WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE
Release date: 11 December
Certificate: PG
101 mins
USA 2009
Director: Spike Jonze
Starring: Max Records, Catherine Keener, James Gandolfini, Paul Dano, Forest Whitaker
The story of a small boy transported to an imaginary land of primal creatures who make him their king, Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are had been circled by a succession of filmmakers since it was first published in 1963.
An instant success, the book was awarded the Carnegie Medal and took root in the collective conscious of a generation of American children. But until now all attempts to adapt it for the big screen have been defeated by the story’s creative economy and emotional maturity.
Having been in gestation for five years, much is riding on this adaptation from Spike Jonze (BEING JOHN MALKOVICH), not least a substantial financial investment from Warner Bros and the personal endorsement of Sendak himself.
And it doesn’t disappoint. Boasting an irrepressible energy to match its grand ambition, WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE is an exhilarating ride through the mirrored halls of a child’s imagination, propelled by a soundtrack from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Karen O.
The world of the Wild Things is an elegant assembly of engineering and art – Sendak’s singular illustrations finessed by the visual genius of Jonze and brought to life by the artisans of Jim Henson’s Creature Shop.
It is here that young Max (Records) learns the exquisitely painful lessons of childhood through the passionate and sometimes frightening tutelage of his new friends.
WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE successfully inhabits the dual worlds of fantasy and reality, and articulates something at once profound and moving about both.
//The Sharp End of Spike//
Director, skate punk, studio honcho, actor, dancer, media mogul… Spike Jonze’s myriad personas are all part of his enigmatic appeal. And yet the man himself is notoriously tight lipped, one of the rare Hollywood players happier to let the work speak for itself. But he opened up for a rare interview to discuss his five-year journey of bringing WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE to the screen.
“I think some part of being creative is being child-like,” he says, knees tucked under his chin, displaying battered sneakers beneath suit trousers. “Kids create all the time, and without the anxiety that you get when you’re older. They’re not tortured. They make a drawing and they love it. As an adult it’s harder to stay in that place.”
Jonze had to hold on to his creative spark through five years of an often-troubled production that saw him clash with the studio over his dark vision for the film.
“I had to fight,” he admits, “but it was only for five months in the middle of five years. And it was definitely gruelling and not fun but in the end it didn’t stop us – we made the movie we wanted to make. I’m sure it has changed me in some way,” he continues. “But hopefully for the better.”
With a budget reputed to be three times that of his previous film, WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE represents a significant step up in the Hollywood food chain for Jonze. How did this affect him? “There are two responsibilities,” he says, “one to the money and one to the idea. And as soon as the responsibility to the money starts to infringe too much on the responsibility to the idea, you have to let go of the responsibility to the money. Because if you get lost in terms of what the idea is, then you’re neither here nor there and it’s not good for anybody.”
