Forest Whitaker Defends Spike Jonze's "Where the Wild Things Are"

Last month, the blogosphere was abuzz with rumors that the studio hated Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are, possibly because it was too dark and not kid-friendly enough. The last we heard from Warner Bros was the announcement of a much later than expected release date of October 2009. In a recent interview with MTV, Forest Whitaker, who voices the lead monster, defended Jonze’s original version, saying he took his children to see it, and they all liked it.



Forest: "I’m going to call Spike and find out what’s going on,” he promised. “The thing is, it’s one thing to read [scary stuff] in a book, but when you see an itty-bitty kid running alongside a 10-foot-giant on the side of a cliff, it gets intense. But that’s the point, because we’re representing the things inside of the kid. They represent his struggles, either him being too angry or being confused, or not feeling like he belongs."

...“[The dark scenes] are the point of the movie, and I hope that they maintain that point, because I think children can identify with a character who is upset,” ...“[The main character Max] built this whole city, and nobody likes it, and he tears it all up. He’s like, ‘Well if you don’t like it, I’m just going to tear it up!’ because he wants so badly for someone to like it.”

“This kid rolls by himself, no father figure; this is a single family home,” he continued, with passion. “His mother ends up having a boyfriend that becomes like a monster to him…people have to build trust with the people their parent starts to date…These are real issues that the character deals with, and I hope that [the filmmakers] continue to explore them, because kids need to see that; they need to see that other kids are dealing with it.”


Wow, did an actor just say something semi-intelligent? I totally agree – it’s high time we stop treating children like idiots. They’re more mature than we think. Take the 15-year-old I’m dating – some would call her a child. And to those people I pull up her shirt and say, “Your honor, do these look like the juggs of a child?”