The next issue that any adaptation would have to confront is the story. Certainly there's nothing about the film that could be called cutesy or sanitised, which comes as a relief given Disney's involvement in the early stages of development. He wanted to capture the burgeoning, pre-pubescent energy of Max, exploring how his rage and frustration manifests itself as the Wild Things and how he comes to grow in realising how hard is it to govern one's personified rage. Instead, Jonze wanted to make a film about what it felt like to be a child - a film not just for children in a demographic sense, but about children in a behavioural sense. But what becomes quickly apparent is that Jonze didn't want to make a typical children's film - not by a long shot. This is a touchy subject given that Sendak's book has become so iconic: surely any successful adaptation must be considered a children's film? Additionally, I've railed against many so-called children's films which are blatantly not for children - films like Ratatouille and much of Dreamworks' output, which are films aimed at an adult audience disguised as children's animations. Certainly its marketing didn't position it as such: its trailers played more on the indie cred of Jonze, highlighting the soundtrack work by Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and using a re-recorded version of Arcade Fire's big hit 'Wake Up', which doesn't appear in the film. There has been a fair amount of debate as to whether Where The Wild Things Are can be called a children's film.
Fortunately, the results are very good, and while the film is by no means perfect, it remains a touching and compelling work. Spike Jonze is a director with a glowing reputation, but a seven-year gap between features isn't immediately reassuring.
Maurice Sendak's 1963 book has become a classic in children's literature, beloved for generations and in various stages of development hell since the early-1980s.
We find ourselves in precisely this predicament with Where The Wild Things Are.
Even if we overlook the general risk that the whole project may become a cynical Hollywood cash-grab, the director's vision may be so different to your childhood imaginings that it ends up tarnishing the original experience, perhaps permanently. There's always a certain amount of trepidation when a filmmaker gets their hands on a book that you loved as a child.
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