"Where the Wild Things Are" (PG, 1 hr., 34 min.)

Some parents may decide that this inventive, moody adaptation of Maurice Sendak's beloved 1963 picture book is too emotional and intense to be a family film. And for some children, they would be right. Director and co-screenwriter (with Dave Eggers) Spike Jonze has expanded on the the little boy Max's interaction with the Wild Things in Sendak's book in ways the author may not have imagined (though he has given the film his enthusiastic blessing.)

The film reaches a level of realism that other darker children's stories, such as the recent "Coraline" (PG, 2009) don't because they're fully animated. Jonze's "Where the Wild Things Are" mixes live action, puppetry and animation. The young protagonist is very real indeed, as are his temper tantrums, fears and sadness. What's clever is that all his troubles and personality traits are echoed among the furry Wild Things he befriends when he enters his imaginary world after a fight with his mom.

The Family Filmgoer will say the film is OK for most kids 10 and older and certainly interesting stuff for teens and adults. However, it is not for kids who have short attention spans, who find strong, realistically portrayed emotions hard to deal with, or who could be scared into nightmares by the idea of stuffed animals becoming enormous monsters in a real-seeming alternate world. The film shows the Wild Things at times fighting and hurting one another (not lethally, but slamming one another with dirt clods or pulling off an arm, though the wound is bloodless), and saying hurtful things. Their crashing high jumps look dangerous too.

After neighbor kids unintentionally squash young Max's (the gifted Max Records) snow fort, he cries, then goes to his room and has a tantrum. Later, he dresses in a furry wolf outfit and causes a scene with his mom (Catherine Keener), even biting her on the shoulder. She says he's "out of control" and he runs off into the evening. He goes through some woods to a lake and gets into a sailboat. At this point realism becomes fantasy. Max sails through a heavy storm, nearly drowning, and lands on an island where he sees the Wild Things -- huge furry-footed monsters who look a lot like his own stuffed animals. They're having a dispute. Their ringleader, Carol (voiced by James Gandolfini), is destroying stick homes -- having a tantrum like Max's.

Max meets the monsters, who decide not to eat him, but rather to make him their king, if he promises to keep sadness and loneliness at bay. Each of the creatures has issues. For example, Carol's girlfriend KW (Lauren Ambrose) likes to be alone, while the others like to sleep in a pile; Judith (Catherine O'Hara) is crabby and argumentative; the goat-like Alexander (Paul Dano) is timid.

As king, Max decides to help them build Carol's design for a perfect town, but what starts as an idyllic friendship soon degenerates into disagreements, jealousies, perceived betrayals and disappointments. It's a bit too much like real life. No fear, though. The story ends on a conciliatory note before Max heads back from the imaginary world in his head -- and from the woods -- to his worried mom.

Parents may be surprised at how much kids 10 and older will understand watching this unusual adaptation.

Beyond the Ratings Game: Movie Reviews for various ages

-- OK FOR MOST KIDS 6 AND OLDER:

"Toy Story & Toy Story 2 Double Feature in Disney Digital 3D" G (NOTE TO EDITORS: THIS DOUBLE-FEATURE MAY NOT STAY IN THEATERS PAST SUNDAY, OCT. 18) -- There's no reason why kids who love the "Toy Story" films and are looking forward to "Toy Story 3" (coming out next June) won't enjoy seeing the first two films remastered with 3-D effects. The difference is mainly that the colors (as is often true with 3-D) seem a bit washed out. But the cowboy doll Woody (voice of Tom Hanks) and space traveling doll Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) et al. are still lovable and their adventures as part of a little boy's toy collection -- which comes to life when he's not around -- still comical, occasionally poignant and somewhat scary. Made in 1995 and 1999 respectively, the pioneering Pixar films look just a bit dated today, because the technology has advanced so fast. But in the end, it's the story that must hold kids' attention, and it surely still does that.

"Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" PG -- Deliriously funny and inventive, this animated comedy (loosely based on the children's book) in 3-D will tickle kids 6 and older. In fact, the hilarity will delight all ages. A few things could scare the littlest ones: There is a dangerous spaghetti tornado, an avalanche of leftovers, and a dangerous midair struggle with an out-of-control food-flinging machine. There is mild toilet humor and one character swells up after eating peanuts, but is OK. In a dreary little island town off the Atlantic Coast, inventor Flint Lockwood (voice of Bill Hader) creates a machine that converts water into food. Only he can't control it. It blasts into the sky and rains cheeseburgers, steaks, ice cream and more onto the town. The mayor senses a tourism bonanza. A perky TV weather reporter, Sam Sparks (Anna Faris), covers the story. Flint and Sam may be kindred spirits, but first the pasta twister hits and they must stop his machine!

-- OK FOR MANY KIDS 10 AND OLDER:

"Where the Wild Things Are" PG (NEW) -- Some parents may decide that this inventive, moody adaptation of Maurice Sendak's beloved 1963 picture book is too emotional and intense to be a family film. But they may also be surprised at how much kids 10 and older will understand and enjoy director Spike Jonze's take, which ought to interest teens and adults, too. He has vastly expanded on the little boy Max's brief encounter with the Wild Things. Because Jonze mixes live action with puppetry and animation, he achieves a greater level of realism than other, darker stories about children that are fully animated. Young Max, played by the extraordinary Max Records, seems very real, as are his temper tantrums and sadness. All Max's personality traits and troubles are echoed among the furry Wild Things he befriends when he enters an imaginary world after a fight with his mom. The film is not for kids who have short attention spans, who find strong, realistically portrayed emotions hard to deal with, or who could be scared into nightmares by the idea of stuffed animals becoming enormous monsters in an alternate world. The Wild Things fight and hurt one another at times (not lethally, but a feathered arm gets pulled bloodlessly off), and say mean things. Young Max throws a tantrum in his room after other kids accidentally squash his snow fort. Later, he dresses in a wolf outfit, talks back to his mom (Catherine Keener) and bites her. She says he's "out of control" and he runs off. Realism becomes fantasy as Max runs to a lake and sails through a storm, landing on an island where he meets the Wild Things. The monsters decide not to eat him, but to make him their king. Each of them embodies some aspect of Max's personality. What starts as a bumptious friendship between boy and creatures degenerates into disputes and sadness. Yet the story ends on a conciliatory note before Max heads back from the Wild Things to his mom.

-- PG-13s OF VARYING INTENSITY AND A PG MORE FOR TEENS:

"Good Hair" (NEW) -- Comedian Chris Rock headlines (he also co-produced and co-wrote) this enlightening documentary about African-American women and how they feel about -- and treat -- their hair. With irony, empathy, facts and humor, Rock delves into the questions of what's beautiful, whether to straighten or go "natural," why a women would spend $1,000-plus on a hair weave, and how African-American men feel about all this. There are interviews with everyday people and famous ones (including Dr. Maya Angelou, the Rev. Al Sharpton, actresses Nia Long, Raven Symone and Sarah Jones, singer Eve, rapper Ice-T). There is glitzy footage of a hair show in Atlanta, and a trip to India, from where much of the long, straight locks used in hair weaves comes. The idea for "Good Hair" was sparked, says Rock, when his 5-year-old daughter asked why she didn't have "good hair." The history behind that question underpins this often funny film with poignancy. There is some profanity, brief strong sexual language, and men referring to women as "chicks" and "broads." Intriguing material for high-schoolers.

"Couples Retreat" -- A perfect example of how useless the PG-13 rating has become, this crass, misbegotten comedy is full of masturbatory and testicular humor and graphic visual innuendo. If it were actually funny, one could forgive and just recommend it for 17 and older. But it is also a mess -- occasionally amusing, but too often boring. Four couples -- Jason (Jason Bateman) and Cynthia (Kristen Bell), Dave (Vince Vaughn) and Ronnie (Malin Akerman), Joey (Jon Favreau) and Lucy (Kristin Davis), and the divorced Shane (Faizon Love) and his 20-year-old girlfriend Trudy (Kali Hawk) -- get a group rate at an island resort that offers New Age-y marital counseling that messes with their heads. The bland female characters barely register amid the frat-boy antics, except for Trudy, who is played -- shame on the filmmakers for this -- as an over-the-top African-American stereotype. There is an implied nongraphic sexual situation, a bare behind, implied frontal nudity, toilet humor, milder profanity, infidelity themes, a silly shark incident, and drinking. Not for under-17s.

"Fame" PG -- This pallid update of the original "Fame" (R, 1980) takes an idea that was corny, but exciting -- teens at a magnet high school struggling to master performing arts -- and reduces it to music video snippets. Set in a fictional version of New York's fabled LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, this "Fame" follows Jenny (Kay Panabaker), who finds acting and singing really hard; Marco (Asher Book), who makes it look easy; Denise (Naturi Naughton) who plays classical piano, but longs to sing; and Malik (Collins Pennie), who can act, but has too much anger. Their teachers (Bebe Neuwirth, Kelsey Grammer, Charles S. Dutton, Megan Mullally) seem to have been airlifted into the film, as does Debbie Allen, who was in the original "Fame," as the principal. There is an attempted nongraphic seduction, other mild sexual innuendo, teen drinking and rare mild profanity. Kids 10 and up who like the arts may enjoy this "Fame."

"Whip It" -- Drew Barrymore makes her directing debut and proves strong with actors and pretty slapdash on narrative. "Whip It" (written by Shauna Cross, based on her book) is about Bliss Cavendar (Ellen Page of "Juno" fame -- PG-13, 2007), who is 17 and chafing under her mother's (Marcia Gay Harden) insistence that she compete in a prissy teen beauty pageant in their small Texas town. Bliss spies raucous young women on skates in nearby Austin and learns they're a roller-derby team, with monikers like Rosa Sparks (pop star Eve) and Smashley Simpson (Barrymore). Bliss joins them and becomes Babe Ruthless. There are subtle drug references (no drug use), cigarette smoking by an adult, beer drinking by teens, an implied teen sexual situation (kissing, removal of outer clothing), midrange profanity, crude sexual slang and mayhem on skates. OK for high-schoolers.

"The Invention of Lying" -- This irreverent little comedy loses steam in its third act but along the way, it cleverly spoofs the human need for faith, mystery and little lies that spare people's feelings. Our narrator, Mark (Ricky Gervais, who co-wrote and co-directed), lives in an alternate world where everyone is genetically wired to tell the tactless (and funny) truth, and where "there is no fiction." On a first date, the beautiful Anna (Jennifer Garner) tells the unhandsome Mark he hasn't got a chance with her. Mark accidentally discovers he can tell untruths that convince everyone, including Anna. He tells his dying mother that an afterlife awaits. The afterlife idea catches on and Mark becomes a sort of con man/prophet. The film contains fairly explicit sexual language and innuendo, homophobic slurs, suicide jokes, midrange profanity, and drinking. For sophisticated high-schoolers.

-- R's:

"A Serious Man" (LIMITED RELEASE) -- Filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen ("No Country for Old Men," R, 2007) focus their ironic, off-center lens on Larry (Michael Stuhlbarg), a Jewish physics professor in 1967 Minnesota who is tempted and tormented -- a modern-day Job who gets little consolation from his rabbis. Larry's wife (Sari Lennick) is leaving him for an insufferable man (Fred Melamed). His son (Aaron Wolff) smokes pot and daydreams through Hebrew school. His shiftless older brother (Richard Kind) sleeps on the couch and hogs the bathroom. A student tries to bribe Larry for a passing grade. The lady next door sunbathes nude. While rich in spiritual conundrums, the Coens' movie also comes off uncomfortably as the work of Jewish intellectuals who seem to despise their own background. It contains nudity, a briefly graphic sexual situation, teens smoking pot, strong profanity and brief violence. OK for high-schoolers but unlikely to fascinate them.

"Zombieland" -- Gore and hilarity go together like tea and crumpets in this riotous horror spoof in which the writing, acting and visuals all click. Our narrator is Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg), nicknamed for his Ohio hometown. He was a college student in Texas, he tells us, when a virus turned most of humanity into marauding, flesh-and-bone-eating zombies. A neurotic loner who has learned to wield a shotgun, Columbus meets Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), a Twinkie-loving macho guy who loves blasting zombies. The men are conned twice by scheming sisters Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin), but eventually the four team up. Bill Murray has an excellent cameo bit. Along with comically gross violence, the film includes profanity, crude sexual slang and brief zombie toplessness. OK for most high-schoolers.

"Capitalism: A Love Story" -- Documentary filmmaker and left-liberal gadfly Michael Moore ("Sicko," PG-13, 2007; "Farhenheit 9/11," R, 2004), with his trademark mix of slyness, naivete and humor, takes after what he deems the excesses of unregulated capitalism -- a trend he believes has hurt more Americans than it has helped. Moore chronicles sad stories of people losing their homes, greedy real-estate folk racing to turn over the vacant houses, and Wall Streeters who bundled those lethal "mortgage-backed securities." He uses his Catholicism to argue that such practices go against Jesus' teachings of protecting the weak. For high-schoolers into current events, this alternative take will expand their horizons. The R is for strong profanity.