Further proof that you should never judge a Show-Off by its cover

You know what they say about assumptions: Everybody makes them and yours stink—or something like that.

When it comes to selecting great demo material for your home theater, making hasty assumptions about the age-appropriateness of your movies and games can lead to uncomfortable results, or cause you to overlook otherwise wonderful little gems.

This month, as usual, we look at three great Show-Offs that are guaranteed to make your A/V system run like a scalded cat. Just don’t assume you know the right audience for them from a quick glance at their covers.

Where the Wild Things Are (Blu-ray)
Best Chapter: 3

Spike Jonze’s wonderfully weird adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s beloved children’s book took a lot of flak last year for being too intense for the little ones. But such complaints missed the point entirely: Despite its source, this isn’t a children’s film. It’s a film about childhood for adults who remember how frustrating and wonderful and terrifying and joyful and free and stifling it was to be a kid.

It’s also an absolute wonder of raw, emotional cinema, and despite a somewhat guerrilla approach to the filming, it’s a singular audiovisual experience that begs to be seen and heard in a fabulous home theater.

To see what I mean, check out the scene in which our little hero Max leaves his life behind in a fit and heads for the land where the wild things are. It begins with a thumping, tribal cacophonous crock pot of sound that fills the room from front to back with rich strumming guitars, rocking percussion and rebel yells.

The soundtrack quickly takes a turn for the subtler (but no less impressive) as Max sails off through night and day and in and out of weeks toward the place where the wild things are—gentler score music wafts from speaker to speaker in and out of the breeze as an undulating bass so deep and rich it nearly has a gravitational field of its own lopes through the middle of the mix.

It isn’t long, though, before a storm rolls in to shake things up again, with rumbling thunder so raucous it’ll surely leave your pant legs twisted in knots. Crashing waves tear through the room with such force you’ll swear your installer snuck in and installed a D-Box motion system when you weren’t looking.

Ponyo (Blu-ray)
Best Chapter: 8—“Ponyo’s typhoon”

This delightful anime adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid suffers from exactly the opposite misconception. Anyone familiar with filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki’s work might be inclined to think his wonderful animated films are more appropriate for older audiences. But with Ponyo he has crafted a joyful little film perfectly suited to the littlest of little ones.

Don’t let its safety and simplicity scare you off, though. An unabashed children’s film it may be, but this lovingly hand-crafted, animated feature packs enough awe and wonder to keep the interest of even the most codgety of curmudgeons in the house.

I dare you to sit through Chapter 8, for example, and not be wowed by the artistry of it all. As the titular goldfish-turned-girl chases the pre-adolescent object of her affection through a raging storm of her own unwitting creation, every frame of animation is an enigmatic work of art worthy of framing: a perplexingly beautiful blend of detailed pastels, smooth watercolor washes and bold splashes of flat, primary colors that sizzle on the screen.

Every drafted raindrop sparkles. Every wave is a character unto itself. Each animated line is an ongoing battle between simple elegance and premeditated chaos. The fact that it works at all is an absolute wonder; the fact that it works as well as it does is an utter miracle. And every bit of that miracle is captured perfectly by the Blu-ray’s immaculate 1080p transfer.