Where The Wild Things Are - Children's Film

   'Where the wild thing are' is a well known children's story, written by Maurice Sendak. It is about a young boy called Max, who runs away with his imagination and creates a forest, inhabited by a few wild and ferocious creatures who Max manages to befriend and become their King. 
   I believe that the target audience for this film is for children, aged on around 6 or 7 and up to around 12 or 13, as the story line is based on imagining things and children of around that age would be like Max, creating and playing in their own world and running away with their imagination. Anyone younger, of the age of about 4-6, would be able to follow the story and most probably enjoy it, but they wouldn't be able to understand it as much as someone older would be able to. Also, it may not appeal as much to an older audience, such as teenagers or young adults, as the film is based on a small boy and his imagination and they may find it hard to relate to, unless they related it to their younger years.
   I think that this film is definitely a good children's film as children can easily relate to Max and running away with his imagination as when you are a child, that is what you do and you get involved with where your imagination takes you. The colours used in the film are natural, as even though it is a fantasy sort of children's film, Max sees the creatures in his world and way of living, a natural environment and the target audience can understand that. The music in the film can become quite intense at times, when the creatures get quite scary and make Max a little afraid of them, but not as much as to completely scare the target audience. Max's clothes are also not out of the ordinary, meaning that he really does represent a cheeky and young character, who does dress up occasionally, in the film shown by seeing Max wearing a wolf costume, as well as just jeans and a jacket, the ordinary clothing that a child of his age would wear and so the target audience can easily relate to Max himself.
   As this film is an adaption to the actual book 'Where the Wild Things are', there are some differences in the story and the story line. The film was directed by Spike Jonze, and the screenplay was also written by him and Dave Eggers. The film was rated as a PG and 101 minutes long, and was released on the 11th of December 2009. The film was nominated for many awards and won quite a few, such as a 'Black Reel Award' and even a 'Golden Globe'. On the opening weekend in the UK, after only 491 screenings, the box office had taken in £883,990 whereas in the USA when it had been released on the 18th October 2009, the box office took in $32,695,407 after 3735 screenings. However, the only downside to the film written by many reviews is that many people have found the film to be a little depressing - ''As a child, I found the book a little creepy and maybe even sad, but the last images, those of Max returning to his own room on the very night that he had left it and finding his supper, left for him still warm, redeemed some of the angst of the book. Those last few lines left this little reader feeling relieved and hopeful that tomorrow would be a better day for young Max. The film offered no such relief from the considerable gloom and sadness it inflicted.'' is just one quote, and so you can tell that this adaption to the story is not at all the happy ending that you would hope for from the film. Although the film is very good and gripping for most people who enjoy the fantasy and family movies, it does not end in the happiest and most cheerful of endings or in any sense of hope which to a lot of viewers means that although the film was very good, they didn't and wouldn't have enjoyed it as much as they would have liked to.