With much fanfare, and to the chagrin of hipsters everywhere, this past week Spike Jonze’s film adaptation (irony) of Maurice Sendak’s iconic 1963 children’s book “Where the Wild Things Are” was released to mixed reviews.  When I first saw the trailer last year it seemed to be another family friendly rehash of a beloved memory, mixed with special effects a’la “Transformers”. Add to that the incessant Urban Outfitters hype and I was inclined to skip it all together.  But as the details were released, Karen O crafting the soundtrack, Jonze’s close work with Sendak on the storyline, his constant opposition Warner Brothers editing his version of the film…. I got more excited and finally this past Tuesday I caved…

“Where the Wild Things Are” isn’t a kid’s film. It’s not that kids probably won’t like it; they’ll roar out of the theaters and want new halloween costumes that evening. But I would even wager that a good handful of them won’t even catch Max’s (the protagonist) eventual transformation and begin their own “Wild Thing” antics at home. What becomes quickly apparent is that kids weren’t Jonze’s demographic and because of this, most of them will probably start tuning the film out after the first twenty minutes.  ”Wild Things” takes us on a wild rumpus from reality to a child’s wildest  fantasy – a world that’s feral and untamed, catering to their most devious fancy. There are monsters and forts, dirt fights and talking animals, even sailboats and caves; that’s the basic story at least, but there’s also another story. For those who look just a bit under the surface they’ll find the mind of a child. A movie that is full of the things we don’t like to remember from childhood: lonesomeness, fear, uncertainty; Jonze has created one of the most creative and beautiful films about the emotional journey that we all must take to control the “wild things” inside our lives.

Jonze basically takes a short (10 sentences short) story and uses it as a sort of emotional template for his own creation. He doesn’t try to keep the movie tied to the original story line, though there are still the obvious connections and memories, but turns the film into the mindset of a child.  The film isn’t as much a child’s story as it is a story about being a child.  If every other children’s movie is about remembering the tangible aspects of life and the eventual conquering of them, “Wild Things” is the opposite.  It doesn’t seek  to conquer the hardest parts of life as much as it admits and wishes to find resolution with them. If you pay close attention you start to see Max’s personality in each one of the “wild things”: rage, criticism, fear, shame, selfishness. Eventually a balance is struck with the wild things that belies our own arrangements with the internal chaos of growing up.

“Where the Wild Things Are” turns a children’s story into a film that reaches to the depth of who we all are.  Wild things stand as a haunting reminder to adults of where our feelings can take us, and how important it is for us to tame them. There are wild things within each of us, they are dangerous and can (as implied, quite frighteningly, in the film) consume us if we’re not too careful.

Now, let the wild rumpus begin!

Archie is the Music Editor and Dude in residence for Girls Guide. You can check out his personal blog at MightyFineCerealFlakes.com where he talks about whatever strikes his fancy and pontificates on pop culture, you can Email him at archie [at] girlsguidetothegalaxy [dot] com, and you can follow him on Twitter – @archiemck.