When this project was announced, we were wondering how a kids book of just 338 words would translate to the big screen. Then Spike Jonze was announced to direct. Then we saw the trailer and it gave us goosebumps. Now it's here and expectations are sky high. Unfortunately only Entertainment Weekly's Lisa Schwarzbaum is totally buying into it, calling the movie "one of the year's best."
"Profoundly beautiful and affecting, Where the Wild Things Are is a breath-
taking act of artistic transubstantiation."
— Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly
"... more than just a visual feast; it's a blissful evocation of imagining as a process of spiritual maturation."
— Ed Gonzalez, Slant Magazine
"What's weakest is its blandness, the sense memory of a child raised on Sesame Street. The psychic environment is less King Kong's Skull Island than Fred Rogers's neighborhood: Where the Wild Things Aren't."
— J. Hoberman, Village Voice
"...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."
— Todd McCarthy, Variety