Max is a little boy (10 yr old, I think) and he is a loner, as in he doesn't have any friends and he wants to play games with his sister, who's a teenager and doesn't have time for Max. Max builds an igloo and his sister's friends destroy it while fooling around and he is very sad and angry, so he wrecks his sister's room as she doesn't do anything about it and goes with them ignoring him. His mom is sweet and she cares for him and loves him very much. When she has her friend over, Max behaves recklessly and bites her. She is angry and shouts at him as to what is wrong with him, and that's when Max runs away from the home in his wolf costume. He boards a small boat, goes to sleep and when he wakes up it is night and he is in a strange magical island where the animals can talk and they behave socially. Through a turn of events, he befriends Carol and the storyteller that he is, tells tall tales of him being a king and defeating the Vikings, so as to avoid being eaten by the animals. The animals need a king and believe he has magical powers and that he could bring happiness to their lives. He has good times and bad times with them, but through Carol and K.W's lives, he realizes that he needs his mom now more than ever and comes back home to his worried mom.
This a wonderful and magical film about friendship and relationships. The director, Spike Jonze doesn't tell if the world Max visited is real or whether it was all in his head, because frankly the adults will know and the children will be thinking that the island and its inhabitants are real. I liked the way that the film was made. It wasn't completely filled with CGI animals, real people dressed up as animals and minimal CGI effects made this film very real to me. Max Records gave a beautiful performance as Max, even the voice actors and the animal suit actors gave good performances. It had to be expected as the voice cast consists of James Gandolfini, Catherine O' Hara, Forest Whitaker and others. Catherine Keener is a very talented actress, but is given a limited role here, which she does justice to. The music scored by Carter Burwell is amazing and gels so beautifully with the story, that you can't but nod your head along the tunes. I became a fan of Carter Burwell from Twilight and he doesn't disappoint with this one. The humming tune of the little kid is still playing in my head :) There is a scene where Carol is taking Max to his favourite place and on the desert Max sees a gigantic dog and Carol advises Max to just ignore it, and if he fed it, it will just follow around; that was hilarious. This film brought back memories of my childhood, when I ran away from home to go to Aladdin's land to get a wish from the genie, and getting scared that I didn't know my way back home when I was hungry and didn't know where I was going with no money. It was a nightmare back then, but now its turned into a sweet memory which I had almost forgotten.
Moving on, this has all the makings of a classic. Try seeing this at least once and you will definitely fall in love with Max and the creatures. But, be forewarned, this isn't a Disney film, there are plenty of dark, terrifying moments and little children will definitely be scared by it and some older ones will probably find it boring as this isn't filled with laugh out loud moments or eye-popping CGI effects. As for 20 yr old me, this was a good entertaining film which had a lot of heart.
9/10
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