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Where the Wild Things Are and Five More Stories

  • Is it age appropriate?

    About our ratings

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    Not age appropriate for kids under 0, age appropriate for kids over 3; suggested age 4.

  • Is it any good?

    4.0

  • Common Sense says

    Classic Sendak stories with simple animation -- delightful.

Themes in this movie include:   family relationships

Why We Rated This on for Ages 4 and Up

The good stuff

  • Educational value:

    Three of the shorts, all based on the Nutshell Kids book series, teach the alphabet, numbers, and the names of the months in a musical and humorous way.

  • Messages:

    Each story has some positive message embedded. The most obvious message comes from "Pierre," whose bad behavior and general apathy gets him into trouble until he reforms his ways. None of the videos features a character of color, and only one video has female characters (and they're in the background).

  • Role models:

    The point of Pierre's story is to encourage kids to not emulate the character.
 

What to watch out for

  • Violence & scariness:

    In "Pierre," the badly behaved child gets eaten by a lion when he's left home along. He ends up alive, but very sensitive children might be disturbed.

  • Sexy stuff:

    Brief full-frontal male nudity in "In the Night Kitchen" in a totally non-sexual context.

  • Language:

    Pierre repeats "I don't care" constantly.

  • Consumerism:

    Films are based on Scholastic books, and the DVD comes with an insert advertising additional videos to buy.
 

What Parents Need to Know

About Where the Wild Things Are and Five More Stories

Parents need to know that children might already be familiar with the stories featured in this collection of short videos based on Maurice Sendak books. The videos are designed to complement, rather than replace, the featured books. In one story, Pierre, the boy behaves very poorly, including being disrespectful toward his parents, and then is eaten by a lion (though he lives to reform his ways). In another story, In the Night Kitchen, the boy briefly appears naked, which might produce some giggles from young viewers.

Did this review help you decide?

Families Can Talk About

  • Families can talk about fantasy. What's going on in Where the Wild Things Are and In the Night Kitchen? Do you ever imagine that you're someplace different and have special abilities, like flying or ruling over animals?
  • Talk about the idea of "I don't care" that comes up in the Pierre story. Why does Pierre say that? If you sometimes say "I don't care," what are you usually feeling when you say it?
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