Where the wild things are free essay sample

â€Å"Forget every sugary kid-stuff cliche Hollywood shoves at you. The defiantly untamed Where the Wild Things Are is a raw and exuberant mind-meld between Maurice Sendak, the Caldecott Medal winner who wrote and illustrated the classic 1963 book, and Spike Jonze, the Oscar-nominated director (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation) who honors the explosive feelings of childhood by creating a visual and emotional tour de force. The movie barrels out at you like a nine-year-old boy filled to bursting with joys, fears and furies he cant articulate. † (Travers, Peter) At the beginning of the film Max the main character is trying to get the attention of his sister who is on the phone with someone not paying any attention to him. After some time Max sees his sister again this time outside in the snow, Max immediately goes into his igloo he has built and rolls up a couple snow balls. Max then gets into a snowball fight with her and her friends; he is soon out-numbered so he decides to take shelter inside his igloo. While inside Max is safe for a little bit, but one of his sister’s friends jumps on top of his igloo caving it in on top of Max. Jonze uses a close up angle during this scene to show what it would have been like inside the caved in igloo. Max soon emerges very upset, soon after he goes into his sister’s room and makes a mess inside. Later Max makes a fort up in his room and wants his mother to come inside and join him but she is busy with her boyfriend. Being ignored doesn’t sit well with Max so he goes down to the kitchen and demands her to come upstairs and play with him. His mother then yells at Max telling him to go to his room, Max reacts by yelling â€Å"I hate you, I’ll eat you up† then runs off into the street. Jonze has the camera shooting straight at the face of Max when he is running instead of following him showing Max’s emotions while running away. Max soon finds a boat and decides to sail away after some time at sea he arrives on an island whose inhabitants are not of the human species. Spike Jonze uses setting and characters in his film adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are to show how Max uses his imagination to control aspects of his real life that he cannot control. (Jonze) Setting is extremely important in this film as it is directly associated with Max’s emotions. In the beginning Max is in his house trying to get the attention of his sister who talking on the phone to someone the viewer over hears her replying to her friends invite saying â€Å"no I can’t this weekend I am supposed to go to my dad’s†. This lets the viewer know that Max’s parents are divorced. When Max is sad the setting is sad and unsettling when Max is happy the setting is happy. One example is when Max is at sea on his way to the wild things the sea is rough and stormy. In the movie it seems Max actually travels across the sea but this is actually what is in his head, thus Max being sad or upset will make the weather or surrounds unfriendly. Another example of Max’s influence on the setting is when he is with the wild thing’s and the main wild thing Carol is mad at Max for not making everything better their surrounding are unfriendly, pitch black with a fire glaring in the background. The same thing goes for when Max is happy also when he first becomes friends with the wild things they romp around in the forest knocking down trees and then take a nap all piled up on top of each other. All while this goes on it is very sunny and their surroundings are friendly. Characters are equally important to this film as they carry the most important points the film is making. Max the main character of the movie is an imaginative lonely kid who sometimes lets his emotions get the better of him. This is shown in two different places, one after he feels betrayed by his sister and he tears up her room. Another is when his mother is ignoring him when he is asking her to play with him his reaction was to bite her and run off. Max’s character is dynamic as he changes and grows throughout the movie. After spending time with the main wild thing Max realizes his shortcomings. â€Å"The central relationship on the island is between Max and the giant Carol (whose voice is provided by James Gandolfini). Carol, for lack of a better term, represents Maxs soul: a need for friendship and unconditional love coupled with the capacity for destruction. By coming to terms with Carol, Max learns to understand himself and, most importantly, the trauma he has been causing his mother. † (Berardenilli, James) Carol is a direct representation of Max so he goes through the same conflicts that Max does one being KW â€Å"who represents the aspect of Max we see early in the movie when he feels betrayed by his sister who chooses her friends over him†. KW is separate from the group because she spends time with her new friends’ two owls. Another character that is directly related to Max’s real life is Judith who is stern and protective. Her character can be related to Max’s mother who had just yelled at him so Max’s first reaction of her would be that she was mean. Finally there is a wild thing representing his dad, the upright bull with people feet. The character plays a small part only having one line, and is always standing off in the distance. This character is relevant because Max takes notice of him curious and afraid wanting to spend time with this wild thing. In the film Max’s father is not pictured but is mentioned by his sister, explaining the distance of the wild thing. Spike Jonze’s use of setting and character to show how Max uses his imagination to deal with his reality. Is the making for a great film that shows â€Å"the explosive feelings of childhood by creating a visual and emotional tour de force. † Bringing in such dynamics to the characters and setting made this movie great and showed how the imagination of a young child can be magical.