Today I took my kids to see Where The Wild Things Are. I could quickly sum this review up with one phrase: I think I need a couple of Prozac now.
The movie was dark, depressing and extremely slow; sad being a movie based on a children’s book (popular when I was a little girl) and marketed towards children.
I don’t know what the little, little kids in the packed out theater thought of it (though given the squirmy, restless noisiness, I assume not very much), but my own kids were entirely unimpressed. They were disappointed and left feeling down and dreary. They missed the message for the tone.
The characters were certifiable and the themes fatalistic and depressing. A children’s movie that has the obligatory cursing and is too ‘adult’ for them, I’ll never understand, but this was one of them.
Call me Pollyanna, but I pay my hard earned money to be entertained by a movie. Not to be brought down by the worries and problems and negativity of others. Especially children, who have no business worrying about the sun burning out and global warming and loneliness and making other people happy. How about letting kids actually be kids for a while?
The movie ended on a good note. And it was graphically amazing. And if the goal was to convey that life is hard and the grass is never greener on the other side, then I guess it accomplished that goal. But my kids didn’t get it, and I didn’t need to spend $40 to learn that lesson.
In my opinion, either market a movie to kids and make it a kids movie, or market it to adults and deal with adult issues and use real characters, not monsters. But don’t combine the two.
In a word? Not worth the money…
Thank you for posting this review. My oldest wants to see this movie, but for some reason I felt a little uneasy about taking her.
I really dislike it when the people who make the movie market these movies to almost be deceiving. I’ve come across a few movies lately that have done this. It’s not cool.
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Was very curious about this movie. Thanks for the review. I had a feeling it would not really work for my kids, now I know for sure. Since our chances to see movies are limited, I hate when we choose a bummer.
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Great review Nicole. Thank you for sharing it. After reading your thoughts, we won’t be taking the kids to see it this weekend.
And, btw, I completely agree that the habit of inserting adult issues into kids movies is really annoying, if not obnoxious.
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Saved me $40. Thanks.
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That’s really too bad. This was one of my favorite books as a child and I was really looking forward to seeing it. I guess I will be waiting until it comes out on video and watch it at home. Thanks for the great review!
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Thanks for a real review on it! I was really excited to take my son, but I think I’ll wait until it comes out on DVD so I can save money and check it out before I let him watch it. From the sounds of it though, it may be one I return without letting him see it.
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