Where the Wild Things Are (film)/YMMV

• Alternate Character Interpretation: Either the monsters are imaginary friends of Max, or representations of his emotions and the people he lives with. Max himself can also be seen as a child with a personality disorder.
• Big Lipped Alligator Moment:
  • As Carol and Max were walking through the desert, Max sees a giant sheepdog in the distance. When asked about it, Carol responds, "Oh, It's that dog. Don't feed it, he'll just follow you around." The dog is never seen or mentioned again.
  • Also, that one scene where one of the monsters is petting a cat.
  • Because we never learn how the events of the movie affect Max, the entire trip to visit the Wild Things could be considered a BLAM. You could excise the sequence and not have any effect on the "real world" plot aside from making the movie a lot shorter.
  • "Hey Richard."
• Jerkass Woobie: Max and Carol.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: The Wild Thing suits. The combination of CGI and animatronics is seamless.
• What Do You Mean It's for Kids?: Some people asked this very question about the 2009 movie.
  • Granted, Spike Jonze himself stated in an interview that it wasn't meant to be a kid's film, but a "film about childhood".
  • Then again, Maurice Sendak has gone on record to state that the film is absolutely fine for kids "and anyone who doesn't like that can go right to hell." So... there's that. Although, to be fair, the original was meant as a children's story, and Sendak has gotten more than his fair share of this trope, to the point that some teachers wanted to ban them.
• The Woobie: Alexander. Arguably everyone except Claire, her friends, and Max's mom's boyfriend, who aren't developed enough to qualify, and the teacher, who is kind of scary.