The weird "Oedipus" fairy tale

Valentin 2021-12-14 08:01:05

As a formal "fairy tale drama", the film's lack of patriarchal power and the emphasis on maternal power on cultural themes seem somewhat different. Combined with Spike Jonze's dim and dim visual style, the theme of the film breaks away from the conventional theme of fairy tale dramas, but rather clearly shows the male "Oedipus complex."

The protagonist of the film and his beast friends have shown amazing wildness and destructive power. In most cases, this is considered to be a male characteristic.

First of all, in the beginning of the movie, when the protagonist is playing in the snow, his emotional need is to play with his sister (a woman older than the protagonist), and then his emotional frustration is imposed by men who are older than the protagonist. The protagonist’s older boy destroys his castle and takes away his sister. This part, as the lead-in department of the film, clearly expresses the cultural theme of the film's closeness to motherhood and hatred of patriarchy.

In the subsequent part, the protagonist looks at the globe gifted by the "absent" father, suggesting the lack of patriarchy. The intimacy between the mother and her boyfriend (this is actually a repetition of the plot of the boy taking away his sister from the beginning) further frustrated the boy's emotions. The boy's wild madness broke out, and he ran away under the scolding of his mother.

After drifting on the sea, the protagonist arrives in the country of beasts and encounters many beast friends, especially carol. It should be noted that carol is emotionally fluctuating, irritable, and surprisingly destructive in personality, which is surprisingly similar to the protagonist. The boy lied that he was the "king", and the beasts headed by carol accepted it and took out the crown from the pile of corpses. What needs to be clear here is that the so-called role of king is essentially the role of father. Combined with the subsequent plot, it can be known that a "king" similar to a boy appeared on the island many times, but the failed "kings" were all killed by the beasts, so the crown was in the corpse. The theme of "Father Killing" is undoubtedly evident here.

Immediately afterwards, the film introduced another important female character KW. Compared with other beasts, KW is obviously more mature and stable, and belongs to a mature female character emotionally.

As the "king", the boy is the father in the emotional sense of the beasts, first led everyone through a short happy time. But the subsequent failure of the "king" to lead the beasts to build their homes (although the castle was successfully built, "the happiness promised by the king was not fulfilled"), hinted at his father's inability to maintain family relationships. The crisis broke out because KW brought two owls into the castle, and neither carol nor the protagonist could understand the language of the owls. Here, as a beast incarnation of the protagonist, Carol is full of hostility towards the approach of a stranger (owl) to the mature female character KW. (The plot here is the same as the two emotional frustrations of the boy in the previous reality.) In this part, the "Oedipus complex" in the movie's theme, namely: the killing of the father and the mother, has been fully embodied.

With the destruction of the happiness of the homeland, the boy's "king" status completely failed, and the angry carol tried to eat the protagonist. As the incarnation of a boy, Carol emotionally tries to kill the failed "father". This is a clear plot of father killing. The resolution of this crisis was precisely due to the female character KW, who allowed the boy to get into his body. The shots here, especially the part of the boy in KW, have a strong hint of "giving birth from the mother". "Oedipus" is emphasized again.

Then the boy left the country of wild animals and returned to his real home. The mother waited for the boy at home alone (there is no stranger emotionally hostile), and the boy was comforted emotionally. The end of the film.

Because it's a mobile phone video, so I can only browse it casually. As a work directed by Spike Jones, it is not surprising that the film has obvious psychological hints. But a fairy tale work with such a theme is somewhat different. Put another way: Spike Jones will always perform unexpectedly.

View more about Where the Wild Things Are reviews

Extended Reading
  • Oma 2022-03-26 09:01:06

    nicely rendered, but children's story is just not my thing

  • Megane 2022-04-24 07:01:07

    I want to imagine a kingdom, live in it and never come back.

Where the Wild Things Are quotes

  • Max: Let the wild rumpus start!

  • Alexander: I have no plans to eat anyone