Jezebel 
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New York, 10:58 PM
Sun Nov 22
20 posts in the last 24 hours
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10/17/09
10/19/09
10/16/09
I'm a grown up. I'm responsible and capable and mature. I also have toys in my house and watch movies and enjoy many of the types of things I did as a kid...just in a slightly more grown up way.
I don't think it's unfair to have to grow up. I think it's unfair to define growing up in only one limited, sterile, homogenized way. #wherethewildthingsarereviews
10/16/09
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10/16/09
I've loved the book ever since I got to play Max in Kindergharten because I was the Actor/Ham of every class. When I grew up a bit I taught it to my Summer Camp Drama students and felt again what it was like to read it for the first time. But to see it alive, and really, truly, gorgeously realized was almost too much (in a heartbursting and overfilled sort of way). I cried out of absolute happiness when the creature started to talk.
Whether this was/is you or not, I'm sure there are a lot of you out there who at least need a good Rumpus! So get out there and see it or I'll eat you up! #wherethewildthingsarereviews
10/16/09
"I thought I was a good kid! Why did I do that?! Am I really a bad kid after all?!!?" #wherethewildthingsarereviews
10/16/09
I was a neurotic little anxiety-ball as a kid. I have a feeling I'll like the movie. #wherethewildthingsarereviews
10/16/09
I get the impression that the biggest critics of this movie simply fail to relate to Max on a fundamental level. For me, I can't recall ever watching a movie or show that so acutely reminded me exactly how it felt to be nine.
This movie illustrates a very important crisis that occurs for what I assumed was every child. One day, you realize that your parents are people. You realize the unrealistic expectations you've placed on them, and that you've regarded them as god-like creatures with limitless power and authority.
All at once, Max realizes that his mother and sister are living the same silently dramatic inner struggles that he is, and that their lives are not, in fact, dedicated to his comfort.
Adults that fail to understand that children have this inner turmoil will think this movie is too neurotic for kids. However, more and more of today's children have lived a broad range of difficult experiences: divorce, death, anxiety, insomnia... children are sensitive, perceptive, even obsessive creatures. They will "get" this movie, in that it will affirm their inner monologue and make them feel like part of a community--even if they can't put this into words. #wherethewildthingsarereviews
10/16/09
10/16/09
It would surprise me if anybody that contributes or comments on this site in a meaningful way would fail to connect with this movie on some level. #wherethewildthingsarereviews
10/16/09
I loved it with so much of my heart that I'm trying not to bludgeon people with it, especially if they refuse to see it. Like I said above about not really changing from when I was a kid. Even though I had no hand in the creation of the film, I feel like I'm Max yelling at his Mom to come see his fort because he KNOWS it would make her happy because he's so happy with it. #wherethewildthingsarereviews
10/19/09
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10/16/09
Let the wild rumpus begin. Pbbbt. #wherethewildthingsarereviews
10/16/09
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10/16/09
Some, of course, don't do this. And we all have adaptations we just can't see being as good. Which in some cases is true, and in other cases is really just our own preferences for storytelling mediums, or how we feel about adaptations.
The reality is, film is not prose. It can't handle the story the same way and shouldn't be expected to. This adaptation can't, in any way, be the book, or even replace the book. But it can take that core story and translate it to film. If it works for the individual will, of course, be individual.
To me, the test of an adaptation is not in how closely it resembles the original in terms of literal adaptation...but how closely it captures the themes and -feelings- of the original work. LOTR makes some huge deviations, but the core of that world, and that story, is there in, for me at least, a breathtakingly beautiful new form. It hasn't changed or replaced the books for me...it simply gave me a new medium to enjoy and connect to them in as well.
None of this is to say you shouldn't see it if you don't want to...but no adaption can ruin something you love. It doesn't make the book cease to exist, or be any less beautiful than the first time you read it. And it might, it just might, show you other things to love, too. #wherethewildthingsarereviews
10/19/09
10/16/09
10/16/09
"I hope i die before I forget.....wait, what was I saying?"
hmmm no, that is equally as laborious. #wherethewildthingsarereviews
10/16/09
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10/16/09
And think about it, would YOU want to be held to the ideals you had about life that you came up with in your teens and early 20's? I'm only 22 now, but god, I hope getting laid, and raving aren't still my top two priorities at 30. But I hope creating a PLUR community is. So while the outside will be different, I hope the core will be the same.
I think saying it's the boomers fault is too easy. It also has to do with the freedom the pill has given people (to not be forced to grow up by marriage and a baby when you can't wait for sex any longer), and the fact that the media is constantly screaming at us that getting old is the worst thing that could ever happen to anyone ever. They all feed into each other. Boomer culture plays a part, but it's not all their fault. #wherethewildthingsarereviews
10/16/09
10/16/09
Who taught us that putting off a family was a good idea, instead of putting up a huge fight to expand maternity leave? The boomers. And their high divorce rate. And their TV shows about successful women who can't have it all.
And the worst thing they ever did was convince everyone was that their way was sooooo cool.
Raving and getting laid might not be my top priorities when I'm 30, but I hope to Athena that my belief that all humans are equal and that money isn't everything never ever changes. #wherethewildthingsarereviews
10/16/09
10/16/09
Most people don't agree with that sort of advertising. It's like saying since Cosmo is mostly edited by and written by women that it's our own fault that it spews anti-feminist ideals.
They tried. They didn't know what putting off having a family would do, because no one had ever really done it before. They didn't know what trying to "have it all" would lead to. Now as genxers and yers we're allowed to look at their choices and decide what we want.
And not all boomers were hippies or progressive. A decent portion of them never believed that humans were all equal and that money wasn't everything. That portion just gets talked about the most. #wherethewildthingsarereviews
10/16/09
still, good or bad, this must is a must-see for me. #wherethewildthingsarereviews
10/19/09
10/19/09
but... i just didn't get why the monsters (who are figments of max's imagination) were so neurotic and depressed. their statements about "keeping the sadness out" were so odd to me, they were hinting at some kind of depth or grand realization that wasn't really there.
in my humble opinion, i think the movie would have been better if max's imaginary interactions with the wild things were interspersed with scenes from real life.
i don't know, for me, the book was about offering refuge- a routine function of one's imagination. a place where things are as you want them to be/wish they could be but can't. it didn't ring true for max's imaginary friends to be so unstable and obnoxious. they seemed to be more from the imagination of woody allen.
also, if i had a child, i would have been angry. i definitely believe this movie is too scary for small children- (spoiler alert) for gosh sakes, carol attacks max! #wherethewildthingsarereviews
10/19/09
I was worried about the violence, too, but Little Penguino seemed to understand that it was about emotions. I think kids understand that feeling of wanting to destroy things or getting so angry you want to hit someone as a way to release your feelings. It certainly wasn't any more violent than Toy Story or Cinderella. #wherethewildthingsarereviews