Where the Wild Things Are
Metascore
71 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 37 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 23 out of 37
  2. Mixed: 14 out of 37
  3. Negative: 0 out of 37
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  1. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    75
    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?
  2. ReelViews
    Reviewed by: James Berardinelli
    75
    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.
  3. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Lou Lumenick
    50
    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.
  4. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    100
    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.
  5. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Mick LaSalle
    50
    The most daring thing that Jonze and Eggers have done is make a children's film that might not really be for kids.
  6. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Lisa Schwarzbaum
    100
    This is one of the year's best. To paraphrase the Wild Thing named KW, I could eat it up, I love it so.
  7. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Ty Burr
    75
    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.
  8. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kenneth Turan
    40
    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.
  9. Wall Street Journal
    Reviewed by: Joe Morgenstern
    100
    As wish-fulfillments go, this is a movie lover's dream.
  10. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Claudia Puig
    88
    Like the book, the movie blends a primitive quality with an imaginative artfulness. It also amplifies upon the story's gentle, sly wit.
  11. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Steven Rea
    75
    A satisfyingly moody, melancholy, madcap live-action romp.
  12. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: J.R. Jones
    50
    Warmly and gently handled, though the central story, detailing the personal politics between him and the six childlike monsters, steadily loses steam.
  13. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Rene Rodriguez
    50
    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.
  14. Charlotte Observer
    Reviewed by: Lawrence Toppman
    50
    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.
  15. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: Peter Rainer
    83
    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.
  16. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Shawn Levy
    67
    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.
  17. Variety
    Reviewed by: Todd McCarthy
    60
    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.
  18. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Phillips
    100
    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.
  19. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Liam Lacey
    50
    Less an adaptation of its source material than a therapeutic response to it.
  20. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Michael Sragow
    63
    Jonze lets the magic ebb away in a sorry mesh of strained relationships.
  21. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Stephanie Zacharek
    40
    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.
  22. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Kirk Honeycutt
    60
    Where the film falters is Jonze and novelist Dave Eggers' adaptation, which fails to invest this world with strong emotions.
  23. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Ann Hornaday
    100
    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.
  24. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: J. Hoberman
    50
    Wild Things isn't overlong, but it is underwhelming.
  25. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Manohla Dargis
    100
    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.
  26. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Joe Neumaier
    80
    The film treats kids' inner lives as more than a fantasy, which is a rare and beautiful thing.
  27. New York Magazine (Vulture)
    Reviewed by: David Edelstein
    80
    For all the artfulness, the feel of the film is rough-hewn, almost primitive. It’s a fabulous tree house of a movie.
  28. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Kimberley Jones
    89
    I don't want to oversell the thing. It is, quite simply, something very special indeed.
  29. St. Louis Post-Dispatch
    Reviewed by: Joe Williams
    63
    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.
  30. The New Yorker
    Reviewed by: David Denby
    50
    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.
  31. New Orleans Times-Picayune
    Reviewed by: Mike Scott
    100
    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.
  32. Time Out New York
    Reviewed by: Keith Uhlich
    40
    The true soulfulness of Sendak’s parable never emerges.
  33. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Scott Foundas
    100
    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.
  34. Empire
    Reviewed by: Dan Jolin
    80
    A film for anyone who’s ever climbed trees, grazed knees or basked in the comfort of a parent’s sympathy as they’ve pulled you off the ground crying. It’ll make your inner child run wild.
  35. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Matthew Sorrento
    90
    His film captures the wonderment of dreaming - and the reality of waking.
  36. Slate
    Reviewed by: Dana Stevens
    50
    It's just too bad the end result isn't a better movie.
  37. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Josh Modell
    91
    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.

User Reviews

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User Score
6.4 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 322 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 105 out of 180
  2. Mixed: 14 out of 180
  3. Negative: 61 out of 180
  1. TedD
    3
    I just saw the film, Where the Wild Things Are, last night. There were moments that I really liked in the film but even in those moments I felt frustrated in that the movies main character had never been fully develope much less a sense of exceptionality in his life experience. Even when I tried to appreciate the setting and creation of the wild animals I was aware of my boredom. And as to the insights into childhood, I found those self-indulgent. One scene stood out to me. Before running away, the boy stands on the kitchen table saying "Feed me woman" and asserts more than he knows only to find that he is more terrified with his mothers remark, "What is wrong with you? Maybe he knows in a post Freudian world living with a single Mom and watching his Mom flirting with her boyfriend. His answer is to set sail and find a new family where he can be King and in becoming King he becomes tamed. I like the insight but a whole film?… Full Review »
  2. grandpajoe6191
    7
    "Where the Wild Things Are" is a movie campier than its original book source, but director Spike Jonze successfully transfers the unbiased, pure perspective of a child (Max) to the audience.… Full Review »
  3. Tubie
    4
    If you are a fan of this book, or if your kids are just now becoming fans of the book, please do not let them watch this movie, it will ruin the book for them. This movie does no justice to it. The only way you could watch this movie and maybe enjoy it a bit is if you had nothing better to do and you rented this movie. Otherwise stay way.… Full Review »
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