Personal rant: Unnecessary changes from books to movies

[Kogarashi]

Regarding Howl's Moving Castle, Diana Wynne Jones liked it, and that's enough for me.

Does Dungeons and Dragons count as a book?

If so That movie, anyone?

I refuse to acknowledge that movie unless I have a lot of sugar and a bunch of friends to MST it with me. But Jeremy Irons was awesome, if only for being the only one who seemed to realize it was a flop from the start.

They made a sequel to Dungeons and Dragons? Really?

One question: does it have Thora Birch in it? If not, I won't even bother.

Nope, no Thora Birch. The only actor to carry over was the one who played Damodar (Mr. Blue-Lips himself). I've heard about it, and saw parts of it on Syfy once. Definitely truer to D&D, but still cheap-looking and rather lackluster.

I liked one of the dungeon puzzles, though.

[Victoria J]

I'm really sorry to foam at the mouth here but I am an enormous fan of Diana Wynne Jones and an fairly huge fan of Studio Ghibli, and this made me shudder :

And Howl had family in England that he visited through the funny door thing.

WALES. Howl has family in Wales.

it is one of the things I love about the book. Partly because Howell would be a very dull Welsh last name, and him being Wizard Howl is a nice joke comparing the exotic fairy tale like setting of Ingary and, well, Wales.

Originally they were going to base the setting of the cartoon on Cardiff. Which would have been kind of insane as it's clearly nowhere so interesting, it's small town Wales.

What war? There was no war in the story. And Howl had family in England that he visited through the funny door thing.

There is the threat of war, one of the things he's trying to weasle out of (other than searching the waste himself) is supplying the army with things like the 7 league boots. It certainly isn't as prominent as the cartoon. It's a very Studio Ghibli theme, as is shoehorning in him flying...

Plus in the commentary version... the american director raved about how creative Hayao Miyazaki was in inventing that door with the handle that opens to different locations when you spin the dial.

Um. Dude... IT'S IN THE BOOK. Miyazaki didn't invent it - Diana Wynne Jones did!

and ... interestingly enough there's a sequal called "Castle in the Air"... and a Miyazaki movie titled "castle in the sky"... O_o orly? could be just coincidence especially since CITS is nothing like CITA but it's a bit too close to me...

Howl's Moving castle is a truly wonderful children's book. Imaginative, humorous, with beautiful storytelling.

The cartoon isn't the same. It doesn't share the wonderful pulling everything together plotting that makes so many inexplicable things make sense.

I really wish the cartoon had shown Sophie as being extremely powerful, she has her own impressive magic whereas the cartoon ends up attributing most of her power to love. I also love that the book shows a romance between 2 very difficult annoying people (and in the sequel even their baby is bad tempered).

I didn't see any need to make the apprentice Micheal a young boy. That seems more the kind of change this thread was talking about.

The castle doesn't look right. But I love it. I love the baba yaga reference in giving it legs, and that the cartoon imagines something else fantastic and amazing and doesn't just copy the book. I love the sense of place (which is another thing that seems to be a strong theme in the Studio Ghibli cartoons). I really enjoyed the cartoon, and I have since read the book and still enjoy that imagining it just the way I always did.

Which to me is the key to adaptations. An author writes a book. If they felt they could say what they have to say best by making a film they should do that instead. They get paid for work they've already done, and someone else gets to take what they want from the book and make the piece of art they want to with it. It shouldn't be the same. Of course sometimes this means if you love the book you'll hate the film, but overly faithful adaptations are just dull. Add something to my idea of the characters or setting or what the story is saying....

Regarding Howl's Moving Castle, Diana Wynne Jones liked it, and that's enough for me.

I read that when she met Myazaki they wore out the translator

(Incidentally I would give anything to see a Myazaki made Mistress Masham's Repose animation. Another truly wonderful children's book it reminds me more of his animations than anything else I've ever read. Strong sense of place (very exaggerated England), strong girl, philosophical ideas about morality that would fit well, even a flight scene, and a wonderful animal character. Of course Ghibli just did the Borrowers adaptation so I guess that kind of covers mini-people).

Victoria J

[Quillsilver]

Oh yeah forgot another atrocity adaptation... The Seeker AKA The Dark Is Rising. Watched it On Demand once and was horrified by all the changes done to it; talk about missing the point of the source book.

QFT - I knew I forgot one that I wanted to mention!

[EricKei]

I am pretty sure you are terribly mistaken, as I am also pretty sure Arwen had some scenes, including dialogue, in later parts of LotR. Obviously the river scene was completely created by Jackson, but I am pretty sure Arwen was more involved than you remember her being, although still not a central character. This kind of dramatic license, I can live with.

re: Arwen's speeches: Here, have fun. I'm not totally sure, myself. Hence my earlier trepidation.

As for the river scene, actually, the only part that Jackson made up was Arwen having anything to do with it. When the Nazgul rode into the river, horse-like tidal heads did indeed rise up and sweep them away in the book.

Totally agree here. Is it perfect? No. Not even close.

Aye. I didn't expect perfection, I expected a damn good set of movies that hearken reasonably close to the original. And that's what I got. I'm satisfied.

which Alan Rickman delivered awesomely. Look, he's a paranoid depressed condescending robot. They got that part totally right.

....Granted.

Brain the size of a planet...

re: Narnia movies -- Seen the first one. I've been a rabid fan of Narnia even longer than LoTR (and I first read the latter cover to cover in....1987?), and I'm really not sure I wanna see any of the others after some of the things I've heard about the sequels >_<. I will stick with the WonderWorks adaptations, thank you.

Speaking of which, is it just me, or was Puddleglum played by The Doctor in the WW version? Meaning, the only Doctor whom most people give a damn about.

[Quillsilver]

Speaking of which, is it just me, or was Puddleglum played by The Doctor in the WW version? Meaning, the only Doctor whom most people give a damn about.

Yep, Puddleglum was played by Tom Baker

[Jester]

re: Arwen's speeches: Here, have fun. I'm not totally sure, myself. Hence my earlier trepidation.

That site only talks about differences in Fellowship, but you said you thought Arwen didn't really have any speaking parts in LotR, period. I was merely saying she did, probably in the later books. I don't remember, but I don't think she had much of anything going on in Fellowship.

As for the river scene, actually, the only part that Jackson made up was Arwen having anything to do with it. When the Nazgul rode into the river, horse-like tidal heads did indeed rise up and sweep them away in the book.

Right...my point was that, in the book, Arwen had zip to do with that.

Even that, though, did not offend me. It was, in the grand scheme of things, a minor deviation from the book. At least the way I see it.

Brain the size of a planet...

Many of Marvin's lines in the movie were verbatim from the book, and delivered absolutely brilliantly by Rickman. Sorry, I personally can't quibble about what Marvin LOOKED like when given brilliance like that!

Meaning, the only Doctor whom most people give a damn about.

Sorry, but many, MANY people care quite a bit about Tennant. Not just new fans of the show, either, but many longtime viewers as well.

Just saying.

[dragon_wings]

Sorry, but many, MANY people care quite a bit about Tennant. Not just new fans of the show, either, but many longtime viewers as well.

Just saying.

Granted I haven't seen the older Doctors but Tennant is my favorite (not big on Matt Smith, but Christopher Eccleston is great).

[Greenday]

Starship Troopers is another one...when the movie came out, I dismissed it as a "testosterone overload," and a friend of mine commented that it was nothing like the book. So I tracked down my mom's copy and read it. I still have that copy, and I still read it once a year or so - this last time, I read a lot of the class discussions out loud to my husband, too....until he just took the book away and read it himself...lol.

Yea, the movie and the book are extremely different. Don't know if the movie would have been good though had it stuck strictly to the book. The second movie was just plain trash, that's for sure. But I love both the book and the movie in their own ways.

[PepperElf]

Starship Troopers is another one...when the movie came out, I dismissed it as a "testosterone overload," and a friend of mine commented that it was nothing like the book. So I tracked down my mom's copy and read it. I still have that copy, and I still read it once a year or so - this last time, I read a lot of the class discussions out loud to my husband, too....until he just took the book away and read it himself...lol.

The movie drove me away from reading the book for a long time. When I finally got to the book I realized all the bug-crap in the movie was ... superfluous.

the book itself is, if anything, a philosophy book within a sci-fi setting. i can only assume they cut all the lessons from it because... it would probably have bored people looking to be entertained, or offended those who didn't like the ideas expressed.

still... that doesn't excuse the crap they turned it into. not to mention they of course had to sex it up too)
(and my bf was disappointed that rico wasn't pinoy in the movie.)

[EricKei]

re: the Doc - 'twas a joke, my boy ^_^

Aaaaaand, with perfect timing: Cracked saves the day

[XCashier]

Speaking of which, is it just me, or was Puddleglum played by The Doctor in the WW version?

Yes, and splendidly, too.