they felt like they were going to tip over. Jonze and the production crew had no choice, but to tell the Henson people to tear apart the fifty-pound heads, and remove the remote-controlled mechanical eyeballs. This meant that all the facial expressions would have to be generated in post-production, using computers.
- PatzerWhen Max says, "Wow!" when he sees Carol's world built from sticks, an earpiece is visible in Max Records' ear.
- Zitate
[last lines]
The Bull: Hey, Max?
Max: Yeah?
The Bull: When you go home, will you say good things about us?
Max: Yeah, I will.
The Bull: Thanks, Max.
Judith: You're the first king we haven't eaten.
Alexander: Yeah, that's true.
Judith: See ya.
Alexander: Bye, Max.
Max: Bye.
KW: Don't go. I'll eat you up; I love you so.
[all howl]
- Crazy CreditsThe logos for Warner Bros., Legendary Pictures, and Village Roadshow Pictures are covered with Max's scribblings.
- VerbindungenFeatured in The Rotten Tomatoes Show: Duplicity/Knowing/I Love You, Man (2009)
- SoundtracksWorried Shoes
Written by Daniel Johnston
Produced by Karen O and Tom Biller (as tbiller)
Performed by Karen O and the Kids
Courtesy of DGC/Interscope Records
Top-Auswahl
Details
- Erscheinungsdatum
- Herkunftsländer
- Offizielle Standorte
- Sprache
- Auch bekannt als
- Donde viven los monstruos
- Drehorte
- Produktionsfirmen
- Weitere beteiligte Unternehmen bei IMDbPro anzeigen
Box Office
- Budget
- 100.000.000 $ (geschätzt)
- Bruttoertrag in den USA und Kanada
- 77.233.467 $
- Eröffnungswochenende in den USA und in Kanada
- 32.695.407 $
- 18. Okt. 2009
- Weltweiter Bruttoertrag
- 100.140.916 $
- Laufzeit1 Stunde 41 Minuten
- Farbe
- Sound-Mix
- Seitenverhältnis
- 2.39 : 1