From: Mullin, Margaret Boling <mbmullin>
Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2007 17:59:22 -0500

The movie _The Dark is Rising_ came out about a month ago. The Borders at which I bought my final Harry Potter had advertising material out for D is R on the night of the release for HP #7.

The full title is actually _The Dark is Rising: The Seeker_, making me think that they are attempting to set up sequals, if the movie does well. The movie is awful; it is not only a poor book-to-movie adaptation, but also a poor fantasy movie!

I have difficulty listing my objections:
* Will has a brother who died in infancy; in the book, this would have been the family's first child, while in the movie, the boy is a twin of Will's
* In the movie, the boy has been held captive by the Dark for 13 years
(rather than dying) and Will rescues him and they return happily to the home at the end of the movie. I ask you...why make this change (not to mention the psychological issues a child who'd been held in captivity for 13 years would be likely to have!)
* The signs, both their shapes and the symbolism have been changed; this seems to be primarily an effort to add special effects
* The plot doesn't hang together & several events seem to be unexplainable.
* The father in the movie is supposed to be a physicist (perhaps) who was working on his doctoral dissertation the night the the "twin" brother was kidnapped. His area of research: the dark!

I'm sorry, I was so disappointed in the movie that I'm afraid I'm going on and on.

I hope people find the books! They are treasures.

Margaret Boling Mullin Reading Specialist, Maplewood Elementary Doctoral student and Associate Instructor, Indiana University

Quoting Ellen Greever <greever at sois.uwm.edu>:

> I'm doubt it's the norm, but I seem to recall that Louis Sachar wrote
> the screenplay for the movie of "Holes," which I recall as being
> faithful to the spirit of the book and enjoyable in its own right.
>
> And could someone please enlighten me about this movie of "The Dark
> is Rising"? I don't seem to recall it at all. Did they change the
> title? When did it come out?
>
> Ellen Greever
> recovering academic
> greever at sois.uwm.edu
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: ccbc-net-bounces at ccbc.education.wisc.edu on behalf of Ruth I. Gordon
> Sent: Wed 11/14/2007 9:14 PM
> To: CCBC Net
> Subject: [CCBC-Net] Not a film critic
>
>
>
> I want to add to Nancy Garden's well stated knowledge about books
> into film. I had thought to send a message about a dear author
> friend, a Newbery awardee, a National Book Awardee, who, for years,
> worked at commercial writing for an industrial trade magazine to earn
> a living. One of his books was optioned for the silver screen. The
> amount he earned was paltry, miserable, miserly. Moreover, he had no
> say in the surgical dismembering of his fantasy. It is one of the
> worst film adaptations I have ever seen--not that I see many. That
> was then. Now?
>
> If you are interested in this topic, you might look up P.L. Travers'
> comments on films and Mary Poppins. Not a nice story, not nice at
> all. That was then. Now?
>
> Big Grandma
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Received on Thu 15 Nov 2007 04:59:22 PM CST