Where The Wild Things Are

Based on the legendary children's book by Maurice Sendak, Where The Wild Thinks Are tells the story of Max, a disobedient little boy who is sent to bed by his mother without any supper. Feeling hurt and unloved, he channels his anger, and instead of continuing his mischievous antics in his room, he creates his own imaginary world, which includes a forest, a massive ocean, and a small boat, which he uses to sail away to a land inhabited by monsters—Wild Things. On the island he meets mysterious and strange creatures whose emotions are as wild and unpredictable as their actions and who are desperately longing for a leader to guide them, just as Max longs for a kingdom to rule. When Max is crowned king, he promises to create a place where everyone will be happy. But Max soon finds that ruling his kingdom is not so easy and his relationships prove to be more complicated than he originally thought. (Gary Reber)

Special features include the short live action/animated film Higglety Pigglety Pop! Or There Must Be More To Life directed by Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski and produced by Spike Jonze (HD 23:30); an HBO First Look (HD 13:02); and eight Webisodes: "Maurice And Spike" (HD 03:15), "Max And Spike" (HD 06:37), "The Records Family" (HD 06:45), "Carter Burwell" (HD 04:39), "The Absurd Difficulty Of Filming A Dog Running And Barking At The Same Time" (HD 05:32), "The Big Prank" (HD 03:23), "Vampire Attack" (HD 0:51), and "The Kids Take Over The Picture" (HD 04:57).

The 1080p 2.40:1 VC-1 picture is beautifully rendered, with a perfectly natural character. Contrast is excellent, with deep blacks and revealing shadow delineation that exhibits good dimensionality. Due to the extreme dark sequences, the optimal viewing environment will be a darkened room, preferably a black room, to enhance contrast. Resolution is exceptional, with finely resolved details in facial expressions and object textures. The details exhibited on the creatures are incredible and reveal every hair, crack, indention, and texture. The visuals are stunning and imaginative. Fleshtones appear natural, and the creatures' facial tones are blends of grays and browns. (Gary Reber)

The DTS-HD Master Audio™ 5.1-channel soundtrack is powerful, with tremendous atmospheric sound effects that engage the deep extension of bass in the channels, particularly the .1 LFE channel. The sound is enveloping, with a holosonic® presence and aggressive surround. Dialogue is nicely presented and often is heard predominately in the surrounds, and is effectively directionalized offscreen. Overall, dialogue sounds forward and not particularly well-integrated spatially. The music score is well recorded, with a strong surround presence. Together, the sound elements provide an effective holosonic enveloping experience, though, the surrounds would benefit from even more presence because the scenes are mostly in a coastal forest environment, not confined to interior spaces. This is a terrific soundtrack that works well in support of the storytelling. (Gary Reber)