Where the Wild Things Are

by  Alex Tabarrok in

There are moments of great beauty and wonder in Where the Wild Things Are and also moments of fear and anger.  It's not a kid's movie but the 11-year old liked it and the 8-year old thought it pretty good.  I thought it was great but unlike my sons I have lived all the roles.  The movie has a libertarian sub-theme that I don't recall from any of the 10 sentences in the book. 

Comments

Matt

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What was the libertarian sub-theme?

Michael Drake

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I haven't seen the film, but I understand Max's ire is triggered when one of his sister's friends steps on his fort. So it's obviously an allegory about the importance of property rights.

Eric

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I understand the libertarian theme to be the resistance of Max-as-authority-figure. But that theme certainly was part of the book.

Matt

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It could just as easily be an atheistic undertone. I really don't think it's that deep, either. It's just a kid's fantasy. The coolest thing was the conversation he had with his mother from inside the womb.

John

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Haven't seen the movie or read the book, but I find it hard to believe that hipsters like Jonze and Eggers would let a libertarian message slip into their movie. If it's in there, it must be accidental.

libert

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I think "don't trust kings" is a near-universal theme across the modern political spectrum. The right clearly distrusts the presidency (well, unless we're at war ;) ). And remember that the left denigrated George W. Bush by calling him "King George" because of the way he expanded the power of the executive.

Kayla

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I think there is a message to the story, though. Where The Wild Things Are is one of the only children's movies I've seen that made me cry my eyes out! It was a really beautiful story. There obviously is a libertarian theme. You just have to be able to see the beauty in it.

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