Where the Wild Things Are Pols of "Time" magazine wrote that "[w]hat makes Sendak's book so compelling is its grounding effect: Max has a tantrum and in a flight of fancy visits his wild side, but he is pulled back by a belief in parental love to a supper 'still hot,' balancing the seesaw of fear and comfort." "New York Times" film critic Manohla Dargis noted that "there are different ways to read the wild things, through a Freudian or colonialist prism, and probably as many ways to ruin this delicate story of a solitary child liberated by his imagination." In Selma G. Lanes's book
Where the Wild Things Are (film) film "one of the year's best." Manohla Dargis of the "New York Times" wrote that Spike Jonze's "filmmaking exceeds anything he’s done" before, while also noting the imaginative visuals and otherworldly feel, along with the fantastic creature effects on the "Wild Things". Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" gave the film four stars saying, "For all the money spent, the film's success is best measured by its simplicity and the purity of its innovation." Roger Ebert awarded the film three stars out of four. Some critics have noted the movie's dark adaptation for children, such as David Denby from "The New