Supposedly Spike Jonze’s faithful adaptation of Where The Wild Things Are struck fear into the hearts of children; ironically enough tales of impending reshoots and reconstruction are doing the same thing for adult fans of the book.
But Forest Whitaker tells MTV that his kids weren’t scared by Jonze’s preview cut. Whitaker voices Ira, the film’s main wild thing, and took his family to one of the early screenings. Not only does Whitaker say that his kids liked it, he sounds pretty passionate about Jonze’s version of the film as a whole.
“[The dark scenes] are the point of the movie,” Whitaker says, “and I hope that they maintain that point, because I think children can identify with a character who is upset.”
He goes on to say that “These are real issues that the character deals with, and I hope that [the filmmakers] continue to explore them, because kids need to see that; they need to see that other kids are dealing with it.”
I’m no parent, but I do know that kids are far more resilient and (generally) smarter than they’re given credit for. I can’t imagine that Jonze has crafted some children’s movie version of Saw, and if there’s a recognizable basis for the scary stuff in the movie, most young audiences will be able to handle it. Is ‘most’ enough for a kids movie that costs this much? I hope so.