The creatures are being portrayed by actors in 6-8 foot tall costumes, with some additional animatronics, and computer-generated faces. The costumes were created by The Jim Henson Company, who were responsible for the Muppets and the Labyrinth (1986) creatures.
In July 2006, less than six weeks before the start of shooting, the Henson-built monster suits arrived at the Melbourne soundstage where Spike Jonze and his crew had set up their offices. The actors climbed inside and began moving around. Right away, Jonze could see that the heads were absurdly heavy. Only one of the actors appeared able to walk in a straight line. A few of them called out from within their costumes that they felt like they were going to tip over. Jonze and the production crew had no choice but to tell the Henson people to tear apart the 50-pound heads and remove the remote-controlled mechanical eyeballs. This meant that all the facial expressions would have to be generated in post-production, using computers.
In the early scenes in which Max is outside playing in the snow, there are leaves on the trees and roses in bloom. You can't see his breath in the air and it doesn't fog the window. If you look closely in some shots, you can see a light fog in the air created by the cold manufactured snow on a warm day.
During the "Rumpus", when Carol jumps straight up into a tree trunk, he falls back on his front. However, when the camera cuts to Max, then back to Carol, he is now on his back.
In the original story, the wild things had no names. They were later given names supposedly based on members of Sendak's family, and it is these names under which toy figures were marketed. The names of the wild things in the movie (and their correspondence to Sendak's names) are as follows: Carol (Moishe), Douglas (Emil), Judith (Aaron), KW (Tzippy), Bernard the Bull (Bernard), Alexander (Goat Boy), and Ira (Bruno).
Q
Is this movie animated?
A
Partially. All of the human characters are live-action; Max is played by child actor Max Records, and his mother Connie is played by Catherine Keener. The monsters are actors wearing foam-padded monster suits to make them look big and furry with only their faces animated by CGI to look like the monsters in the book.
Q
What song plays when the creatures are building their new fort with Max?
A
'Building All is Love' by Karen O and the Kids. The rest of the songs with their corresponding scenes can be found at what-song