wow. makes me want to avoid it entirely.

This is a children’s book. HOW can they make the movie for adults and not even care what kids will think?  Don’t they think little kids, whose favorite book is Where the Wild Things Are, are not going to see the previews and want to go?  And parents are not going to see the title and assume it is appropriate for their preschoolers?

This is so arrogant and presumptuous…

For what it’s worth, the movie is rated PG rather than G.  That ought to give preschoolers’ parents a heads-up. I know my own daughter can barely handle a G rating, presumably parents with easily frightened kids will be paying attention.

To be honest, it makes perfect sense to me that the movie wasn’t made for children.  The book was published in 1963, and over the years, I’m sure a very many children have read it or had someone read it to them.  It reminds me of Winnie the Pooh, who I’m pretty certain wasn’t originally intended for children-- just the child inside of us.

I just took my five year old to see this film.  I realized almost right away that it was a movie ABOUT childhood and that most of it would go right over his head.  OOPS!  I would not say that the film was particularly scary, but it was emotionally complex.  Enough so that I’m still digesting it, and it’s been a couple of days.  My son says he enjoyed the film.  It depicts some wonderfully imaginative environments, and what five year wouldn’t enjoy watching a wild thing pig pile?  But let’s not underestimate our kids so fast.  My son asked me yesterday “Mom, were the wild things good or bad?” We were presented with a wonderful opportunity to have a discussion about human nature… a little good and bad behavior in all of us.  Things aren’t always so black and white.

Emily, I admire the way you expose your son to reality, even as I know it isn’t my way. I think different people see fear in young children differently… and of course children have completely individual responses to things that might be “scary.” There is definitely some mix of nature (child’s core personality), nurture (child is presented with a particular set of experiences at certain ages relating to what could be scary, and may make internal adjustments), and what is projected by the parent - that a child should be able to handle something, or should be apprehensive, etc. and the child responds at least in part based on these projections. Best, I guess, that we just observe our children and relate to where they’re at and what they need from us next. I’ll probably have Z wait for a couple of years simply to avoid exposing her to that emotional complexity at this age… which is also why we won’t let her watch “Annie” yet… OK, there’s a post in this, including a funny story about The Wizard of Oz. Stay tuned!

Wow. What a jerk. I’m profoundly disappointed to hear a children’s author talk to callously about his little fans (and the parents who have paid for his books all these years).

Our son brought along his friend, who appeared to fidget throughout the film.  I was feeling guilty about bringing him along, suspecting his parents might not follow our same philosophy about early exposure to emotional complexity.  But then later his mom told us her recently-divorced brother-in-law and nephew were boarding with them for a couple months.  The nephew was dealing with anger and was hitting and biting. These are exactly the themes dealt with in the film.  So in the end, she thinks this film may have supplied her 5-year-old with some tools to understand his cousin a little better. Even if it’s just a subconscious roadmap for now.

Jenna, I don’t think we can expect all great children’s artists to be alike, or all of them to be nice. I think a lot of parents think of Maurice Sendak to basically be Eric Carle drawing in a different style. But these authors have very different motivations, perspectives, and personalities. Maurice Sendak is, no getting around it, a complicated guy. He has also made a LOT of disturbing books, including several we own but have realized are not appropriate for our daughter until she is much older. (A few of them feature dead children.) But out of that unique perspective has come a lot of really amazing work. I think the real question of Maurice Sendak’s career is not “Do you have to like children to make books children will like,” but “Do you have to like children to empathize with them and share something with them that they want to know more about.” Sendak proved the answer to this is no.

I’m actually looking forward to seeing this Sendak documentary as much as, if not more, than Where the Wild Things Are. Probably because I’ve been so interested in all Sendak’s books for so long. I hope Jonze didn’t just phone it in.

Joshua, that is a great example of the complexity of life Emily is saying young children are ready for. Maybe what I think of as fixed stages of emotional development in children have as much to do with what kids will get from a work as what kids are ready to be exposed to. But I think there are also times we would agree that children are exposed in life to things which, if we had the option, we would shield them from until they were a bit older. And I’m assuming we all can agree that there are some things, even things outside sexuality, that we’d like to avoid exposing our kids to until they reach a certain level of emotional maturity. The questions of “What?” “When?” and “What will we do til then?” are part of what make us who we are as parents.