New Definition of "Kids Movie"?

Semi-recently I went to go see the movie "Where the Wild Things Are". The book seemed to attract more boys than girls so I had never actually read it as a young kid, but what drew me in was the artistic feel and intensity the trailers showed. It looked "cool".

Coming into the movie I had no idea what to expect. Yes, there was the feel that it would be intense in some aspects, but it came from a kids book, it shouldn't be anything TOO dramatic, right? Boy was I wrong. *spoilers within* The movie opens up to a sweet image of the little boy Max, building an igloo, only to end abruptly with yelling and the destroying of his sister's room when she abandons him for her friends, after they jump on his igloo. The audience quickly gets a feel for Max's imagination, but also for his anger and sadness he feels. Once Max is with the monsters we expect all good things would happen. Even they turn on him. I found myself cringing though deeply engaged the whole time. The movie had such strong elements of sadness and even scary scenes! Once the movie ended you could feel the emotion of everyone in the audience. It was just silence. We were all trying to digest it.

Even with the sad, scary, intense moments I fell in love with the movie. I could connect to the emotions, the movie was so strong and powerful. But then I float back to my original thoughts. Kid's movie? It was a kids book but with such intense scenes I couldn't even imagine a young child watching this.

With that I decided to check the trusty internet to see what people were saying. Surprised, I found articles contrasting my beliefs and saying that kids love it! And I even found one saying the movie is good for kids. This article addresses the question, "But what if that intensity, that asymmetry, is exactly why kids should see Wild Things?" It then goes on to explain that kids face all these hardships in life and are never prepared. The movie helps show them what they are up against in the world. In another article a man brought his 5 year old to the movie who sat there the whole time deeply interested and loved it. Then in a third I found addressed my concern when the actor who played Max said that kids said, "I don't want to listen to this" and that they "covered their ears or their eyes".

As I thought about it I started to agree with the first article. That maybe it's a good thing for kids to be introduced to an intense movie at a young age without the aspect of swear words, sexual content, or gruesome violence. But at the same time my heart gave out to any small child who saw the movie and  was frightened by the monsters and by Max's lashes out at his mother. If you've seen the movie what do you think about it? Kid friendly or artsy teenager friendly?

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/12/where-the-wild-things-are_0_n_317908.html&cp"