AT 338 WORDS in ten sentences, Maurice Sendek's "Where the Wild Things Are" quickly became a much-beloved bedtime classic and selling nearly 20 million copies since its publication in 1963. It's a vivid and concise story of a young rambunctious boy named Max who escapes to his dream world after he reaches his boiling point at home. In Max's dream world, filled with untamed creatures, he receives some early life-changing lessons that satisfyingly pull him back to the real world. Nearly 50 years later, director Spike Jonze ("Adaptation" and "Being John Malkovich") has expanded the Sendek's story into a feature-length film, co-writing with Dave Eggers.

We first meet Max (played by Max Records) racing around the house, chasing and wrestling the family dog. For a quick moment, it almost looked as if he strangled the dog - not a good sign. Soon after, he declares a snowball-throwing war on a gang of older kids hanging out with his sister. As the battle ends, she does nothing to prevent the destruction of Max's self-made igloo-haven. Max's divorced mom (Catherine Keener), struggling to keep life together, does her best to comfort him. While having a date over, she takes a break and gets dinner for him. A seemingly jealous Max rejects the meal and his mother's attempts to calm him down. They tussle, he bites her and off he goes.

Max leaves the real world on a small boat and arrives at an island with a handful of creatures with no direction and a lot of loud anarchy, just like the world Max left. The creatures, each with a distinctive personality trait (or fault), are voiced by James Gandolfini, Chris Cooper, Catherine O'Hara, Forest Whitaker, Paul Dano and Lauren Ambrose. Max is proclaimed king and, quoting from the book, "Let the wild rumpus start," he begins to take charge, but not with consequences and challenges to overcome. In the end, Max's new friends send him back home (or did it all run out of steam?) with a self he can live with.

Max Records is one of two reasons to see this film. He was born to play the role and his emotional depth is honest and believable at every turn. The other reason is the fact that actors inhabited the enormous costumes, an amazing feat to watch; Jonze employs computer-enhancing tricks, but still! The biggest problem is momentum. After a while, you feel Max has learned the lessons and should have returned home sooner. It just too long and loud and in this case, less IS more.

"Where the Wild Things Are" is MPAA-rated PG, some material may not be suitable for children.