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[CCBC-Net] Books to Movies
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From: Angie Miles <readingam>
Date: Sat, 22 Aug 2009 22:10:52 -0700 (PDT)
I'm wondering if the book to movie discussion is still open.? I find this most interesting.? In my literacy work with young people, one way I determine the depth of their knowledge of literature is to name characters and ask them to identify whether it's a book character, a movie character or both.? If both, they then say which came first...book or movie.? It's rather amazing how many don't know there's a?story or book that?came before characters as well established as Chicken Little!? In many cases, it's fun for them to learn about the books behind their movies.? I learn, too, because I only discovered that Shrek was a book first in the past couple of years.? How amazing to see the differences.
? With my own family, we have a rule that at least one family member must read the book before we see a movie adaptation.? Often, we read a novel together before seeing the movie.? This occurred with Tale of Despereaux.? I had read it several times and my oldest had read it once.? Then all six of us in the family read it together right before the movie was released.? We were so in love with the book and our anticipation for the movie was at peak levels.? Oh, we were so disappointed.? In itself, the movie may have been fine...and another poster did indicate her grandkids enjoyed it.? For us, however, who had the book in our hearts, the movie had so little resemblance to it, the magic was simply not there.
? In contrast, two of us had read Inkheart and all six of us enjoyed the movie tremendously...found it rather true to the book.? It may be worth noting that because of the length of the book, we didn't expect?the movie?to align with it too closely, so we were surprised at how faithful the story remained.? With Despereaux, we felt there was no attempt, really, to tell the same story.
? Seeing that Bridge to Terabithia was marketed as a kid and family movie, we opted to read it as a family before seeing the movie.? The parents among us were a little surprised by some of the language and grittiness in the book, which really wasn't indicated by the movie...so we had to edit a bit as we read to accomodate our youngest.? We liked the movie more than the book in that case, but mainly because of expectations.
? As for fairy tales in movie form...love Hoodwinked as an adaptation of the Red Riding Hood story.? Shrek does a similarly clever job of pulling in fairy tale characters with humor.
? And adult books to movies...I've read two Mitch Albom books (Tuesdays with Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven)?and have seen two movies (Five People and For One More Day).? I thought Five People was remarkably true to the book in plot and tone...with the exception of bypassing the pivotal reason why they could never have children...not sure why that was left out except maybe for time.
? I do think movies often overshadow really great books, but I also think they are an invaluable tool for educators and lovers of literature...to help connect young people, especially, with literature.? We have a tool to help empower them as experts....so they become immersed in a work and can then compare and contrast like experts.? They really enjoy this, I've found.
? Thanks for all your great comments before this.
? Angie Miles Ashland, Virginia
--- On Mon, 8/17/09, Bren MacDibble <brenmacd at optusnet.com.au> wrote:
From: Bren MacDibble <brenmacd at optusnet.com.au> Subject: Re: [CCBC-Net] Books to Movies To: ccbc-net at ccbc.education.wisc.edu Date: Monday, August 17, 2009, 10:14 PM
Some things about the Narnia books were lost in translation to the? movies.? The British class system was a welcome loss in the adaption? to modern tastes which made me prefer the movies and more importantly,? prefer that my children watched the movies.
Bren.
On 18/08/2009, at 7:08 AM, Brian Kerr-Jung wrote:
> I thought "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" was beautifully
> designed and shot.? Still, it left me cold.? What I missed were all
> the little charms of the book, especially the dialog.? The film
> dropped the discussion near the beginning with the professor about the
> nature of reality as well as the interaction near the end with the
> weepy giant and many little moments in between.? Instead there was a
> lot of shouting of Hollywood one-liners with swords thrust in the air.
>
> Dialog seems like something that could transfer rather easily between
> a book and a movie, but it rarely does. Sad, considering our best
> writers are often very fine writers of dialog.
>
> Haven't bothered with "Caspian."
>
>
> On Thu, Aug 13, 2009 at 1:55 PM, Tiffany Dismuke<td.ssch at gmail.com>?
> wrote:
>> I was just having a conversation about this on Tuesday and I'm
>> wondering if anyone else was as disappointed by "Prince Caspian" as I
>> was. I saw "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" in the theater and
>> thought it was done spectacularly. My complaints were all minor, and
>> had more to do with me imagining things differently than the film
>> makers.
>>
>> However, I was so glad that I did not waste my money to see "Prince
>> Caspian" in the theater. They changed so much, particularly when the
>> trees started moving. In Narnia, the trees send out their spirits. In
>> Middle Earth, they move. These type of differences, the ones that?
>> seem
>> to be a blatant disregard of the original text, are the ones that
>> often destroy a movie for me.
>>
>> --
>> Tiffany Dismuke
>> Public Information Associate
>> Steger-South Chicago Heights Library
>> td.ssch at gmail.com
>> _______________________________________________
>> CCBC-Net mailing list
>> CCBC-Net at lists.education.wisc.edu
>> Visit this link to read archives or to unsubscribe...
>> http://lists.education.wisc.edu/mailman/listinfo/ccbc-net
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Brian Jung
> http://mrchompchomp.blogspot.com
> _______________________________________________
> CCBC-Net mailing list
> CCBC-Net at lists.education.wisc.edu
> Visit this link to read archives or to unsubscribe...
> http://lists.education.wisc.edu/mailman/listinfo/ccbc-net
_______________________________________________ CCBC-Net mailing list CCBC-Net at lists.education.wisc.edu Visit this link to read archives or to unsubscribe... http://lists.education.wisc.edu/mailman/listinfo/ccbc-net
Received on Sun 23 Aug 2009 12:10:52 AM CDT
Date: Sat, 22 Aug 2009 22:10:52 -0700 (PDT)
I'm wondering if the book to movie discussion is still open.? I find this most interesting.? In my literacy work with young people, one way I determine the depth of their knowledge of literature is to name characters and ask them to identify whether it's a book character, a movie character or both.? If both, they then say which came first...book or movie.? It's rather amazing how many don't know there's a?story or book that?came before characters as well established as Chicken Little!? In many cases, it's fun for them to learn about the books behind their movies.? I learn, too, because I only discovered that Shrek was a book first in the past couple of years.? How amazing to see the differences.
? With my own family, we have a rule that at least one family member must read the book before we see a movie adaptation.? Often, we read a novel together before seeing the movie.? This occurred with Tale of Despereaux.? I had read it several times and my oldest had read it once.? Then all six of us in the family read it together right before the movie was released.? We were so in love with the book and our anticipation for the movie was at peak levels.? Oh, we were so disappointed.? In itself, the movie may have been fine...and another poster did indicate her grandkids enjoyed it.? For us, however, who had the book in our hearts, the movie had so little resemblance to it, the magic was simply not there.
? In contrast, two of us had read Inkheart and all six of us enjoyed the movie tremendously...found it rather true to the book.? It may be worth noting that because of the length of the book, we didn't expect?the movie?to align with it too closely, so we were surprised at how faithful the story remained.? With Despereaux, we felt there was no attempt, really, to tell the same story.
? Seeing that Bridge to Terabithia was marketed as a kid and family movie, we opted to read it as a family before seeing the movie.? The parents among us were a little surprised by some of the language and grittiness in the book, which really wasn't indicated by the movie...so we had to edit a bit as we read to accomodate our youngest.? We liked the movie more than the book in that case, but mainly because of expectations.
? As for fairy tales in movie form...love Hoodwinked as an adaptation of the Red Riding Hood story.? Shrek does a similarly clever job of pulling in fairy tale characters with humor.
? And adult books to movies...I've read two Mitch Albom books (Tuesdays with Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven)?and have seen two movies (Five People and For One More Day).? I thought Five People was remarkably true to the book in plot and tone...with the exception of bypassing the pivotal reason why they could never have children...not sure why that was left out except maybe for time.
? I do think movies often overshadow really great books, but I also think they are an invaluable tool for educators and lovers of literature...to help connect young people, especially, with literature.? We have a tool to help empower them as experts....so they become immersed in a work and can then compare and contrast like experts.? They really enjoy this, I've found.
? Thanks for all your great comments before this.
? Angie Miles Ashland, Virginia
--- On Mon, 8/17/09, Bren MacDibble <brenmacd at optusnet.com.au> wrote:
From: Bren MacDibble <brenmacd at optusnet.com.au> Subject: Re: [CCBC-Net] Books to Movies To: ccbc-net at ccbc.education.wisc.edu Date: Monday, August 17, 2009, 10:14 PM
Some things about the Narnia books were lost in translation to the? movies.? The British class system was a welcome loss in the adaption? to modern tastes which made me prefer the movies and more importantly,? prefer that my children watched the movies.
Bren.
On 18/08/2009, at 7:08 AM, Brian Kerr-Jung wrote:
> I thought "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" was beautifully
> designed and shot.? Still, it left me cold.? What I missed were all
> the little charms of the book, especially the dialog.? The film
> dropped the discussion near the beginning with the professor about the
> nature of reality as well as the interaction near the end with the
> weepy giant and many little moments in between.? Instead there was a
> lot of shouting of Hollywood one-liners with swords thrust in the air.
>
> Dialog seems like something that could transfer rather easily between
> a book and a movie, but it rarely does. Sad, considering our best
> writers are often very fine writers of dialog.
>
> Haven't bothered with "Caspian."
>
>
> On Thu, Aug 13, 2009 at 1:55 PM, Tiffany Dismuke<td.ssch at gmail.com>?
> wrote:
>> I was just having a conversation about this on Tuesday and I'm
>> wondering if anyone else was as disappointed by "Prince Caspian" as I
>> was. I saw "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" in the theater and
>> thought it was done spectacularly. My complaints were all minor, and
>> had more to do with me imagining things differently than the film
>> makers.
>>
>> However, I was so glad that I did not waste my money to see "Prince
>> Caspian" in the theater. They changed so much, particularly when the
>> trees started moving. In Narnia, the trees send out their spirits. In
>> Middle Earth, they move. These type of differences, the ones that?
>> seem
>> to be a blatant disregard of the original text, are the ones that
>> often destroy a movie for me.
>>
>> --
>> Tiffany Dismuke
>> Public Information Associate
>> Steger-South Chicago Heights Library
>> td.ssch at gmail.com
>> _______________________________________________
>> CCBC-Net mailing list
>> CCBC-Net at lists.education.wisc.edu
>> Visit this link to read archives or to unsubscribe...
>> http://lists.education.wisc.edu/mailman/listinfo/ccbc-net
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Brian Jung
> http://mrchompchomp.blogspot.com
> _______________________________________________
> CCBC-Net mailing list
> CCBC-Net at lists.education.wisc.edu
> Visit this link to read archives or to unsubscribe...
> http://lists.education.wisc.edu/mailman/listinfo/ccbc-net
_______________________________________________ CCBC-Net mailing list CCBC-Net at lists.education.wisc.edu Visit this link to read archives or to unsubscribe... http://lists.education.wisc.edu/mailman/listinfo/ccbc-net
Received on Sun 23 Aug 2009 12:10:52 AM CDT
