Personal rant: Unnecessary changes from books to movies

[Racket_Man]

I see your Jurassic Park and raise you The Lost World.

Also, I pity anyone who's ever seen a movie based on a Stephen King novel that has never read his work.

IT, although they did a 2 part TV movie just did not capture the book.

Mat Damon's Bourne Trilogy. The only thing they kept were the character's name and that he had amnesia.

They absolutly SHREDDED the Bourne Trilogy as written.

one more is the first DUNE movie from 1984 YEEEEECKKKKKK. I did, however, love the SciFi channels 3 part mini-series from the late 90's

concerning the Harry Potter series to movie. the scriptwriters just shredded book 5 - book 7. there were times when I realized that in order to ACTUALLY understand the movie plot your had to have read THE BOOK.

When my daughter and I saw Half-Blood Prince, she had not read the book for a while and actually had to turn to me and keep asking questions. way too many important plot points were stripped out.

[BroSCFischer]

Sherlock Holmes died and came back ("The Final Problem" was intended to be Conan-Doyle's last Sherlock Holmes story). Although if memory serves correctly, Sherlock Holmes claimed he faked his own death.

Watson didn't actually see Holmes die, nor did he afterward see a body, and if memory serves, they mentioned a funeral for Malcolm at the end of Jurassic Park.

SC

[RayvenQ]

I have only 2 words to say on this subject:

Starship Troopers.

Slightly bit more than changes with that one, it's like "Lets take nearly everything that the book was about and NOT use it."

[Dilorenzo]

Starship Troopers is getting a remake - we'll see if it's closer to the book. The only problem is, it's pretty much one of those unfilmable books - it will either have to pad out or drastically change the story to get it on film.

Similar to I Am Legend, really. The only way a proper film will be made out of that book is if an indie director gets a crack at it, which is unlikely.

Speaking not of books, but of comic books, I thought the entire last half of Kick Ass was stupid as hell in the movie, and wish they had've stuck more closely to the comic. It was a lot more... real. In a comic book. Yeah, that's not a thing I would've thought I'd type.

Sometimes changes do help, mind. I actually think The Shining is a great movie - and a great book. They're just different stories. Blade Runner is my favorite film, pretty much ever, and it's completely different from the book.

Of course, then you get things like The Mist, where for no good reason they change the ending. Much preferred the ending from the story on that one.

[Kara]

IT, although they did a 2 part TV movie just did not capture the book.

I've been hearing for a couple years they're going to remake IT on film, but last I heard it was going to be a 2 hour theatrical film rather than a mini-series. So abandon all hope, they couldn't get it right in 2 parts, there is NO WAY they can do it in 2 hours.

Tim Curry as Pennywise was amazing though.

one more is the first DUNE movie from 1984 YEEEEECKKKKKK. I did, however, love the SciFi channels 3 part mini-series from the late 90's

True, though I can't figure out why Leto and Ghani were 18 in the mini-series rather than 9. Not that James McAvoy wasn't simply delicious *drool*

Watson didn't actually see Holmes die, nor did he afterward see a body, and if memory serves, they mentioned a funeral for Malcolm at the end of Jurassic Park.

Yeah, that's right. There was a reason for it, though like I said it was kind of half-assed. But it was kind of an homage to Conan-Doyle. From michaelcrichton.net:

The Lost World was the only sequel Michael had ever written, and he saw it as a challenge. The title was of course a reference to Arthur Conan Doyle, whose 1912 novel told of explorers visiting a remote plateau to confront dinosaurs. Michael borrowed another trick from Conan Doyle's sequels —he brought a character back to life. Conan Doyle resuscitated Sherlock Holmes, even though he fell to his death at the Reichenbach Falls; Michael brought back Ian Malcolm, a favorite of readers and filmgoers.

As far as Harry Potter goes, I enjoyed all the movies, though Prisoner of Azkaban and HBP were the ones I liked the LEAST due to how the massive amounts of plot that were tossed aside in favor of action scenes. Both disappointed me because if you hadn't read the books quite a bit of them would make no sense at all. A friend of mine actually never saw any of them after PoA because he said it just had no plot and after that he didn't care.

[BroSCFischer]

I've been hearing for a couple years they're going to remake IT on film, but last I heard it was going to be a 2 hour theatrical film rather than a mini-series. So abandon all hope, they couldn't get it right in 2 parts, there is NO WAY they can do it in 2 hours.

Tim Curry as Pennywise was amazing though.

John Ritter actually fought to get Ben's back story speech put back in, and that was almost verbatim from the novel. (per his DVD commentary)

SC

[firecat88]

I just thought of yet another adaptation decay victim that hasn't been mentioned yet: Sailor Moon. This one actually got a double-whammy of it too, when you think about it:

1) From the manga to the original Japanese version of the anime. I'm sure someone here who's more familiar with the manga could go into further detail about this. From what I understand, though, there were a *lot* of weird changes between the two, particularly in the last two arcs (Yume/Dream, which was known as SuperS in the anime, and Stars, which kept the same name in both the manga and the anime).

2) From the original version of the anime to its many dub forms. Back when the series was first popular in the 90s, it got redone in a lot more countries than I actually thought at first. Some of them-- like the German dub, where Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune's relationship was left intact and the only one whose name changed was Usagi (she became 'Bunny' instead, which still keeps with the pun of her name)-- weren't terrible. Others, like the English dub, were horrid. Name changes left-and-right, turning lovers into cousins who still held hands and looked at each other flirtatiously, overuse of slang that I don't think anyone used even back then....

[Kara]

True, but there are a LOT of manga that are very different from the anime. Especially when the studios completely change the focus of the original material (Full Metal Alchemist and Claymore are recent examples that come to mind).

[Dilorenzo]

When talking about Manga and Anime, you have to bring up Akira. It is the law.

[fireheart]

I just thought of yet another adaptation decay victim that hasn't been mentioned yet: Sailor Moon. This one actually got a double-whammy of it too, when you think about it:

1) From the manga to the original Japanese version of the anime. I'm sure someone here who's more familiar with the manga could go into further detail about this. From what I understand, though, there were a *lot* of weird changes between the two, particularly in the last two arcs (Yume/Dream, which was known as SuperS in the anime, and Stars, which kept the same name in both the manga and the anime).

2) From the original version of the anime to its many dub forms. Back when the series was first popular in the 90s, it got redone in a lot more countries than I actually thought at first. Some of them-- like the German dub, where Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune's relationship was left intact and the only one whose name changed was Usagi (she became 'Bunny' instead, which still keeps with the pun of her name)-- weren't terrible. Others, like the English dub, were horrid. Name changes left-and-right, turning lovers into cousins who still held hands and looked at each other flirtatiously, overuse of slang that I don't think anyone used even back then....

OK, depending on when they make the anime, sometimes the manga hasn't completely gotten up to speed, so they try and make it a certain number of episodes (usually twenty-six) and create a "proper ending". Claymore and Negima are examples.

As for Sailor Moon:

1) I suspect that they wanted to have more action involved in the dream arc. Also if memory serves me, dream was meant to be the "final arc" but they were talked into doing Stars. The English manga is worse: Usagi's name is literally translated to "Bunny". Who the heck names their kid Bunny? Some of the things I can understand got cut out from manga to anime though-they're trying to keep it action-based and having the Sailor Soldiers as "princesses" would've just confused things even more. (apart from sailor moon)

2) The English dub went WAYYYY over the top trying to edit out a whole load of necessary crap. The other non-English dubs handled the whole Sailor Uranus/Neptune thing a LOT better in my opinion (one example was that Sailor Uranus pretends to be in a loving relationship with Sailor Neptune to "protect" her and that she looks more masculine to throw off suspicions that she's Sailor Uranus). The Cloverway dubs (the last 2 series), while horrible, at least were a bit more faithful to the original subbing and kept most elements of Japanese culture in to some degree. Although there were a few cases of gender changes for no other reason, which kind of made the whole rewriting of Sailors Uranus/Neptune just plain stupid. (one of them was Rini/Chibiusa meeting this cross-dresser (guy) who conducts tea ceremonies. In the sub, it's a guy. In the dub, not only is it a girl, she sounds horrible) I remember first watching the SuperS dub and listening to Zirconia, my first thought was...."OMG, they have YODA on Sailor Moon now?"

Anyway.....check this website out for almost every change between sub and dub....www.smuncensored.com

Now onto my own rant regarding Chobits. Yes, Chobits. The manga itself only went for 8 volumes, so ranting about the "true ending" is irrelevant. There are SO many stupid changes however, that it just makes me wonder if they were doing it for fun. The worst part involved the ending. In the manga, if Chi's software activated, it would've shut down the personal recognition systems of every persocom. In the anime, it would've been that ALL persocoms would've shut down. Why make such a stupid plot change for no other reason? There has been NOTHING to indicate otherwise and on top of that, the little love scene between Zita and Dita was perfect. There were some other minor stupid changes, including having the entire "Shinbo has run off with our cram school teacher and is going to marry her" bit moved a lot further away from the events than in the manga, although I suspect that this was so they could treat the whole "Chi goes to a strip show" as a separate incident and put more focus on that.

Negima also had some minor stupid changes. I won't even TRY to go into the Negima neo? Manga since that's different. I'm referring to the first anime series and the manga. While most aspects were kept faithful, the Kyoto arc pissed me off BIG time. It was such an important arc in the manga and resulted in another 3 pactios forming (pactio-magical contract formed between Negi (the wizard) and one of his classmates, usually done with a kiss). In the anime? Sayo somehow can "come along" with the rest of the group (in the manga, she was introduced later and could only leave the school for longer distances if she possessed a "doll") and they completely skipped the entire introduction of Kotaro, which made his inclusion in the group seem odd.

They also cut out one of the BEST bits: during the Kyoto arc, they played a game where in pairs, they ran around trying to kiss Negi. The winner would receive a temporary pactio. That of course blew up in everyone's face since everyone apart from one person kissed a clone of him. In the anime, it was turned into a semi-filler episode and relocated to an old science building. They kept the basic plotline there, although without the magic element. What makes this change EXTREMELY stupid is that after the Kyoto trip, the girls are looking at photos. One of the photos was taken directly from a panel in the manga during the "kiss Negi" game. (Two of the girls participating were captured by one of the teachers and forced to sit in the seiza position-it's uncomfortable as heck if you do it for long periods) Why change such a huge plot element?

Of course, what this DID result in, was that none of the girls apart from Asuna, received a pactio until the final episode. By that point in the manga, quite a few girls had received pactio and their anime counterparts were similar or identical in nature, while the rest of them were downright strange.

[XCashier]

I loved Ray Bradbury's book Something Wicked This Way Comes. A story about two small town boys and a severely creepy carnival.

I just saw the film adaption and...it is missing a lot. The carnival isn't nearly as creepy as my mind's eye saw it, Mr. Electro is missing, they changed the name of the carnival (leaving Cooger's name off) they left out the bit with the balloon and added a nasty scene with tarantulas, the list goes on and on. It just didn't work, and it's a shame, because a movie true to the book would be absolutely brilliant.

[Kogarashi]

I...actually kind of liked the Dresden Files TV series. But then, I haven't read the books yet.

I'm also pretty forgiving of movies made from books in general. I think I preserve my sanity by reminding myself that they're telling a different story, or at least a different take on the story, regardless of what the people involved might actually say. My gripes usually boil down to small, plot-related nitpicks (most of them about the Harry Potter series and how such-and-such plot point should've been included to make the movie make more sense).

The only one I'm really vocal about is Disney's The Black Cauldron, based off of parts of Lloyd Alexander's Prydain Chronicles. Namely, the movie plays out as though they ran the first two novels (of five) through a paper shredder, glued their favorite parts together, and turned that into a movie.

Of course, then you get things like The Mist, where for no good reason they change the ending. Much preferred the ending from the story on that one.

QFT

[dragon_wings]

I'm so with the anger behind: Eragon, Inkheart, Dresden Files, HP & PoA, HP & HBP.
My whole issue with Prisoner of Azkaban: the Marauders.

I'm gonna add the movie version of Avatar: The Last Airbender (don't know if anyone has mentioned this one yet).
My friend got me into the anime and I loved it (Toph kicks massive ass!). And to see them shred it to bits. *shudders* I'm just so glad I didn't pay to see it.

[Barracuda]

Chronicles of Narnia. The first movie was true to the book, the second wasn't, although most of it was decent poetic license, not too far from the book, and the third....they BUTCHERED Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which was my favorite book in the series. They completely changed what happened in the Lone Islands to unrecognizability, they cut some islands entirely, they added an antagonist, which the book didn't have (or need, the ADVENTURE was the point!) and just totally screwed up major plot points they didn't need to. In my opinion, it could have been the best of the movies thus far in the series, as it was, it was nearly unwatchable.

[dragon_wings]

@Barracuda: now I know not to see The Voyage of Dawn Treader. I liked that one too. Haven't read the series in over a year (I try to read them all at least once a year).

I just checked out the trailer and I'm so confused. Dammit. Now I have to dig out all the books and reread them ASAP.

And I agree about Prince Caspian. I reread the book before watching it just to refresh my memory and it was all I could do not to go 'What? Hang on. That doesn't happen? What the frak?'
Actually I also did that with all the Harry Potter movies from Goblet of Fire on.