Step 1: Let The Wild Things be wild! Director Spike Jonze aptly captures the spirit of Maurice Sendak’s timeless children’s book, with wild abandonment.
Step 2: Let the wild rumpus begin! We all know the illustrated story by heart. A little boy in a wolf suit named Max gets sent to his room by his mother for being too wild, and it transforms into a lush jungle, complete with a collection of monsters who like to roar terrible roars and show terrible claws and rumpus like it’s 1999. They pronounce Max the King of All Wild Things and proclaim they’ll eat him up, they love him so. But Max gets tired and eventually wants to go home, sailing his boat back to his room, where his dinner is waiting for him, still hot. Of course, Jonze and co-writer Doug Eggers had to flesh things out a bit, turning young 9-year-old Max (Max Records) into a full-fledged boy, with real emotions and an oversized imagination. He gets peeved at his single mother (Catherine Keener) and older sister (Pepita Emmerichs) for not paying enough attention to him and runs out of the house – into the adventure of a lifetime.
Step 3: Let them gnash their horrible teeth! Once Max is on the island of the Wild Things, he gets his first taste of being truly out of control when he meets the monsters, including Carol (James Gandolfini; yes, think Tony Soprano as a giant furry puppet), KW (Six Feet Under‘s Lauren Ambrose), Douglas (Chris Cooper), Judith (Catherine O’Hara), Ira (Forest Whitaker) and adolescent Alexander (There Will Be Blood‘s Paul Dano). This great cast forms a sort of dysfunctional family, something Max becomes all too familiar with. And as the young Max, Records is yet another 
amazing unknown kid found, after an extensive search, to take on the whole movie on his small, capable shoulders.
Step 4: Let’s pronounce Spike Jonze the King of All Wild Things! This guy goes full-stop to bring the essence of Sendak (who gave full support) to life the only way Jonze knows how – with a lot of quirk, some self-indulgent down time and a LOT of imagination. Spike WAS Max as a kid, you just know it, and so taps into the kind of make-believe only little boys can dream up. Creating the Wild Things as giant-sized puppets is brilliant, giving the film a more real, Jim Henson feel, rather than just all CGI, and the locations are spectacular. However, there are those who claim this adaptation is not suitable for young children, because of some of the more adult themes, such as Carol’s manic-depression, and the sometimes frightening imagery. I disagree. A 3 or 4-year-old might have moments of fear or boredom, but any kid over 6 is going to get it. There’s isn’t anything in WTWTA that a kid won’t relate to, because instead of talking down to them or sugarcoating it, Jonze is actually speaking their language.
Level of difficulty in watching Where the Wild Things Are: As easy as starting a wild rumpus.