In 2009, Spike Jones’ film Where the Wild Things Are attracted the attention of not only film critics, but also a wide audience. The film turned out to be unsuccessful from a financial point of view, as at the box office it was able to bring the creators only 94 million dollars, which is 6 million less than the money that was invested in the creation of the tape. But the film remained in the history of cinema as one of the most successful, as it became a nominee for the prestigious Golden Globe, Saturn and Satellite awards. But the film “Where the Wild Things Are” is still a success in our time, it is periodically shown on cable television, and on the Internet this kind wonderful film for children and adults always gains thousands of views.
What is ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ about?
Where the Wild Things Are is based on the children’s book of the same name by Maurice Sendak.
The story tells about a boy named Max, who lives with his mother in a small town. The boy is very bored, his parents are getting divorced, and he begins to experience feelings of loneliness and inferiority.
One day, Max steals a wolf costume from his school’s theater and starts playing it, making up various stories and adventures. The child is very bored, because his older sister practically does not play with him, since the horse is older than him and she is more interesting with her peers. The only one who spends a lot of time and emotions on a child is his mother, Connie, who is raising two children alone.
One quiet evening, when Max decided to build a magical castle for himself and invite there the closest person in his life – his mother, he was in for a shock. A boyfriend came to the mother and she could not be distracted by her son’s games, he ran away from the house out of resentment, and, getting into the boat, decided to sail away as far as possible from his home. Suddenly, he finds himself in a magical world where huge monsters live – Carol, Douglas, KW, Ira, Judith, Alexander and Bull.
Max becomes the king of this world and begins to get to know the inhabitants, learn their stories and finds out that they too experience various emotions and problems. He learns to listen to others, instead, and not only express his emotions, which dominate his life.
Carol shares with Max about building an ideal world for monsters, where everyone would live in unity and not quarrel. Max, as the new king, offers the monsters to build a castle for monsters, where they can spend a lot of time together, play games, have fun, and then the monsters will definitely stop quarreling.
But during the construction of the castle, Carol again quarreled with his girlfriend KW and even the game of “war” did not help to reconcile them. Carol realized that Max is not a king at all and he is not capable of miracles, since he could not reconcile him with KW. He wanted to eat the boy in a rage, but KW hid him inside herself, pretending that she ate him. At the end, the boy gets home and his mother feeds him.
The meaning of “Where the Wild Things Are”
Where the Wild Things Are shows the importance of finding the time and place for self-expression, as well as the importance of empathy and understanding of other people.
The meaning of the film is that the fantasy world where Max enters represents his inner world, his hidden feelings and emotions that he experiences in real life. Max’s journey through this world helps him understand and accept his feelings, learn to control them and find peace in his heart. The film also addresses the magic of childhood and the meaning of play, where fantasy and reality fuse together.
All the “monsters” in the film are elements of the psychological portrait of the boy, as well as his close people, whom the audience saw at the beginning of the film, and those who are not in the film, like the father, but he is necessarily present in the boy’s memories and feelings.
It is almost impossible to understand the meaning of the film without appreciating the magical characters. And it’s better to start with the most mysterious and “dark” character that associates Max in life – we are talking about the Bull. This character, despite the fact that he has tremendous strength and can easily deal with the leader of the monsters with Carol, always keeps his distance from everyone. He has no conflicts with monsters, we can say that he is in a sense shy and downtrodden, who is afraid to establish social ties with others, where he can be offended and humiliated. Do not forget that Max was unsociable in real life and his only friends were his older sister and mother. Therefore, the Bull personifies the boy in reality – he is unsightly, withdrawn, shy, and introduced into the film so that the audience can compare Bull-Max with other characters,
The character completely opposite to the Bull is the monster Alexander, who is Max when he wants to play, run, play pranks. He was born only to play and enjoy life.
It is also worth describing another important character in the film “Where the Wild Things Are” – Douglas. He personifies Max’s father – fair, self-confident, strong, whom the child has long lost. This is exactly what a father should be like in real life, where Max resembles a secretive and non-contact Bull. But he is not there, so Douglas appeared in the film, who is trying to calm Carol – the second I of the boy, and all the other characters in the film.
Also in this great movie there are complex characters like Judith and Ira. If Judith is in active contact with Max throughout the film, constantly provoking him and urging him on some aggressive actions, then Ira practically does not interact with the boy at all. Ira can only make holes and is no different.
Without Ira, Judith might have become just a Bull – an unsocial person who would not communicate with other members of the pack of monsters. But Ira is needed for Judith to obey her, and without her, Judith would be completely different. Judith is an image of Max’s vulnerability in real life, and Ira embodies his desire for destruction and the reason for this lies in Judith, that is, in the boy’s self-doubt.
The two main characters in Where the Wild Things Are Carol and KW should be associated with the two most precious people in his life – Max and his mother. They often quarrel, but they love each other very much. In the fantasy world of monsters, KW spends a lot of time befriending owls, which makes Carol, who embodies Max’s personality, very angry. In real life, Max’s mother has a boyfriend and friends who she spends time with, which doesn’t sit well with Max’s introverted child.
Carol is the image of all the boy’s rhinestones that overwhelm him. Carol is often aggressive and Max, having made friends with Carol, and understanding his shortcomings, understands that it is worth fighting his fears and not giving vent to negative emotions with loved ones.
Explanation of the ending of the movie “Where the Wild Things Are”
Where the Wild Things Are is about a lot of themes. This is the theme of loneliness, which runs like a red line through the entire film, and the theme of understanding others and loved ones, as well as the theme of self-control. Eleven-year-old boy Max is not just a child, he is every adult who lives an adult life. All people experience stress, have difficult situations at work and with loved ones. But do not indulge Judith and Ira, that is, feel hatred and destroy everything. There is no need to be Carol, that is, a selfish person who is able to destroy the love of others, wanting to have them next to her.
This is the meaning of the ending of the film “Where the Monsters Live”, when the child escapes from the world of monsters to the real world, where a loved one is waiting for him, that is, a mother who will always feed and comfort. It is necessary to take care of relatives and friends and try to release your personal Carol as little as possible.
