Where the Wild Things Are
Warner Bros. Pictures | Release Date: October 16, 2009 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
71
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 37 Critic Reviews
Positive:
23
Mixed:
14
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
This is one of the year's best. To paraphrase the Wild Thing named KW, I could eat it up, I love it so. Read full review
100
L.A. WeeklyScott Foundas
What he’s (Jonze) ended up with strikes me as one of the most empathic and psychologically acute of all movies about childhood -- a "Wizard of Oz" for the dysfunctional-family era. Read full review
100
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
Not since Robert Altman took on “Popeye” a generation ago, and lost, has a major director addressed such a well-loved, all-ages title. This time everything works, from tip to tail. Read full review
100
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Jonze has filmed a fantasy as if it were absolutely real, allowing us to see the world as Max sees it, full of beauty and terror. The brilliant songs, by Karen O (of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs) and the Kids, enhance the film's power. Read full review
100
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
As wish-fulfillments go, this is a movie lover's dream. Read full review
100
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
With Where the Wild Things Are Jonze has made a work of art that stands up to its source and, in some instances, surpasses it. Read full review
100
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
In elaborating on the original book so boldly, and repopulating it so richly, Jonze has protected Where the Wild Things Are as an inviolable literary work. In preserving its darkest spirit, he's created a potent, fully realized variation on its most highly charged themes. Read full review
100
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike Scott
His (Jonze) obvious affection for, and veneration of, Maurice Sendak's 1963 Caldecott Medal-winning children's book is palpable in his near-perfect live-action adaptation, a dreamy -- and, like Sendak's book, faintly nightmarish -- exploration of one child's tantrum-y side. Read full review
91
The A.V. ClubJosh Modell
Spike Jonze has recently said in interviews that his chief goal ...was to try to capture the feeling of being 9. By that measure--by just about any measure, really--he succeeded wildly. Read full review
90
Film ThreatMatthew Sorrento
His film captures the wonderment of dreaming - and the reality of waking. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleKimberley Jones
I don't want to oversell the thing. It is, quite simply, something very special indeed. Read full review
88
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Like the book, the movie blends a primitive quality with an imaginative artfulness. It also amplifies upon the story's gentle, sly wit. Read full review
83
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
There are some great, rapturous moments in Where the Wild Things Are. Jonze is humbled before the wonders of a child's imagination, and so are we. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
For all the artfulness, the feel of the film is rough-hewn, almost primitive. It’s a fabulous tree house of a movie. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsJoe Neumaier
The film treats kids' inner lives as more than a fantasy, which is a rare and beautiful thing. Read full review
80
EmpireDan Jolin
A film for anyone who’s ever climbed trees, grazed knees or basked in the comfort of a parent’s sympathy as they’ve pulled you off the ground crying. It’ll make your inner child run wild. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The movie felt long to me, and there were some stretches during which I was less than riveted. Is it possible that there wasn't enough Sendak story to justify a feature-length film? Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
The result is an involving experience for all but the most fidgety children and an opportunity for parents to enjoy (rather than endure) a motion picture with their offspring. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
A satisfyingly moody, melancholy, madcap live-action romp. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy Burr
This version of Where the Wilds Things Are isn’t about childhood at all but about childhood’s end and what’s gained and lost by it. That’s why very young kids, dull Disney princesses, overprotective parents, and self-serious grown-ups should probably stay away. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
It IS a film that deflates you too often, despite its efforts to impart a sense of soaring. In the end, where the Wild Things are is in your imagination and in Sendak’s pages, not in this big-hearted but ultimately faint simulation. Read full review
63
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe Williams
To their credit, the creative team has retained the handmade look and unruly spirit of Maurice Sendak's bedtime fable; to their discredit, they haven't added enough narrative or emotional dimension to make it an effective movie. Read full review
63
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
Jonze lets the magic ebb away in a sorry mesh of strained relationships. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
Where the film falters is Jonze and novelist Dave Eggers' adaptation, which fails to invest this world with strong emotions. Read full review
60
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Director Spike Jonze's sharp instincts and vibrant visual style can't quite compensate for the lack of narrative eventfulness that increasingly bogs down this bright-minded picture. Read full review
50
The New YorkerDavid Denby
I have a vision of eight-year-olds leaving the movie in bewilderment. Why are the creatures so unhappy? That question doesn’t return a child to safety or anywhere else. Of one thing I am sure: children will be relieved when Max gets away from this anxious crew. Read full review
50
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
Wild Things isn't overlong, but it is underwhelming. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
The film lacks the menace and danger of Sendak's book, along with the beautiful simplicity and delicated, understated portrait of a lonely, misunderstood boy. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Warmly and gently handled, though the central story, detailing the personal politics between him and the six childlike monsters, steadily loses steam. Read full review
50
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
Mature folks may wonder why a simple and simply beautiful story from their youth has been buried under layers of emotion Woody Allen's psychiatrist might want to pick over. Read full review
50
SlateDana Stevens
It's just too bad the end result isn't a better movie. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
The most daring thing that Jonze and Eggers have done is make a children's film that might not really be for kids. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
Less an adaptation of its source material than a therapeutic response to it. Read full review
50
New York PostLou Lumenick
In their overly earnest attempt to flesh Sendak’s story out to 100 minutes, Jonze and his co-screenwriter, novelist Dave Eggers, have laboriously spelled out motivations (divorce is bad!), elaborated back stories -- and added reams of less-than-inspired dialogue. Read full review
40
Time OutKeith Uhlich
The true soulfulness of Sendak’s parable never emerges. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
When faced as a director with the rudderless screenplay he (Jonze) co-wrote with Eggers, he's been powerless to energize it in any involving way. Sometimes you are better off with 10 sentences than tens of millions of dollars, and this is one of those times. Read full review
40
SalonStephanie Zacharek
Jonze's ideas, visual and otherwise, spill out in a faux-philosophical ramble that isn't nearly as deep as he thinks it is; at best, it's a scrambled tone poem. Even the look of the picture becomes tiresome after a while -- it starts to seem depressive and shaggy and tired. Read full review
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