Book Review: Heads On and We Shoot: The Making of Where the Wild Things Are

December 16, 2009 by Parka

I was pleasantly surprised with this book because it has a unique binding. If you open the book slightly looking at it from the front and top, it's bound like the letter M, with the pages fitting in the openings, on the front and back sides. It's first of its kind.

This is the movie production book is split into three sections or "books" as it's referred to on the contents page. It looks at the preproduction, production, and postproduction. Everything about the production is in, including sound mixing and the animation part. Because of the binding, you have to turn the book over to get to the third "book". Very cool.

The commentary is in conversational style, with stories and insights from the director, actors, production crew and author Maurice Sendak himself. The production process is seen from so many perspective and it's really interesting to read about all the incidents that happen behind the scene. There are horror stories like how one camera man almost drowned in the sea during the storm and logistic nightmares when Wild Things suits have to be redone because they were too heavy. There's a good deal of stories on how the crew interacted with one another, with all the crazy things they do to relieve stress.

The high resolution set photos included are beautiful and filled amazing details. There's one with a costume designer working on a foot almost the size of her body and you can see foot's skin texture, the thick veins and the slightly yellow toe nails which have some bits chipped off. It's interesting how filming is done and the location shots with crew doing their stuff.

This movie companion is very well done, extremely creative and beautifully laid out.

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Comments

Thanks for the great review,

blauereiter (not verified)
January 2, 2010,
35 weeks 4 days ago
Comment id: 1190

Thanks for the great review, I'm really keen on getting this book and the only thing left is to watch the film later this month, can't wait ! Happy new year !

just seen the film , just

JordanbAnimator (not verified)
January 17, 2010,
33 weeks 3 days ago
Comment id: 1273

just seen the film , just ordered the book!

I guess the book shape could

Brandon (not verified)
February 28, 2010,
27 weeks 4 days ago
Comment id: 1440

I guess the book shape could be the letter M for Maurice Sendak, but I think it's more likely that it's a W for "Wild Things" :)

I bought this book myself at

Video Dog (not verified)
March 25, 2010,
23 weeks 6 days ago
Comment id: 1718

I bought this book myself at RRP. It's great and it's really good seeing how all the concept art came together. As an aspiring storyboard artist it's always great to see the process for filming stuff which isn't all CGI.

It's shaped like an M for Max or a W for Wild things.

My favourite section is about the character design with Sonny. It's really a great book. Let the wild rumpus start!