Media Monday: Books to Featured Films -- Brillant or a Bomb?
What do the following films all have in common?
Lord of the Rings
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
The Neverending Story
Hook
Are they Oscar-winning films? Nope!
Were they all made in the '90s? Wrong again!
Are they all based on books? Ding ding ding, correct!
Though many movies have been and still are based on best-selling books, it often happens that book-based movies fail to go beyond fans' expectations. Whether it's from leaving out important parts of the book or miscasting the characters, most book-to-movie adaptations end up failing to do the author's work justice.
Nonetheless, there are those movies that go above and beyond the words on the pages. These movies truly bring the books to life, creating accurate portrayals of the authors' visions, while at the same time leaving nothing out for the audience . . . hence the movies listed above! Not only are they faithful to all of the details in the books, but the animations, special effects, actors, costumes, settings, etc., really allow the book to come alive onscreen.
I'm sure I've left out a lot of movies, so leave a comment with YOUR favorite book-to-movie renditions!
Also, if you're curious as to why Harry Potter isn't on my list: though I thought the movies were great, I felt like they left out of a lot of important plot points in the book. What do you think?
— Carly M., STACKS Staffer
"Never judge a book by it's movie" That is one of my favorite quotes
and it is normally so true (as you pointed out).
Comment #1 | Posted by: Ella on January 07, 2009 at 04:01 PM
that was tricky i tried not to look at the end!!!
Comment #2 | Posted by: anne-marie on January 07, 2009 at 04:01 PM
Holes is my favorite book-to-movie EVER, they are both SO good. My mom
agrees!. I bet it helped that the author or the book (louis sachar)
also wrote the movie script!
Comment #3 | Posted by: glrir on January 07, 2009 at 04:01 PM
Oh yes oh yes! :) The Lord of the Rings movies are AMAZING!!!!!!
They're pretty accurate to the book, except in the first movie, Frodo
discovers how to enter the Mines of Moria, while in the book, it's
Merry who does that. But that doesn't really matter... Sorry, LOTR is
such an obsession for me! :)
Comment #4 | Posted by: iluvdavidcook on January 07, 2009 at 04:01 PM