Weird Tears?--Where the Wild Things Are

So I watched "Where The Wild Things Are" yesterday.  I didn't really have any expectations about the movie.  But as the movie started, I began to tear up watching this little boy.  His character clearly had a form of autism.  Once I made this judgement, I watched the whole movie through the eyes of autism, and was tearful during the whole movie.  Most people, who have no interaction with autism wouldn't make this judgement call about the movie, I would say.  A lot of people would probably say the movie is "weird", "creepy", "depressing", etc...But if you look at it through this little boys eyes, it is a precious story. 

No one understands how his mind works.  His mom tries her best.  The little boy (Max) acts out a lot in the beginning.  A lot of parents would look at this as he is out of control (on the surface-he is), and that he needs to behave better.  But what I noticed in the beginning, was certain things "set him off", and a child with autism has to learn out to deal with these "set off" moments.  Change was happening in the movie, the mother had a visitor over, she made a different dinner than normal, his sister did not come to his rescue when he was crying earlier in the day,...all these different instances lead to his "outburst", and thus thrusted us into his imaginary world.

The creatures in his imaginary world are, in fact, strange looking...but if we can move past this and look at what the characters represent, you will have a whole new outlook.  I believe the characters represent  different facets of this boys mind.  Listen to what they say, how they talk, what is coming out of the mouths of these characters--struggles that Max deals with, and how he wars inside his mind for a physical outcome of the struggles.  One part that I thought was awesome, was when they crowned him, and made him "king".  They all cheered, "Yay for our king!  You are smart!  You are so smart!"  Can you see where I'm coming from with my thought process?

At the end, as Max was sailing away back to his reality, the creatures began howling, and Max howling back.  One might look at this and say, why are they doing that?  That's weird.  I look at this scenario as the creatures "get it".  They understand Max, and he understands them. (his mind)

When Max came back home and was eating his cake, I loved how the mom just stared at him.  I related so well to this.  She wanted to get inside his mind, she loves her son so much, and just was content loving him, and trying to help and understand. 

I cry as I write this, because this movie touched me so greatly.  I encourage you to watch this movie again through the eyes of autism, and maybe you to will shed some "weird tears".