Truly a most excellent film. ^_^ I recall the days my mother would read us this story sometimes [my siblings and I ^_^]. I also recall the line, “I’M GOING TO EAT YOU UP!!” I was hardly ever ‘afraid’ of this book—for some reason—as in the film—the ‘Wild Things’ tended to just remind me of Jim Henson’s Muppets. =) I kind of thought they were cool. ^_^ In this CGI/Real-World blend of realities—the storyline for ‘Where The Wild Things Are’ [the Movie] is just-as—if not more-so—as parallel as the ‘two worlds’ [‘Computer Graphics’ and ‘Our Current Reality’] are to one another.

It took me a little bit to realize that Max’s sister and the ‘BIG MONSTER’ who was very fond of Max—shared the very same name: Carol. And if I’m not mistaken… ‘Douglas’ was apparently ‘Sister Carol’s Boyfriend’ and was ‘BIG MONSTER Carol’s Best-bird-friend’ who he got to ‘throw around’ XD …the parallel of realities I am quite sure is intentional. [Well DUH! XD]

And of course, there was also a very in-depth under-towing storyline which basically placed the ‘Whole of Mankind’ under-wraps in a ‘pile of’ [apparently ‘asexual’ ^^;] ‘HIDEOUS’ but otherwise ‘friendly’ [but capable of being FEROCIOUS] ‘MONSTERS.’ I found the line “They’re not sleeping in our pile!!” from Carol [the ‘BIG MONSTER’] very interesting.

Now before you go off to mentally tangenting and perverting lines like “We all can sleep together in a pile” (I sure did at first… ^^;) I believe it is important to understand the allegory.

Like in any ‘Family,’ band of ‘Friends’ or ‘relationship of business partners’ or ‘lovers…’ there typically the ‘In pile’ and the ‘Out pile.’ This concept is nothing new. The ‘Circle of Friends’ in ‘Barbie As The Island Princess’ [Yes… I went there… ^^;], the “Ones You Can Trust” in the various ‘James Bond’ films-and-stories and brutal movies like ‘Firefox’ and ‘SAW V.’

The “In Pile” is “Who you can trust…” the “Out pile” are ‘the others.’ But as well-portrayed in this fine flick… even within the ‘In Pile…’ jealousy and ‘self-conscious-neglect’ can certainly rise. [The white goat [Alex?] for example—and the ‘mean-monster-girl’ Irene I think it was… who like Max and ‘The Group of Wild Things…’ but become upset when not given full attention. And later… this ‘jealous insecurity’ is even to be shown from ‘BIG MONSTER’ ‘Carol.’]

Even during times of ‘The Closeness of Family…’ the friends—max spearheading—would make up games to ‘divide the two into teams:’ ‘Good’ and ‘Evil.’ The objective being to ‘KILL’ the bad guys. I love how the implication was placed on ‘KILL the bad guys’ as being the objective of ‘King Max.’

I literally felt the guy-and-girl-duo sitting right next to me at the theatre ‘winch’ and ‘cringe’ at the thought of how hard that statement was made. Indeed. We glorify war even during times of peace—and although the game of ‘Dirtball Wars’ turned out to be a blast at first—the ‘Goat Character’ (who was very obviously insecure) was struck and hurt with a dirtball and quit the game.

Indeed, I found this a fine parallel to the ‘Snowball Wars’ at the beginning of the film which eventually brought a very ‘insecure’ Max to tears when something he cared about was destroyed—a homemade-icy-igloo he handcrafted and desired to show off to his mother and sister. One of his ‘Sister’ ‘Carol’ leaped on it and destroyed it during the course of the—once-fun snowball fight which escalated past where Max desired for it to. A parallel to ‘Alex’(?) The ‘Goat Character’ during the ‘Dirtball Wars.’

An interesting thing is existence yes? =) Along with the good comes the bad—and not everyone shares the same ‘Limit.’ [As the white goat quit the game—but it simply did not end until K.W. offended ‘Carol’ who liked her—so was offended when she hurt him… his feelings more than his face. ^^;] K.W. by the way was a rather interesting character to me. She was definitely the ‘hippy’ ‘redhead’ type—and even intentionally favored such an ‘external character.’

Her friends were birds that she apparently laughed and talked with—and who others acted right along as if laughing and joking with—but didn’t fully understand them. I found the ‘Bird Talk’ scene an interesting parallel to Max’s home life. His sister and mother tended to distance themselves from Max when he would ‘place human value’ into the heart of a project or non-human friend [like the family dog… which by the way—was an interesting parallel to the ‘Dog In The Desert’ whom literally got a ‘What The Fuck!?’ and laugh from the girl sitting alongside her guy-pal at the cinema as we—the audience—took part in this fine story together. ^_^] Now it is debatable whether all of the film ‘Where The Wild Things Are’ truly ever did take place—or if it was part of Max’s dramatic-imagination. That’s up to the audience to decide.

Me personally—I think that whether it was imagined or ‘actual…’ the ‘Alice In Wonderland’ effect applies here. Even if ‘Wonderland’ is all in ‘Alice’s Mind…’ the fact that ‘Alice’ is part of ‘Existence’ as we conspire to believe it to be [Our Current Reality we often refer to as ‘The Physical Realm’]… then decisively… anything which ‘Alice’ experiences—tangible—or intangible to onlookers or otherwise… are indeed ‘Alice’s Experiences’ and thus are ‘Apart of The Whole of Existence.’ Wow. O_O;

Just came up with that! XD But seriously… ya’h… wow. XD Anyway. Wow. XD Okay… but yeah—seriously…

In other words—If it exists in the mind [internal experience] or of the body [external experience]—it is ultimately ‘Part of Our World’ [even if it be only ‘Part of Our World’ to the given individual who experiences it. As a whole—it is ‘Part of Our World.’] So in essence… oh yea’h… lemme say this before I forget. I had a strong feeling that about-center-movie—Carol [‘BIG MONSTER’ Carol] was going to destroy his ‘Small City’ built of sticks [the one Max modeled ‘The New World’ of ‘The Wild Things’ from].

The parallel? Where max gets upset with his sister whom he apparently thinks a lot of [and desires more-attention-from than she is obviously willing to give—very obviously ‘just starting-to-date’ and ‘spend-time-with-friends’]… and he tears the ‘toothpick construction’ that his sister ‘Carol’ made for him to bits… and then obviously regrets it as he attempts to piece it back together… pointed to this happening with ‘BIG MONSTER’ ‘Carol’ who was torn between not having a playmate anymore [K.W.] and losing a ‘new friend’ [Max]. I found the scene touching that just before Max leaves—he shapes a heart surrounding a ‘C’ with sticks—showing that although he may be leaving [placing distance between he and ‘BIG MONSTER’ Carol physically]—ethereally [mentally] he is still very much in love and connected with that which whom he deems as ‘Family’ and ‘bestfriend.’ The very audible ‘Shared Howl’ at the end as Max exists ‘Where The Wild Things Are’ to return to the ‘easy-chocolate-cake-lifestyle’ of his home which he once had taken for granted… acts as a sign of an undying bond which although may not be ‘Tangible…’ is a connection nonetheless—which is comparable by no other. A ‘Connection of Passionate Purpose.’ A ‘Connection’ of ‘Care and Love.’ ^_^

<This Writing Began: 8:10 AM, October 18, 2009, Sunday. Writing Completed [P.S. too]: 9:06 AM [Same-day]>

P.S. The moral of the story? =) As it has always been since the book came out a GREAT-and-Good-long-time-ago… [while I was growing up] =) It’s a JUNGLE out there. ^_^

Value those ‘closest to you’ and ‘Love’ whenever you can.
Fore there is no ‘Limiter-to-Love…’ unless one selectively decides so. 
Forever In Love With All That Which Exists
(That Which Is Seen & Unseen, Known & Unknown),
-DJ, TIGER M [Sunday]
-9:04 AM (10/18/2009)