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books2010-09-04 10:55 am
sweet_sparrow) wrote in books2010-09-04 10:55 am
Movie Adaptations
A friend of mine recently watched the movie adaptation of Tomorrow, When the War Began and loved it.
Which brings me neatly to a topic that I thought might be a fun and interesting discussion: movie adaptations of books. Which ones have you seen? Do you refuse to acknowledge any as adaptations? Which ones did you love? What're your thoughts on what makes a good adaptation? Should books be adapted for the screen (be it big or small) in your eyes?
For me, I'd say that a good adaptation has to get across the same... soul of the book. I'm not sure that makes sense, but I've only dipped my toes into thinking about this, so I have as yet very little idea of how to best phrase it.
One of the first adaptations I ever saw was The Last Unicorn when I was about three or four. It remains one of my favourite films ever. I never knew until in my middle/late teens, though, that The Last Unicorn was based on a book. Or, if I did, it never registered all that well. It remains one of the best adaptations I've ever seen, and I couldn't rightly tell you why. Unless it's that it sticks so close to the original.
The latest book-to-movie adaptation I watched was Minoes, better known in English as Undercover Kitty, I think, for unknown reasons. (I would dearly love to hear what the people involved were thinking when that title was decided upon. It makes no sense whatsoever.) It was a very cute, fun movie that stuck quite close to the book as far as my memory can tell. The book has a little more background and depth to it, but not very much. I think I might recommend the movie over the book too, especially to non-Dutch people because... Well, let's say our writing style can come across as incredibly stilted and jarring in translation.)
Which brings me neatly to a topic that I thought might be a fun and interesting discussion: movie adaptations of books. Which ones have you seen? Do you refuse to acknowledge any as adaptations? Which ones did you love? What're your thoughts on what makes a good adaptation? Should books be adapted for the screen (be it big or small) in your eyes?
For me, I'd say that a good adaptation has to get across the same... soul of the book. I'm not sure that makes sense, but I've only dipped my toes into thinking about this, so I have as yet very little idea of how to best phrase it.
One of the first adaptations I ever saw was The Last Unicorn when I was about three or four. It remains one of my favourite films ever. I never knew until in my middle/late teens, though, that The Last Unicorn was based on a book. Or, if I did, it never registered all that well. It remains one of the best adaptations I've ever seen, and I couldn't rightly tell you why. Unless it's that it sticks so close to the original.
The latest book-to-movie adaptation I watched was Minoes, better known in English as Undercover Kitty, I think, for unknown reasons. (I would dearly love to hear what the people involved were thinking when that title was decided upon. It makes no sense whatsoever.) It was a very cute, fun movie that stuck quite close to the book as far as my memory can tell. The book has a little more background and depth to it, but not very much. I think I might recommend the movie over the book too, especially to non-Dutch people because... Well, let's say our writing style can come across as incredibly stilted and jarring in translation.)
Re: Generally, I prefer the books to the movies
Personally, I can't stand Harry Potter at all, books and movies alike, and I consider the Hobbit to be one of Tolkien's weakest books (though that might be influenced by the mediocre German translation through which we had to work in class - and no, sentence analyses did *not* help the story along!), but that's just me and my personal preferences in content and style, and I know that a lot of people firmly dislike the books I love. Each their own. :)
Most often, I just watch a movie completely independent from the book (source), firmly compartmentalizing movie and book and thus more-or-less enjoying both independently. However, I rarely go about thinking "if only they'd made a movie out of this great book", because I'd definitely be disappointed by having my imagination replaced by a director's "vision" (or what they call it). However, there were a few movies to which I'd have loved to have a good book source to further delve into the plot, but let's not start on "movie books". Eep.
Re: Generally, I prefer the books to the movies
Same here! But instead ...
but let's not start on "movie books". Eep.
Aghhh.*shudders*