Synopsis:

The Wild Rumpus edition offers a whole new experience of Spike Jonze’s film. Inspired by the original trailer, this fanedit features an entirely new indie-rock soundtrack, including the anthemic “Wake Up” by Arcade Fire, and many other great artists such as Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver, and Sigur Ros. Intercutting between the real and the wild world, the Wild Rumpus edition takes us inside the mind of Max as he tries to understand the complexities of the world around him in the only way he knows how…

Intentions:

The original trailer for Where the Wild Things Are featured “Wake Up” by Arcade Fire. It set the scene, featuring Spike Jonze’s beautiful direction and the stunning cinematography, made all the more incredible by Arcade Fire’s anthem, and the fact that Max didn’t say a word. In the film itself, Max was a precocious little boy, sometimes pretty annoying – pretty much the same as the boy in the story. But to me that first trailer promised so much more – a story of a sad, lonely quiet boy, and his imaginative escape to the only place he feels able to cope with life – The world of the Wild Things. In addition to replacing the soundtrack and trying to match the tone of the first trailer, the movie has also been trimmed down to the essentials – the story of Max. This is a non-linear take on the story, allowing us to directly contrast Max’s experiences in the real world with his imaginitive escape to the world of the wild things. I hope you enjoy it.

Change List:

CUT LIST/Edits - Re-sequenced entire film, cutting back and forth between real and wild world to directly contrast what max is experiencing. - Replaced almost the entire soundtrack. - Cut max’s journey to the wild things by boat. First cut to the wild world sees max already in stormy seas arriving at the island. - Stripped back dialogue between wild things when Max first sees them. Dialogue has been simplified wherever possible. - Cut all bad behaviour/anger by max in early stages of the film. Have kept him quiet/sad, hopefully increasing our sympathy for him. - Cut Max calling to his sister to play with him. again, tried to keep him a loner, struggling to know how to connect with people. - Cut much of the original soundtrack (mostly replaced by new indie-rock songs) - Trimmed dialogue between max and wild things before he becomes king - Cut KW’s introduction. INstead, we meet her when Max does, at the bottom of the wild thing pile. - Turned walk with Carol through the woods into a dream sequence. - Removed tinkly piano from ‘did you know the sun was going to die” scene, and added wind foley to make the scene more desolate. - Removed Dog. Didn’t want a joke at the end of the sun dying scene. wanted to keep the tone serious. - Simplified dialogue in dave/model scene - Removed soundtrack and added new foley to max lieing in bed thinking scene. - Removed max telling mum a story. again, kept him quiet and sad as much as possible. - Removed wild things building fort scenes. Max can just imagine that the fort is already built. - Reversed shot of Max looking at Carol to better match transition from real world - Cut max being mean to Judith. Makes her more threatening and him more sympathetic. - Cut KW introducing Max to Bob and Terry as a ‘biter’ - Cut knock knock joke between bob, terry and alexander. Better not to know if they can actually speak/understand English. - Trimmed Carol’s reaction to bob and terry - Removed “everyone’s mad at me” line from Carol on the beachside. - Removed Max giving instructions about the war to the wild things. Cut straight to action instead. - Cut pause during war where Judith and Ira hide behind a log. Kept things moving for pacing reasons. - Cut Max stepping on KW and KW saying she is leaving. Needed to be removed to help aid the fluidity of the transition back to the real world. - Cut strange expression on Max’s face in the Kitchen. - Trimmed running away from home footage. - Cut Carol’s reference to KW having run away and Max needing to get her back. - Added foley (forest, waves) during Nick Drake song. - Added scene of Max and Spike Jonez, as a short flashback (father and son) - Added foley (due to audio replacement) during KW and Max’s last conversation. - Extended footage of journey home by boat, using deleted footage from earlier in the film. - Completely new ending, showing reveal of the ‘actual’ wild things, and implying that Max is headed back to the Wild Things again afterall.

Additional Notes:

Wild Rumpus Soundtrack Details Arcade Fire - Wake Up - We used to Wait Bon Iver - Flume - Creature Fear Sigur Ros - Glosili - Heysatan - #1 Vaka Midlake - Acts of Man Nick Drake - Way to Blue Fleet Foxes - Ragged Wood - Sun it Rises - Helplessness Blues.

Special Thanks:

Thanks to all those who contributed ideas, including Dwight Fry, TMBTM, revel911, L8wrtr, Neglify, Leeroy, Geminigod, purplenurple, 98766654321, Quickcut. Special thanks to those who reviewed a workprint and gave great feedback, including L8wrtr, Neglify and Geminigod. Extra special thanks to Quickcut, for taking the time to design fantastic DVD and Bluray cover art designs, including multiple drafts.