Forwarding the Conversation

“Where the Wild Things Are” is one of the most storied children’s books ever written and holds a very special place in my heart. When I was young, my parents sent me to my room regularly. Each time, I would sit down in the center of my room and concentrate for hours, hoping that – through strength of will – I could force the jungle to suddenly sprout from the stale white carpet. After I’d squinched my nose for so long that I began to feel dizzy, I would run downstairs and apologize to my parents and beg for them to feed me. Some things haven’t changed…

To me, “Where the Wild Thins Are” is more than just a childrens’ book, it’s an exploration that drills into the core of our shared humanity. It’s a book of love, fear, and struggle. It’s a book about basic human emotions that we all experience, but are often too proud to show.

All of this to say that this afternoon I discovered this trailer for a movie to be released in the near future. As soon I saw the trailer had been posted I became skeptical. How could someone make this book into a movie? How could this movie ever measure up to the the pedestal I’ve held the book on for so long? Then, I watched the trailer and realized that there is no comparing the book to the movie. The book will always be special to me, but this movie will provide me – and various others – with a new interpretation of how Max became the King of the Wild Things. It’s not that the movie will be better or worse than the book, it will be different and should be celebrated in it’s own medium.

This general theme has been something I’ve been struggling with lately. I’ve recently fallen into the habit of seeing things as “good” or “bad” rather than seeing the facts as they truly are. Watching this trailer re-focused my mind on seeing what is there, rather than focusing on interpreting what is there. This may sound wonky, but all this really amounts to is a simple recognition that each of us sees the world and then interprets what we see. Very rarely do we simply see what is going on around us and say “there that is.” So, I’d like to say thank you to Warner Brothers for taking on this project. I know many will assert that this book should never be made into a movie, but I think that’s the wrong thing to focus on. What we should do is look at this movie within it’s context, on a movie screen, and see what is actually there. All I ask is that you watch, observe, and enjoy the images as they flicker across the screen. I promise that if you do that you’ll find things that you never thought were possible.