Where The Wild Mazzola, Lego And Converse Are

Though the long-awaited Spike Jonze/Dave Eggers adaptation of Maurice Sendak's modern childhood classic, Where The Wild Things Are, narrowly topped the weekend's box office, reaction from kids and parents has been mixed, as CNN reports, with many parents finding it "joyless" and some young children in the ostensible target market bored.

And as brandchannel's Jim Thompson notes in this week's brandcameo report, the film is certainly a bust when it comes to product placement:

Considering that the majority of the film takes place in the forests and deserts of Max’s creative mind, few opportunities for product placements arise. The beginning of the movie, however, includes a scene where Mazzola is clearly noticeable on the kitchen table. Also, Lego products decorate Max’s bedroom and underscore his affinity for invention and playfulness. The most prominent brandcameo is by Max’s black Converse All-Star lowtop sneakers, which are seen in many scenes throughout the film.

But given the disappointed reaction from hipsters who had long anticipated the adaptation of a book that defined many of their childhoods -- one blogger called the flick the "saddest, most soul-crushingly depressing existentialist film I’ve ever seen" -- it's perhaps wisest for brands to maintain a distance:

The book was one of my favorites when I was little. But the whole movie is dark, grey and dreary. No one gets along. I don’t even know if you could call the ending happy. The message of the movie: There is no “answer” to life. People will never be happy. There is no God. Everyone is lonely inside and everyone is ugly…as a result, they do things that hurt each other. Society sucks, but being a loner sucks even worse.

See the brandcameo page for brandchannel's complete reference list of product placements in this and other top-grossing films.