News
Ads Ignore Dark Side of 'Wild Things'
By Robert Marich
Opinion & Analysis
Oct. 18, 2009 – The better-than-expected $32.5 million opening weekend for youth fantasy film Where the Wild Things Are can be attributed to marketing that is effective because it leaves a lot out.
The ads present the film as pure lighthearted child fantasy (the heart-warming key copy line promises "There's one in all of us"). But Where the Wild Things Are is actually a risky take on the children’s genre that includes a briefly violent fight between a nine-year-old boy and his mother. This jarring conflict drives the boy to flee for adventure on a mythical island where he encounters large, harry creatures that at first say they are going to eat the boy.
Such genre bending – injecting painful and dangerous elements in the youth adventure formula—makes for invigorating artistry. Apparently, a traditional children fantasy film -- like the one portrayed in the ad campaign -- was considered too pedestrian in early stages when the film was conceived. The late-stage Warner ad campaign—with scenes of the lead boy character pleasantly cavorting with the harry creatures – shows no hint of the jarring family anger or jeopardy that are significant elements.
A mixed New York Times movie review captures the ambiguity of the movie and its source material, which again were absent from the film’s advertising. There is “its dark, crosshatched lines; spiky emotions; (lead character) Max’s many frowns; and the ‘terrible teeth’ and ‘terrible claws’ of the creatures,” says the review by Manohla Dargis. “The world is cruel, children too, lessons that Max absorbs through a smear of tears and hurt. The wound doesn’t heal. Max clomps and then stomps and then erupts: he roars at his mother. She roars back. And, then, like his storybook counterpart — like everyone else — he sails into the world, adrift and alone.”
The New York Times review also carries this caution to parents: “The wild things in the movie have been designed and directed toward a distinctly older age group than the book’s original audience. If monsters give you the willies, beware!”
“Ticket sales for Warner Bros. Wild Things rose just 2% from Friday to Saturday, a pattern normally hewed to by adult films, even though Wild Things is rated PG and based on one of the most famous pieces of children’s literature,” says a Wall St. Journal article. “Family films, on the other hand, tend to receive a bigger boost from Saturday matinees. Had Wild Things performed more like a children’s movie, it may have grossed closer to $40 million. Warner Bros. says the film cost less than $80 million, but reports have placed the budget closer to $100 million.”
The morality of movie advertising that doesn’t faithfully represent its product is debatable. But movies are by no means the only industry to engage in such sleights of hand. Advertising for tooth paste promise sex appeal, many car ads accentuate puffed up imagery, etc.