10 Things About "Where the Wild Things Are" That Change Everything You Thought You Knew

by N/A, 10 years ago | 1 min read

There is plenty you don't know about the book that defined your childhood and the movie that gave you serious nostalgia.Â

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1. "Wild thing" references a Yiddish term.

Sendak's mother used to call him "vilde chaya," when he misbehaved as a child, which translates to "wild animal."

2. The live-action film was more for adults than children.

Director Spike Jonze said he wanted to make a movie about childhood, that wasn't necessarily for children.Â

3. Sendak had no interest in writing a sequel.

He wasn't sure why the book became so huge, and there wasÂ no convincing himÂ to turn it into a series.Â

4. There is a fantasy opera dedicated to the book.

5. Sendak did go to bed without supper.

However, he would do so voluntarily because he didn't like his mother's cooking.

6. The entire book is about Sendak's childhood.

It's based on his life as a child in Brooklyn and his experiences with his eccentric parents.

7. The book was criticized by a prominent psychiatrist.

Bruno Bettelheim worried that the book would cause a fear of abandonment in children. He made this assertion without ever having read the book.

8. Disney created an animated short that features Max.

9. Sendak based the "things" on his relatives.

As a child, Sendak found his Jewish relatives to be very bizarre. They would visit on weekends and "all say the same dumb things," he said. "How big you are, how fat you got, and you look so good we could eat you up."

10. The book originally has a different title.

It was actually called "Where the Wild Horses Are." Author Maurice Sendak discovered that he couldn't actually draw horses and changed the name of the book.