I watched this movie over the weekend. When I first saw the trailer, I thought it was going to be a really cute story, based off of the book! But, I was wrong. This movie has a deeper meaning than I expected it to have. I had a weird feeling the whole time that I was watching it. Even at the end! It was strange. But the movie was interesting! It's not your typical movie. I didn't mean to analyze the movie, but I ended up analyzing it anyways. My dad was saying he felt weird when he was watching it too. The movie messes with your mind. I don't know. If you haven't seen it, then you don't really know, but if you have, then I think you know what I'm talking about.!!!!*SPOILERS BELOW*!!!!
The story is bascially about this little boy named Max. He lives with his mom and his sister, Claire. His mom is seeing other men because she divorced her husband, and Max lashes out at her because he's angry. After he bites her, he runs away to this imaginary world where these creatures roam, called the "Wild Things." Each one of them as a name and they all live together. KW, one of the creatures, left the group and Caroll (the main wild thing) wants her back so she can be with the group. He also wants the group to live together like they did before. So, Max comes along and delcares himself king of the wild things. He tries to improve their lives and bring them back together.
This sounds like a simple story, but each scene has a meaning behind it. It's really weird. If you haven't seen it, then I suggest you do! As I was watching the movie I analyzed it as it went on. Now, to start from the beginning. Max starts to build an igloo. He goes to his sister to see if she wants to take a look at it. Then, her friends come over, they get into a snow fight, and then they destroy his igloo. I think his igloo represents his fortress. He wants to live in his own little world where nothing can go wrong. And his sister's friends destroyed it. He's sad after this, and tells his mom that Claire didn't do anything about it. There's this one particular scene where he's in bed, looking at the model of the world. There's this plate on the stand that holds it up saying, "You own the world. Love Dad." or something like that. He associates this later with his crowning as he becomes king of the wild things. Because he "owns" the whole land when he finds them.
Another thing. When Max's sister, Claire, doesn't do anything about her friends destroying his igloo, Max gets mad and destroys her room. Throwing all her stuff and destroying everything. This is kind of the same as Caroll destroying his friends' houses because they aren't doing anything to try and live together peacefully, and to get KW back also.
Later, there's a scene where his mom is talking to this other guy, and he wants his mom to come upstairs to check out his fortress. But he goes downstairs, sees the guy, and acts out towards his mom. He bites his mom on the right arm, then his mom tells him "You're out of control!" and Max runs away. He takes a boat, and ends up on a land where he finds the Wild Things. When he ends up there, he sees Caroll and he says "No one is on my side! I guess I'm on my own side." This line instantly made me relate Caroll with Max. Max is on his own. It seems to be that his mother or his sister do not support him in the movie. So by this point, Caroll represents Max, and the other wild things represent the other parts of Max. KW represents a person though. When Caroll says that, I related that to when Max was having a snowball fight with his sister's friends. No one was on his side, and he was on his own. That's the first thing that I thought about.
The next thing that I analyzed was Caroll wanting KW to come back. I thought that maybe Caroll had a thing for KW, but it was something totally different. KW left Caroll for her two new friends, Bob and Terry. This is like Max's mother divorcing Max's father for other men, affecting Max, and making him act out. Caroll wanted KW to come back so they could be one happy family with the other wild things. Max wants the same thing with his parents. He wants his mom to stop dating other men and go back to his dad. Caroll, acting out also due to KW's absence, wants her to come back and stop hanging out with Bob and Terry.
There are many scenes in this movie. Another one is when Caroll finds out that Max isn't actually a king. He's just a normal boy. Caroll's friend, Douglas tells him that he was just acting along and tries to calm Caroll down. Caroll rips his arm off! That arm is the same arm that Max bit on his mom. So in that scene, since Caroll represents Max, Douglas is like his mom trying to tell him not to act out. Caroll gets even more angry and therefore rips his arm off. Max's mom tells him not to act out, so Max bites his mom's shoulder. Also, after that Caroll goes and tries to eat Max. KW finds Max and hides IN KW. Yes, inside KW. It was really weird. But anyway, Caroll confronts KW, but KW tells him to go away and so he does. KW says, "Can you believe he's like that?" And Max says, "He's just scared. And he only acts like that because he loves you. And he just wants to be a family." (or something around those worlds.) In this scene, KW represents Max's mother, and Caroll represents Max. Then, KW says, "Being a family is hard." And I think that line kind of gives the perspective of Max's mother. Because Max's mother has to deal with Max, work, and trying to find a new guy. Max doesn't respond to KW, but he wants to get out of her stomach!
Two more scenes that really spoke to me. One of the scenes was Caroll showing Max his perfect world. He builds a model and tells Max that he wants to build something like this; where all the wild things can live together in a peaceful place. Max says "Okay! Let's build it!" So they try to build it. Max promises that he will make everyone live together, and that everything will work out. The fortress is built and things aren't like Max promised. Caroll lashes out and says "We havne't been together since we built this fortress! We have to tear it down! Max, you promise that you'd take care of us and bring us together!" I think that the model that Caroll made represents everyone's ideal world. Everyone wants to live in a perfect world where everything is okay, and happy. But the fortress that they built shows how there is no such thing as a perfect world. Things fall apart, and not everything will work out in the end.
The last thing that I'd like to analyze. While everyone is working on building this fort, Max and Caroll talk and build it together. Caroll carves a heart with an "M" in the middle of it in the fort. Now, at the end, Caroll is still very pissed off, and Max has to leave to go back to his mother. He goes back to Caroll's model, which is destroyed, to hopefully find Caroll, but he isn't there. So, he creates a heart with sticks, and puts the letter "C" in the middle of the heart. Then, Max walks to the beach, and says goodbye to everyone. Caroll goes to his destroyed model, and sees the heart with the "C" in the middle and starts to cry. Caroll runs to the beach and says goodbye to Max by howling. Max howls back in a way of saying goodbye. In a sense, Max is saying goodbye to his old self (Caroll), because Caroll acts out, and is angry. He doesn't know how to control his feelings. And that's how Max used to be. He didn't know how to control his emotions, so he just bursted out in anger. By this point (when Max is on the boat, sailing home), Max has accepted the divorce between his mom and dad and is ready to move on, and to create a new and improved self. He also realizes that the only thing that matters is the people who love you. And that's all you need.
I gotta say, this movie made me cry. I don't know why...maybe it's because I kind of understood the meaning behind it, but not to a full sense until I tried thinking about it afterwards. In my opinion, movie in a nutshell, shows how kids feel and how they act towards the divorce of their parents. It makes me feel sad, and sympathetic for those kids whos parents divorce at such a young age. Because a lot of them feel like it's their fault, and they DON'T KNOW how to control their emotions towards the situation. This movie is very intense. It's not what I expected, but I'm glad that it symbolizes something. It's very interesting. If you haven't seen it, then I suggest you do. It's not cute like most people think. It just affects your mind in a weird way to make you feel like you've never felt. Some might see the true meaning, and some might not. Go see it. Where the Wild Things Are will affect you in a way that you've never experienced!
