I took my eight year old niece to see it and she adored it, we later played wild things in the garden, howling and throwing grass at each other.
It reminded her and myself of the power of imagination.
The strength of emotions inside everyone that can be harnessed to build cities or consume people.
And the value of family. That family is beyond blood sometimes.
Overall it was fun and touching and as WILD as I hoped it would be.

I think your writing that was making fun of the psychological aspect was a waste of space. Sure you can break it down into metaphorical film language and analyze it till the frames fall apart, or you can enjoy it as a rich landscape of imaginings and discoveries, fear and love and learning to relate to others.

The book was ten sentences, and the movie managed to go for a full length period without venturing into assumptions too far off the original story and pictures. I admire this. If it turned itself into some drastically altered picture perfect ‘so max remembered to always brush his teeth and kiss his mummy thrice before bed’ type creation i would be puking.
I was a child who grew up with this book as one of my imagination triggers. I believe new generations can gain the same horizon broadening, fun, wild experience from the movie.
In a world with so many ways of broadcasting issues, and so many things on the weight of children’s shoulders (exemplified in the classroom scene in which max and other children are taught the sun is dying), what is wrong with a bit of dirty, silly, scary, gross, funny imagination?

I am still in contact with my inner child but can also analyze films harshly and I feel the beauty in the film was that it captured the wild, illogical, fierce forces of imagination as a child without trying to be something it wasn’t. The book was never a morally rich story about being a better person and the movie focused on what was there with a bit of creative license that i enjoyed thoroughly.

It was beautiful, wild and powerful.
Children are not made of cup cakes and glitter. They have strong emotions just like adults. It is so demeaning to assume they are only capable of watching shows that sprinkle sugar over real thoughts, dreams and adventures. Think of what children stories were fifty years ago. There is nothing wrong with a story just being about learning to rediscover the imagination.

If you want to psychoanalyze yourself whilst sitting next to your child in the theater because you don’t have the imagination capacity, feel free.

It works at many levels, in terms of pure fun, in terms of conflict & redemption, but very importantly in examining the psychology of mindfulness (even in the Buddhist sense).

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/addiction-in-society/200910/mindfulness-in-addiction-and-film

The explanations for a lot of it are pretty straightforward. Imaginative, selfish child who doesn’t know how to deal with his feelings (like most kids) escapes in his head to a crazy land where his wild emotions are manifested as creatures. Through his adventure, he learns that the world doesn’t revolve around him and his mother and other fight the same overwhelming emotions everday, just like him.

I read a few interviews with the writers, and most of this is from their words and confirmed pretty solidly by watching the movie.

And why are you so offended by a movie that mostly takes place in a kid’s head dealing with a lot of metaphorical psychology?