#5 Where the Wild Things Are Book and Movie Review

Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak was The Caldecott Medal book in 1964. The movie was just recently released on DVD on March , 2010. The book is very suitable for younger children, ages 5 and up; however, the movie is certainly not designed for that age group. I was greatly disappointed in the movie compared to the book. It was surprising to me that the author of the book would give permission for her work to be turned into a movie of this caliber. The movie was too graphic for small children and I thought it should have been more animated than so real life. The movie is rated PG and that prevents it from being shown at my school without parent permission.

The movie is approximately 100 minutes and when my nieces and I watched the movie it was very difficult to hold their attention. My oldest niece (6 years old) fell asleep, my youngest niece (3 years old) directed her attention to other things, and I certainly had a hard time watching the movie without getting bored.

The movie and the book are similar in the sense that Max does sail away to have a wild adventure with the monsters. He enjoys it for awhile, but then he leaves and does return home. Overall, I would highly recommend the book, but I would not do the same for the movie.