We watched the movie last October. The movie is good although I'm not sure if kids will really enjoy the story. I'm sure they'll like the big and furry mascots who are the major characters in the movie. I guess the people who will enjoy it more are those people who have already read the book and , unfortunately, I am not one of them. Nevertheless, I was still able to find ways to enjoy the movie by resorting to my 'book-standard' sense of enjoyment and by trying to relate the story to the deeper reality that it points to.
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insights and spoilers:
The need for child to have company.
Max, just like all kids, needed company. We are aware of common cases where kids channel their frustration by becoming mean to others just to get the attention they long for. And this often leads them to seek attention from other people and from material things. If they still don't get it, they'll even try harming themselves just to force other people to notice them.
We are not meant to be alone and this natural need to have company manifested in Max's situation. Actually, this hunger for attention points to the deeper need of man to be in relationship wth God, with people and with the whole of creation. We see from Genesis that God made man and woman to accompany each other and they were also given dominion over other creatures. As Fr Jun Lingad has continually taught, this harmonious relationship existed because of the peace we have in God. But sin destroyed this peace that resulted to man's distorted desire to live selfishly. In Christ's incarnation, God has reminded man of his original purpose and unfolded his bigger plan for man that is to elevate man's relationhip with Him by making man share in the sonship of Christ. Not only this, God has further revealed that He has united himself to man so that the love of men and the love of God will be the inseparable destiny of Man. Man cannot live in a vacuum that wil seperate him from others and from God. That is why, in the case of every child, if they are left to be without the guidance and care of parents and good friends, not only do we deprive children of the necessary support, but we also force them to live a life contrary to the Lord's plan.
After reaching the island and living there, Max realized how hard things are going to be. He met some furry monsters that soon became his friends. He introduced himself as a king who has powers so that he can protect himself. Because of this, the monsters made him as their king that gave them hope and purpose. The story went on and the monsters continued to follow Max even in building things. The presence of a king has united the monsters. They have strengthened their relationship between each other because they had someone that bound them together and gave them purpose which makes them move forward towards a shared goal in life. They had their hopes up until they eventually found that Max wasn't really a king. When they found out, they have realized that the things that they were building for their false king really did not have any meaning. This realization broke their hopes and has has brought temporary divisions among them.
In our case, we find the right direction when acknowledge and enthrone Jesus as our true king. As Jesus has revealed, He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Only in Him do we find our real purpose, and only in following Him do we move forward to a meaningful journey. False king, just like the idolizing of other things, gives us false hope. It is in Jesus,who is our true Hope, do we find the strength that sustains us to move forward. We have heard of countless testimony where men do things on their own and eventually find themselves failing and living a meaningless life. Many men had loved possesions and money more than they have loved God and then at the hour of their death often wake up to the fact that not only did they head all along to the wrong direction and but that the things that they did and worked for are of little value. Yes we have set our goal to find happiness and our true happiness can only be found in God who is the only source of all holy and good things. It naturally follows that to find happiness in other things is just to set ourselves up for failure.
In the latter part of the movie, we will see that Max slowly began to miss his mother and his home. And in the end, he had let go of his desire to live a life separate from others and so he went back home to be reunited with his mother. Max saw the value of things when he experienced the consequence of his separation and his incompleteness
In our salvation history, God had to let man experience the consequence of sin by letting man know what sin is and what the effects of it are. It is through this experience that man has better realized and appreciated what he lost when he himself destroyed his relationship with God, with his neighbors and with the whole of creation. Everytime he sins, man attempts to do the impossible by creating a world that runs according to what he desires and thinks. When we sin, we force ourselves to focus on the wordly pleasure that we will gain while forgetting the inevitable results of our actions. In the end, he will always realize that he has fooled himself for it is impossible to create an alternate reality because it will always lack truth which is its very essence. An man-made reality will never be found because there can be no other source of Truth except from the Truth Himself.
