$0 As the fall season rolls around, there is an assortment of new movies opening to kindle the excitement of cinema-going teens everywhere. Among these new films is Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are. $0$0 There is no doubt that this movie has been highly anticipated. In my English classroom, one mention of the film caused an eruption of excited chatter from everyone around me. $0$0 “I am so pumped to see it!” said junior Katie Luy.$0$0 The film follows the story of a young boy named Max. His adventure begins one night after his mother invites her new boyfriend over for dinner. Mischievous Max is upset that his mother would rather spend time with her new man than play in the fort Max has built in his room, so he decides to cause some trouble. $0$0 After a bit of yelling and fighting, his angry mother sends him to bed without having any dinner. Instead, Max runs outside and escapes. There his imagination takes him on an adventure to a fantastical island that is home to the “wild things.” He is crowned their king and the wild rumpus starts.$0$0        The movie Where the Wild Things Are is a live action film based on the classic 1963 children’s picture book by Maurice Sendak. The movie script was immensely expanded and adapted from the original ten sentence story in order to be fit for the big screen. From the first suggestion of turning the beloved children’s book into a movie, it has taken over ten years to finally get the picture rolling. There were many setbacks due to changes in directors, changes in distributing companies, auditions for actors, and alterations to costumes. $0$0 Just as in the Caldecott Award-winning book, Max is seen throughout most of the movie romping around in his iconic wolf costume and gold crown.$0$0  The “wild things” retain the crazy look that they had in the book, but in the film the “wild things” are portrayed by actors in 6 to 8 foot tall costumes with computer-generated faces. The Jim Henson Company, the same company that created the Muppets and the creatures from Pan’s Labyrinth, made the extraordinary costumes for Where the Wild Things Are. $0$0 The costumes were so huge and outlandish that it made you believe them to be real. Also, it was nice to not be bombarded with the computer generated characters that seem to be in every other movie these days. $0$0 Having Max interact with actual actors in costumes rather than pretending to see them made the film so much more likeable and believable.   $0$0         The movie had its funny moments, one of the best involving a random raccoon that is thrown onto one of the “wild thing’s” face, but it also had some serious and even creepy undertones. $0$0 For instance, the root of all of Max’s feelings that led him to run away lie within his family life. He has an absent father, a mother who is always working and now is beginning to date new men, and an older sister who is growing up too fast to notice him. $0$0 Max had a lot of troubles at home, but once he reached the island his troubles seemed to only grow, now including the worry of being eaten alive. A volatile “wild thing,” Carol, even goes on a rampage in which he tears off one of the other “wild thing’s” arms and then chases Max while threatening to eat him. $0$0 Considering that this movie was created based on a children’s book, the content of the film is not very child friendly. The fitting audience for this movie would be teens and adults who are looking back on their childhood fondness for the picture book. It would seem that much of the appeal comes from memories students have that are tied to the original book. $0$0 “It was one of my favorite childhood books, and I am really excited to see the pages come to life,” said junior Vicki Harrington. $0$0 Much like the book, the movie was very strange, with a lot of random things thrown in that at times just made me say, “What?” One of these things was a massive dog walking through the desert that is seen once, and then never mentioned again. It seemed like they were just throwing in anything that might be in a child’s imagination, even if it didn’t pertain to the story.$0$0 Among all of the “wildness” that Wild Things had to offer, the meaning of the story seems to get lost. Max is struggling at home, but the action throughout the movie doesn’t seem to bring any resolution to that. $0$0 The one moment in the film that hinted at any lesson to be learned was when Carol was out of control and Max was yelling at him to calm down, much like his mother was yelling at him in the start of the movie. The events in the film left me wondering what the point was.$0$0 This movie is definitely different and bizarre, but it did have its funny points. Finally, the long awaited and highly anticipated film is in theaters and everyone can get the chance to see the “wild” book come to life on the big screen.$0$0$0$0