Where the Wild Things Are is a wonderful, wonderful film. It's fun, exciting, thought-provoking, dark, scary, emotional. You know, the way a kids movie is supposed to be. It's even a bit dull at times, and I mean that in a good way.
Being a child can be dull and repetitive, and the film manages to find beauty even in its dull moments. There are lots of reviews and feedback from critics and audiences saying it's either too dark and intense for kids, or it's too boring.
I think we got too sensitized from the modern so-called children's entertainment, where everything has to be fun, positive, colorful, dumbed-down, and safe.
God forbid there's a childrens' film out there where the young protagonist doesn't have a clear goal or a conveniently fabricated bad guy to fight against. God forbid we let children see a film that explores and shares their own imagination in an inventive and endlessly creative way.
Anyway, I'm going on a tangeant. There was a point to all this. Oh yeah, the title. I think the English title of the book and the film perfectly describes both pieces in their own way. I say the English title, because guess what name the Turkish distributor thought best described this complex and beautiful film? Are we ready? Drum roll...
"My Friend The Monster"
That's how important a title is sometimes. After changing around a mere couple of words, we have gone from a modern kids' classic to mediocre, straight-to-DVD crap. I just pity the parents who are going to drag their kids to see "My Friend The Monster", thinking it's going to be just another asinine distraction like G-Force.
I'm sorry but I believe any parent who will be willing to drag their kid to a movie called "My Friend The Monster" is not going to be smart enough to appreciate "Where The Wild Things Are".
But, just so I don't have several vital veins pop in my neck due to intense frustration, I once again remind myself that things could be worse, a lot worse. So without further ado, here are Top 5 possible titles even crappier than "My Friend The Monster":
1- That Darn Subconscious.
2- As long as we're doing straight-to-DVD sounding titles, why not a made up title that grown-ass men think kids will find fun and interesting, like Ooby, or Gooby, or some shit like that. They can even change the name of one of the wild things to Gooby. Oh FUCK, I just found out that there actually is a movie called Gooby. Fucking Hagrid as the voice of Gooby The Bear. God damn it.
3- Kid Bites Mom (There has to be a fetish porn with this title somewhere in the underground porn industry of either Thailand or Japan).
4- WWTA (Complete with Michael Bay-style glossy, metallic, boring-as-fuck military font with nothing else on the poster but the huge-ass title so that Bay's target audience, illeterate hilbillies, can at least tell it's gonna be kick-ass, since the title's all big and stuff).
5- Michel Gondry's Where The Wild Things Are Whimsical and Cute in an Artsy and Eccentric Way and Stuff Because I'm French and I'm Artsy and Eccentric and I Use VHS Cameras to Shoot 50 Million Dollar Projects So It Looks All Artsy and Eccentric.
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