Kids movies versus grown-up movies

November 13th, 2009 at 03:55pm Will Pfeifer

In this piece over at the New York Times, critic A.O. Scott  discusses the semi-controversy springing up in the wake of Spike Jonze’s WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE (and set to revive itself when Wes Anderson’s THE FANTASTIC MR. FOX opens this week) — namely, are these movies based on children’s books actually aimed at (or just plain suitable for) children?

He comes to an interesting conclusion. Most adult movies, Scott says, are driven by childish wish-fulfillment, where “Justice is served. The bad guys pay. Love conquers all. The naughty boys come home from their crazy adventures and find that their mommies still love them.”

But kids’ movies? Actual kids’ movies? They’re something else entirely…

“But things are much more complicated in some children’s movies, it seems, where the regressive infantilism of grown-up comedies and action pictures is answered by a grave precocity. A movie like WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE or Wes Anderson’s FANTASTIC MR. FOX play a kind of reverse dress-up, disguising adult anxieties in the costumes of innocent make-believe and fanciful spectacle.” 

I haven’t seen either movie yet, one (FOX) because it hasn’t opened yet, and one (WILD THINGS) because, tellingly, I don’t think my four-year-old daughter would be willing to sit through it. But I’m dying to see both, and one of the main reasons is that I hope they’ll tap into that illusive inner child lurking somewhere deep inside my dark, FIGHT CLUB-lovin’ soul.

Entry Filed under: New movies, Uncategorized