Well… What a strange film this is. On the face of it, a children’s story with big furry people and whatnot, but really, I don’t think many kids would find it all that interesting, somehow. Not much happens in it. On the other hand, maybe girls would like it more than boys: no action, but quite a lot of relating to people (or furry people, anyway).

That might suit a lot of adults too.

So, what’s it about? Well, a lonely but creative boy, Max, gets to feel a bit frustrated when none of the kids or adults around him really connect with him, and he tends to get into tantrums every now and then as a result. In the end, he runs away from home, and ends up on an island populated by big furry people. He makes friends with them, sort of, but has to hedge it a bit because they might eat him, so he claims to be a king, and they accept this, more or less.

They want him to make them happy, so he gets them building a big fort on the island: a nice safe place where they can all be together. However, these people, and indeed Max himself tend to be argumentative and it only really half works out. One of the furry people, Carol, is creative like Max, and indeed, gets angry like Max when things are not going his own way… in the end, this drives Max to leave the island and head back home.

So… what’s going on here? My way of thinking about this film is in terms of instincts. Each of the non-human characters represents various instincts or sides of Max himself. When he goes to the island, he positions himself as the king, or ego, who thinks of himself as being in control of the rest of the person (instincts), but in reality is not really: because, if he can’t make them happy, he isn’t doing his job, and they will cause trouble – which they do.

In the end, though, he sees from this behaviour the trouble that his unruly anger can cause, and at that point is ready to return home to his mother. When he leaves the island, it isn’t that he’s giving up on it, it is that he has learned the lesson. Even the angriest instinct, Carol, returns to him as he is leaving, because he saw that the ego has its contribution to make. On their own, the instincts are just wild and directionless. It takes a willingness to work with ourselves to begin to mature, and to develop an inner ecology where everyone gets along together pretty reasonably most of the time…

So, how to score this? Well, it is probably worth watching, for adults into psychology, but I wouldn’t say it was the most exciting film out there. Maybe 6/10. I don’t think children would find it all that fun, but it could have some resonance for some, like Max.