When I first heard they were making this 48 page children's book a movie I was a little confused and a little hesitant on seeing it. I don't think I had this book when I was a kid, so I'm not one of the thousands of people who were obsessed with this phenomenon, but I generally like Spike Jonze; and I wanted to see James Gandolfini as a fuzzy monster.
My friend Ryan and I saw this movie in IMAX, and it was pretty sweet, the visuals are really what kept me intrigued the whole time. Along with a overly depressed Alexander (the ram looking monster) who was often much like a friend of ours, humorous in a sad puppy kind of way.
If you're not familiar with the book or haven't seen the movie, it's about a kid who is a little jerk to his mom and runs away to an imaginary island, dressed as a wolf (of course), he encounters monsters and basically pressures them into being their king, he then dreams up a big fort and makes the monsters build it for him (like slaves basically) and then comes between a fighting monster couple. Thanks for adding a love story line to this children's story, it wasn't really needed and at some points made me feel slightly uncomfortable. Max realizes that he misses his mom and returns home leaving his monster adventures behind.
Again this movie was beautiful, I thought Catherine O'Hare was a perfect fit for her monster and James Gandolfini brought a little bit of Tony Soprano scariness to his monster.
ps. there was also this wonderful new
Alice in Wonderland trailer.
Recommended.
