Where the Wild Things Are : Sendak with Sensitivity

With subtlety and sympathy, Spike Jonze brings Maurice Sendak's classic kids' book Where the Wild Things Are to life

Warner Bros.

Carol (voice by James Gandolfini) and Max (Max Records) in the Spike Jonze film Where the Wild Things Are

The 338-word story of Max — last name unknown, emotional state tumultuous, willingness to obey dubious — has been a bedtime favorite of wild things everywhere (and their parents) since not long after its 1963 publication. That makes nearly five decades' worth of fans, many of whom have been harboring the disquieting fear that the universality of Maurice Sendak's Max, who so exquisitely embodies the inherent storminess of all small beings, would be marred by Spike Jonze's cinematic adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are .

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