How They Made "Where the Wild Things Are" Real

Where The Wild Things Are director Spike Jonze comparing concept art for "Ira" to the clay maquette built by the Jim Henson Creature Workshop. Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures.

Vanity Fair features a post on the construction of the costume/puppets for Spike Jonze adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are. I saw the film in IMAX over the weekend and had mixed feelings about the overall film. However, the choice not to simply CGI the monsters was an excellent decision. They used technology, craft, performance, and artistry to make the beasts live and breath. The films tone and mood produce an overall bleak take on childhood. The childhood imagination is not presented here as a method to escape ones every day life. In the short term, there is an escape but all the reality of life seeps back in clouding the euphoric feeling an ordinary Disney ending would leave one with. Voice actors for the monsters were a well chosen eclectic bunch.

PS: Never sit closer than the middle of the theater for an IMAX presentation. Twice I have been seated too close and twice I have felt nauseous afterwards.