Where the Wild Things Are (film)

Where the Wild Things Are is a theatrical adaptation of Maurice Sendak's classic children's book of the same name. Jim Henson's Creature Shop provided the giant creatures featured in the film. The film was released on October 16, 2009 by Warner Bros. Producers included Tom Hanks and Maurice Sendak.
==Plot==
The film follows the imaginary adventures of a young boy named Max (Max Records), who is angry when his mother Connie (Catherine Keener) invites her boyfriend (Mark Ruffalo) over. After one mischievous antic after another, his mother tries to send him to his room. Max ends up biting her and running away, feeling angry and unloved. He runs outside at night, through a fence until he stumbles upon a boat. He sails away to an island inhabited by seven imaginary monsters called the Wild Things, where they crown him as the ruler. Throughout Max's stay on the island, he and the wild things participate in an extraordinary adventure.
==Jim Henson's Creature Shop==
The Jim Henson Company's Creature Shop in Los Angeles refined the designs and built the enormous costumes for the Wild Things. Creation of the costumes took place over a six-month period, after which they were shipped to Australia where Sydney-based Dave Elsey and an Australian team of costumers continued with on-site adjustments and reconfigurations to meet the unique demands of location shooting.
Peter Brooke, creative supervisor for the Creature Shop, described the process:
The costumes were hand-dirtied before each day's shoot. The crew collected buckets of natural material from each location so the correct debris could be thrown on the costume for that day’s scenes. Each night, the inside of each costume was sprayed down with vodka to disinfect it.New York Post: The 'Wild' Side
The primary actors who inhabited the suits had no prior experience as costumed performers. They trained for weeks to learn how to move in costumes weighing up to 150 pounds. The temperature inside a suit could rise to more than 100 degrees; a small fan was positioned to blow air through the costume's mouth between takes. Sonny Gerasimowicz (designer of the Wild Things and body suit performer of Alexander) stated that "Someone passed out at one point, but you couldn't really tell. They'd just slump over like three degrees to the left, the suit was so heavy." The inside of the Wild Things' heads contained small TV monitors that displayed what the camera was seeing (similar to Gorgs' eye vision).
Outside of the Creature Shop, due to limitations of the animatronic mouths, the Wild Things' facial expressions and lip-sync were enhanced in post-production with computer animation scenes. Animation and visual effects supervisor Daniel Jeannette and CG studio Framestore handled those elements.
During the long production process, several of the Wild Thing voices initially announced were recast. These included Benicio Del Toro, Michelle Williams (KW, replaced by Lauren Ambrose),MovieWeb.com and Tom Noonan (Douglas, replaced by Chris Cooper).
===Creatures===
Image:Wild-things-carol.jpg|Voice: James GandolfiniSuit Performer: Vincent Crowley
Image:Wild-things-alexander.jpg|Voice: Paul DanoSuit Performer: Sonny Gerasimowicz
Image:Wild-things-judith.jpg|Voice: Catherine O'HaraSuit Performer: Nick Farnell
Image:Wild-things-ira.jpg|Voice: Forest WhitakerSuit Performer: Sam Longley
Image:Wild-things-bull.jpg|Voice: Michael Berry Jr.Suit Performers: Angus Sampson, Mark McCracken
Image:Wild-things-douglas.jpg|Voice: Chris CooperSuit Performer: John Leary
Image:Wild-things-kw.jpg|Voice: Lauren AmbroseSuit Performers: Alice Parkinson, Garon Michael
Image:Wild-things-bob&terry.jpg|
==Credits==
===Cast===
* Max Records as Max
* Catherine Keener as Connie (Mom)
* Mark Ruffalo as the Boyfriend
* Pepita Emmerichs as Claire
* Steve Mouzakis as Mr. Elliott (Teacher)
===Creature Shop===
* Puppeteers: David Barclay, Tim Blaney, Megan Cameron, John Criswell, Bruce Lanoil, Richard Mueck, Michael Oosterom, John Rogers, Hugh Simpson
* Creative Supervisor: Peter Brooke
* On Set Creative Supervisor: Dave Elsey
* Creatures Performance Coordinator: Peter Elliott
* Creatures Production Managers: Tracey de Freitas, Michael Oosterom
* Creatures Key Suit Fabricator: Niki Lyons
* Creatures Art Supervisor: Duke Cullen
* Mechanical Supervisor: John Criswell
* Lead Suit Fabricator: Scott Johnson
* Sculptors: Glen Hanz, Kent Jones, David Simon, David Smith, Carol Koch, Lyle Conway
* Mechanics: John Biggs, Michael Scanlan, Jeffrey Jingle, James Kundig, Alton Capwell, Patrick Gerrety, Timothy Gerrety, Donald Sielski, Effat Allahyari
* Fabrication: Julie Zobel, Jill Thraves, David Fedele, Alex Ferguson, Tamara Carlson-Woodard, Fred Fraleigh, Marian Keating, Annelise Boies, Susan Cox, Karen Lafler, Molly McGee, Samantha Breault, Kristen Willet, Karen Mason, Leticia Sandoval, Laurel Taylor, Jill Tomamatsu, Kacy Treadway, Dale Cunningham, Stacia Lang, Tamara McKinnon Miller, Caitlin Miller, Consuelo Romero, Alex Santos, Denise Santos, Katherine Sully, Michael Tereschuk
* Creatures Consultant: Rita Peruggi
==Sources==
==External links==
* Official Website
* Vanity Fair "Where the Wild Things Are Built: Jim Henson's Creature Shop" by Julian Sancton, October 17, 2009
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Category:Creature Shop Movies