Outsized wookies?

You'd be forgiven for finding Where The Wild Things Are narratively underwhelming. There is no distinguishable plot to speak of beyond childlike ruminations and innocent playfulness. But bear in mind that a film that takes place solely in the imagination of a young and lonely child perhaps doesn't require an emphasis on plot and narrative. It's often the simpler films, the ones depicting the basest of emotions such as isolation, frustration and loneliness, that are the most powerful.

However you may feel about this lack of narrative, it doesn't at all detract from the sheer beauty of this film. In fact, I'd say that it complements it. And boy, is it beautiful.


This film is flat out one of the most attractive films I have ever seen; a spectacle for the eyes that is quite literally breathtaking in more moments than one and as visually stunning as anything released this or any other year. The puppetry and CG imagery in this film are simply staggering. It's so good, in fact, that I just could not make up my mind: the titular Wild Things are too lifelike in movement and texture to be CGI yet too convincing and expressive to be puppetry, so I was never totally convinced it is either, yet I know it has to be one or the other, and probably a seamless mixture of both. If not, then the only other logical option is that everything you're watching is, in fact, real. It's that good looking.

I saw Transformers II earlier this year and I am yet to see Avatar, the supposed revolution in digital filmmaking, but as it stands, this film sets the bar for special effects, whether they be in-camera or not. If this doesn't win the Academy Award for costume design, art direction and set design, then .. then .. well, it probably won't, because Oscar tends to be an asshole like that. But it should, hands down.

However!

All that blabber might be well and good, but did anyone notice about halfway through that they were building a Death Star ... out of wood!?



What is that all about?