Where the Wild Things Are the previous year's "most distinguished American picture book for children". It was voted the number one picture book in a 2012 survey of "School Library Journal" readers, not for the first time. This story of only 338 words focuses on a young boy named Max who, after dressing in his wolf costume, wreaks such havoc through his household that he is sent to bed without his supper. Max's bedroom undergoes a mysterious transformation into a jungle environment, and he winds up sailing to an island inhabited by malicious beasts known as the "Wild Things." After successfully intimidating the creatures, Max
Where the Wild Things Are (film) their children to the set. Some of them can be seen in the film's classroom scene. Michelle Williams was originally cast as the female Wild Thing K.W. only to leave the project after her voice "didn't match the original vision of how the Wild Thing should sound". She was replaced by Lauren Ambrose, and filming continued. In 2008, test footage was leaked onto the internet, garnering mixed reactions. Jonze called the footage "a very early test... to see if our VFX plan for the faces would work," but early fan outcry over the video, along with rumored "scared children" in