This is a movie completely told from the eyes of a child - if you go in with your adult mindset and are expecting to understand it - you won't. If you go in thinking like a child, you will love this movie. It's specific to children, I think, between the ages of 6 and 12. Children younger than 6 do not have the maturity to 'get' the deeper aspects of the movie, but will probably enjoy the Wild Things and watching a child similar to themselves try to exert control over his environment. This is the key point to the movie - Max does NOT have control over his environment. Like a lot of children, when he feels out of control, he exerts control over his mother by throwing a tantrum and becoming a 'wild thing'. He has all of these complex feelings and desires to be loved and paid attention, but the adults and other people (his mother, father, teacher and teen sister) seem to ignore him, worry him, and frustrate him. He's a selfish child and he knows it, and feels horrible and guilty when he gets out of control.
His escape into the world of the Wild Things gives him a good chance to explore both the positive and negative aspects of his personality. The biggest thing that surprised me when my children and I were discussing the movie afterward is that after I suggested this to my children, they were able to name the characters and describe what they felt each wild thing represented about Max's personality. Here's what they came up with:
Judith - she is a character that always seems worried that things won't work out or that there is danger in everything the 'family' of Wild Things decides to do. She's the natural pessimist that lies within every child. The one who says, "I don't like X." or "X is a bad idea." no matter what X is. She also represents pure worry and fear. Max seems to be constantly worrying about people leaving him, the sun exploding, people being hurt, etc. Judith seems to embody worry pretty well. She also displays Max's selfishness. There is a scene where she throws a little tantrum of her own and tells Max that he's supposed to do what she wants no matter what and if she says she wants to eat him up, then that is what she should let him do. It was an eye opening experience for Max.
Carol - this is the character that most represents Max's feelings from the beginning of the movie - Loneliness, disappointment, rage, anger, regret, sadness and abandonment. But he also represents Max's imagination (Evie pointed this out and I thought it fit really well.) because he likes to build and make things.
KW - Represents Adolescence - that place between childhood and adulthood. She represents everything that Max (and Carol) don't quite understand yet. She's a sweet character that just doesn't get why she should stick around for Carol and the others or why they all crave her attention so fiercely. She used to play with them all the time, and now she has moved on to new things and they don't understand why.
Ira - This one was a bit difficult - after quite a bit of discussion, we turned to Ira's love of Judith no matter how she treats him and his ability to put holes in just about anything. Asher came up with power and strength (which I think every child has in abundance). Evie came up with unconditional love (she said loving no matter what happens). Ira is definitely a deeply loving character. He's so strong, but he loves Judith so tenderly, even when she is at her worst.
Alex - Alex was the most interesting character to me. Every other character seems to ignore him. They never listen to what he says. Asher interpreted this as 'the one who is left out and is different'. Evie interpreted it as 'the one who is ignored'. I think this is pretty much the different aspects of the same thing. I really found my children's different interpretations to be very telling of their own personalities. Evie being the only girl who often feels that everyone ignores her. And Asher often times feeling 'different' than those around him.
Douglas - Douglas is the peacemaker, but is also the one who seems to get picked on. He's wise and has a load of unknown smarts that he just keeps to himself because he's not a natural leader like Carol. He only pushes his knowledge on people when he knows that he has to. He's the wisdom that emerges from each child as they gain a bit of maturity and knowledge.
Bull Guy - They never name this character in the movie as far as we could remember and he only has a couple of lines. He is the most 'unexplored' aspect of Max's personality - he's Max's sweet side - his meek side. The side that is not so overconfident, angry and upset. He's the quiet part of Max that lovingly looks at his mother and feels guilty when he is destructive.
Bob and Terry - these cute little guys were a little more difficult for my kids to understand. We talked about them a lot. I asked them why Max and Carole couldn't understand Bob and Terry. I also asked them why they thought Bob and Terry were represented by Owls. Asher finally came up with "They must be adults, because adults are hard to understand sometimes." I was kind of floored that he came up with it, but there it was! I asked Evie if she concurred and she said, "Well, they could be adults or they could just be people who are different from Max and Carol." Both ideas are pretty good, I think.
Overall, I think the kids enjoyed the movie a great deal. It keeps with the spirit and themes of the book - a boy throws a tantrum, escapes to an imaginary world to deal with his feelings and ultimately resolves some of his issues and comes home from his imaginary world. It also seems to throw in a few more mature themes every child between 6 and adolescence deals with at some point. If I were rating it, I'd give it a 4/5 for content and a 5/5 for visual effects. My almost 4 year old enjoyed it purely based on the visuals. Fabulous movie!
