where the wild things are.

i'm not sure what more can be said about where the wild things are that hasn't already, but i'll take a go.

the movie's visuals were hauntingly, startlingly beautiful. landscapes stretched into the distance, seemingly never-ending. the ocean, desert, and forest were textured and massive and real.

the wild things themselves were detailed and textured and emotive. this was the muppets for adults.

karen o.'s soundtrack added to the eeriness of the movie. where the wild things are wasn't scary, it was deep and dark and haunting and dug at your soul.

the acting was superb. max records (playing max) didn't seem to act. he was simply a kid whose eyes we got to see the world through. and james gandolfini, as the voice of wild thing carol, expressed all the same emotions as max through a 10 foot monster.

several reviews i've read have had problems with a lacking plot. well, i didn't. had the movie strayed too far from the book, we would all be watching a shitty kid's movie with bad acting. as spike jonze has said, he didn't want to make a movie for children; he wanted to make a movie about childhood.

and that brings me to spike jonze. the man gets it. i don't know how he remembers the feelings of being a child so well, but he manages to get us to a place that we were all once at, whether we remember it or not. no matter where or how you grew up, we were all children once - powerless, small, uncontrolled, and uncontrollable. and that is what where the wild things are gets to the root of so beautifully.