Where the Wild Things Are

I just finished watching "Where the Wild Things Are". This movie didn't make my laugh, sweat or cry. However, this movie did make me ponder about the meaning it's trying to convey. The story just seems a little deeper than just a simple children's story.

The beginning of the movie portrays Max's character and his family dynamics. Although the beginning is short, it plays an important role in the later part of the movie. Max, the main character, is a troubled and lonely boy raised by a single mom. He plays with snow, talks to a fence, and seeks attention and love from his older sister and mom. In the movie, he starts a snow fight game with his sisters' friends until one of his sisters' friends crumbled his igloo, a symbol of his fortress and security. This brought Max tears followed with rage that led him to destroy his sister's room. His mom, unlike his sister, gives a lot of attention and shows immense tolerance towards Max until he becomes out of control one night when he sees his mom with her boyfriend in the house. The mom tries to calm him down but Max bites his mom on the shoulder in return. Max runs away and ends up in the island where the Wild Things are.

Max stumbles over Carol, a mirror image of Max, in another world. His interaction with Carol, KW (Carol's lover) and the other wild things allow him to reflect on himself. Max lies to the Wild Things about his powers to make them happy and keep their family together. Due to Carol's desire to bring KW back to the family, Carol crowns Max king in spite of a number of Wild Things' disbelief in Max's powers. While being a king, Max leads the Wild Things to build a massive fortress, a security he always wanted. Max eventually invites KW and her two outsider owl friends to the fortress. Carol is displeased with the two strangers in the fortress and feels his family's unity is threatened. This aligns with how Max feels about his mom's boyfriend (whom he considers a stranger) in his house. Max later introduces dirt fight to the Wild Things. Similar to the snow fight, it starts out fun but ends in anger and casualties. Max apologizes to Alexander about the dirt fight and notices a wound on Alexander's neck from the fight. At this time, Max realizes that his childish games can hurt others physically and emotionally. Soon after, Max reveals to Carol that his powers is not real. Carol, who up to this point was the friendliest Wild Thing to Max, is enraged and threatens to eat him. KW helps Max by hiding him in her stomach. When Carol sees KW, Carol confesses to her that he did not mean what he said (eat Max). This scene clearly illustrates Carol's erratic and oftentimes out of control temper. A characteristic that Max also shares. While in KW's stomach, Max tells KW that Carol loves her. KW tells Max that life is already hard and Carol's demanding and out-of-control behaviors only "makes it harder". At that moment, Max understands that his past behavior was making his mom's life harder than it needed to be. He finally decides that it's time to go home.

The one message that comes across to me loud and clear in this movie is that being a family is hard. Our parents, siblings and/or spouses can be demanding and unreasonable at times like Max and Carol. These types of behaviors can literally drive us up the wall and push us away. Getting out of the house can be an escape, a breathe of fresh air. We are left to wonder why we would get along with some strangers better than those that we grow up with. But I believe in the eternal bond within a family. No matter how demanding or unreasonable they are, they're the ones who love us the most in this world, the ones that want to see us happy and successful in life...and the ones that will stand by us when we're in trouble and despair.