By Christa Youngpeter

How do you turn a children’s book with a handful of sentences into feature-length film? Mix one part rebellious boy, one part masterfully rendered “things” with monosyllabic dialogue and a dash of Karen O you have “Where the Wild Things Are.” The latter could earn a best score nod come awards season, but adaptation, director and special effects statues? Best look elsewhere.

It’s not to say the film wasn’t entertaining (it was), but parts seemed stretched as thin as a string of Silly Putty. Silly Putty that was once a dense hearty ball of substance. A strange analogy, sure, but throw-back amusements seem relevant when describing the target audience, which given the more adult thematic elements (broken home, troubled boy, furries) seems to be more of a tractor beam for the hipster set rather than the Yo Gabba Gabba crowd.

There was quite a bit of internet chatter discussing whether or not the movie was “kid friendly,” a laughable term in this day and age really. In response, the book’s author Maurice Sendak flatly told those concerned parents to “go to hell.” As jarring is some parents may find it, the film could have been much more disconcerting. Filming began in 2005, and come 2008 Warner Brothers was so unhappy with Jonze not-so-family-friendly adaptation, the entire project was nearly leveled and reshot. While there were indeed reshoots, the dark elements of societal woes still remain along with that slapdash feeling of pasted together scenes spanning three plus years.

Really, light violence and anger-issues aside, since the movie seems torn between children’s entertainment and adult escapism to simpler, pre-iEveryting, times it comes across as bland. Not colorful or silly enough to capture younger minds, not deep or engaging enough to keep grown-ups from sitting still without serious ADD-like fidgets and finger tapping.

The story-line is expectedly simple given the source material. Again, not a detriment per se, but it makes the hour and half long adventure feel contrived and a bit wooden. Max (wonderfully portrayed by Max Records), runs away from home following a spat with his fingers-worked-to-the-bone single mother (Catherine Keener) and run-in with a rough-housing group of older kids. He journeys via boat to the island inhabited by the “wild things,” lead by manic-depressive Carol (James Gandolfini) and his band of sullen comrades (Lauren Ambrose, Catherine O’Hara, Paul Dano and Forest Whitaker). Max convinces them that he is a displaced Viking king, and he quickly becomes their omnipotent leader, commissioning the construction of a giant structure to be their home along with heaps of false promises that the things eat up like well, monsters.

The climax and ensuing resolution revolve mainly around Carol’s strained relationship with KW (Ambrose) and Max’s ill-fated reign over the group and experiences a sort of catharsis, realizing that his actions can create pain in the lives in others. They part ways. Max goes home a changed boy. Mother tearfully relieved. The ending, somewhat bare-bones and heartwarmingly raw, serves as a simple reminder that this beloved book has a place in both children and adults on the big screen.