Innovative director Spike Jonze collaborates with celebrated author Maurice Sendak to bring one of the most beloved books of all time to the big screen in Warner Bros.’ “Where the Wild Things Are,” a classic story about childhood and the places we go to figure out the world we live in.
To be shown exclusively at Ayala Malls Cinemas (Glorietta 4 and Greenbelt 3), the film tells the story of Max, a rambunctious and sensitive boy who feels misunderstood at home and escapes to where the Wild Things are. Max lands on an island where he meets mysterious and strange creatures whose emotions are as wild and unpredictable as their actions.
The Wild Things desperately long for a leader to guide them, just as Max longs for a kingdom to rule. When Max is crowned king, he promises to create a place where everyone will be happy. Max soon finds, though, that ruling his kingdom is not so easy and his relationships there prove to be more complicated than he originally thought.
“I didn’t set out to make a children’s movie; I set out to make a movie about childhood,” says director Spike Jonze, whose big-screen adaptation of the captivating Maurice Sendak classic was truly a labor of love. In it, he further explores the themes Sendak introduced and which Jonze believes remain relevant to every generation. “It’s about what it’s like to be eight or nine years old and trying to figure out the world, the people around you, and emotions that are sometimes unpredictable or confusing—which is really the challenge of negotiating relationships all your life,” he says. “It’s no different at that age.” (read more)
“Where the Wild Things Are” offers a fresh look—and for many of us, a look back—into the many facets of childhood. It invites audiences of all ages to join in the discovery and challenge and pure feral joy of a young boy’s brave journey to the island of the Wild Things, a special place that’s sure to stir thoughts of the wild things that live in all of us.
“In a way, it’s an action movie starring a nine-year-old. There’s a lot of physical mayhem like dirt clod fights and rampaging in the forest,” says Jonze. Indeed, the island offers up every youngster’s fantasy: the freedom to run and jump and howl, to build and destroy and wrestle and throw things as far as he can… most of all, to do only the things he wants to do, with no one saying he can’t.
At the same time, the story follows Max’s first steps toward growing up as he becomes aware of the complex relationships the individual Wild Things have with each other and with him, and how doing everything he wants isn’t always the best choice. Told with unabashed honesty from a child’s point of view, “Where the Wild Things Are” reveals Max’s increasing understanding of his own feelings and the feelings of others.
“Where the Wild Things Are” is distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.
