Oh, the wonderful places director Spike Jonze takes viewers with his adaptation of Maurice Sendak's childrens' anyone's book Where the Wild Things Are, surely one of 2009's best movies.

Children in general have aged since 1963 when Sendak wrote his slender book. The issues they face are meatier now; broken families, abandonment issues, rage phases diagnosed as syndromes. It isn't only appropriate but necessary that Jonze fleshes out the no-place-like-home moral of the story. He does, in a fashion that captivated last night's audience, surely inspiring later dreams.

I'll try to do justice to Where the Wild Things Are in a review this morning (publishing tomorrow on tampabay.com). For now, enjoy the animated 1973 version above.