Where the Wild Things Are

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

This is one of the year's best. To paraphrase the Wild Thing named KW, I could eat it up, I love it so.

LA Weekly Scott Foundas

What he’s (Jonze) ended up with strikes me as one of the most empathic and psychologically acute of all movies about childhood -- a "Wizard of Oz" for the dysfunctional-family era.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

Not since Robert Altman took on “Popeye” a generation ago, and lost, has a major director addressed such a well-loved, all-ages title. This time everything works, from tip to tail.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Jonze has filmed a fantasy as if it were absolutely real, allowing us to see the world as Max sees it, full of beauty and terror. The brilliant songs, by Karen O (of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs) and the Kids, enhance the film's power.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

As wish-fulfillments go, this is a movie lover's dream.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

With Where the Wild Things Are Jonze has made a work of art that stands up to its source and, in some instances, surpasses it.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

In elaborating on the original book so boldly, and repopulating it so richly, Jonze has protected Where the Wild Things Are as an inviolable literary work. In preserving its darkest spirit, he's created a potent, fully realized variation on its most highly charged themes.

New Orleans Times-Picayune Mike Scott

His (Jonze) obvious affection for, and veneration of, Maurice Sendak's 1963 Caldecott Medal-winning children's book is palpable in his near-perfect live-action adaptation, a dreamy -- and, like Sendak's book, faintly nightmarish -- exploration of one child's tantrum-y side.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Josh Modell

Spike Jonze has recently said in interviews that his chief goal ...was to try to capture the feeling of being 9. By that measure--by just about any measure, really--he succeeded wildly.

Film Threat Matthew Sorrento

His film captures the wonderment of dreaming - and the reality of waking.

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

I don't want to oversell the thing. It is, quite simply, something very special indeed.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Like the book, the movie blends a primitive quality with an imaginative artfulness. It also amplifies upon the story's gentle, sly wit.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

There are some great, rapturous moments in Where the Wild Things Are. Jonze is humbled before the wonders of a child's imagination, and so are we.

New York Daily News Joe Neumaier

The film treats kids' inner lives as more than a fantasy, which is a rare and beautiful thing.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

For all the artfulness, the feel of the film is rough-hewn, almost primitive. It’s a fabulous tree house of a movie.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The movie felt long to me, and there were some stretches during which I was less than riveted. Is it possible that there wasn't enough Sendak story to justify a feature-length film?

ReelViews James Berardinelli

The result is an involving experience for all but the most fidgety children and an opportunity for parents to enjoy (rather than endure) a motion picture with their offspring.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

A satisfyingly moody, melancholy, madcap live-action romp.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

This version of Where the Wilds Things Are isn’t about childhood at all but about childhood’s end and what’s gained and lost by it. That’s why very young kids, dull Disney princesses, overprotective parents, and self-serious grown-ups should probably stay away.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

It IS a film that deflates you too often, despite its efforts to impart a sense of soaring. In the end, where the Wild Things are is in your imagination and in Sendak’s pages, not in this big-hearted but ultimately faint simulation.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Jonze lets the magic ebb away in a sorry mesh of strained relationships.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch Joe Williams

To their credit, the creative team has retained the handmade look and unruly spirit of Maurice Sendak's bedtime fable; to their discredit, they haven't added enough narrative or emotional dimension to make it an effective movie.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

Where the film falters is Jonze and novelist Dave Eggers' adaptation, which fails to invest this world with strong emotions.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Director Spike Jonze's sharp instincts and vibrant visual style can't quite compensate for the lack of narrative eventfulness that increasingly bogs down this bright-minded picture.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

Wild Things isn't overlong, but it is underwhelming.

The New Yorker David Denby

I have a vision of eight-year-olds leaving the movie in bewilderment. Why are the creatures so unhappy? That question doesn’t return a child to safety or anywhere else. Of one thing I am sure: children will be relieved when Max gets away from this anxious crew.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Mature folks may wonder why a simple and simply beautiful story from their youth has been buried under layers of emotion Woody Allen's psychiatrist might want to pick over.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

The film lacks the menace and danger of Sendak's book, along with the beautiful simplicity and delicated, understated portrait of a lonely, misunderstood boy.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Warmly and gently handled, though the central story, detailing the personal politics between him and the six childlike monsters, steadily loses steam.

Slate Dana Stevens

It's just too bad the end result isn't a better movie.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

The most daring thing that Jonze and Eggers have done is make a children's film that might not really be for kids.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

In their overly earnest attempt to flesh Sendak’s story out to 100 minutes, Jonze and his co-screenwriter, novelist Dave Eggers, have laboriously spelled out motivations (divorce is bad!), elaborated back stories -- and added reams of less-than-inspired dialogue.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

Less an adaptation of its source material than a therapeutic response to it.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

When faced as a director with the rudderless screenplay he (Jonze) co-wrote with Eggers, he's been powerless to energize it in any involving way. Sometimes you are better off with 10 sentences than tens of millions of dollars, and this is one of those times.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Jonze's ideas, visual and otherwise, spill out in a faux-philosophical ramble that isn't nearly as deep as he thinks it is; at best, it's a scrambled tone poem. Even the look of the picture becomes tiresome after a while -- it starts to seem depressive and shaggy and tired.

Time Out New York Keith Uhlich

The true soulfulness of Sendak’s parable never emerges.