Casey: I was ALL ABOUT BARNEY when I was little… That and Lamb Chop. Also Disney movies are made of pure win. My favorite was The Little Mermaid (though Cassie will surely hold me in highest disdain for such a claim!).
Christina: I love your challenge! As soon as I read it, I knew just what charity I would pick. I’ll do more research on it, as per your requirement, but this charity is a recent addition to my life, and so it’s not just one I’ve known about for a while and picked by default.
Cassie: Very serious agreement on your Princess Bride #1 placement. I haven’t read the book (cue shame), but the movie is incredibly effective and wonderful and among my favorites as well. Clearly our opinions of The Little Mermaid differ, but that’s only because my opinion is rooted in the delightedness of a four-year-old version of myself. I’m sure if I were to (a) know the original story (cue more shame) and (b) watch the movie for the first time at my age now, I would harbor thoughts similar to yours.
Alexandra: Ditto your thoughts on Eragon. It’s been a long time since I either read the book or saw the movie, and my post has (slightly) more detail on my musings, but ditto nevertheless.
Near as I can figure, the best movie adaptation of a book (or at least a really good one) is The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Forgive me my juvenility, because neither the book nor the movie deserves great acclaim, but I enjoyed the book and then liked the movie even better. Sure, the characters are pretty cookie-cutter in both formats, but I loved them and the way they worked together. The movie didn’t stick exactly to the book (pretty close, but no cigar—movies that get the cigar tend not to be great, I think we all can probably agree), but it was close enough that it conveyed the same messages.
Don’t get me started on the second SotTP movie. The book wasn’t that great, and the movie was sheerly TERRIBLE. I can barely force myself to watch even a minute of it when it’s on and friends want to watch it. It’s a complete failure of a cinematic experience in every way. But because I didn’t care for the book either, I can’t say that it was the movie’s fault. Therefore, I bring you my final paragraph of the day.
Off the top of my head, I can claim with a bit of confidence that Eragon is the worst movie adaptation of a book. Maybe not ever, but in my experience, at least. It came out when I was in the midst of my early-teen dragon phase, and the author was admirably young (19 and a NYT Bestseller!), so I devoured the copy my aunt bought me. I’m sure it would have different value for me if I read it today for the first time, but I loved it. And then there was a movie made!... if you can call it that. I remember vaguely enjoying parts of the “movie,” but leaving the theater utterly dejected. It could have been so good! And it just… it just sucked. What had been a vibrant plot and character set became two-dimensional and jumbled. I was sorely disappointed.
Random question of the day!: What’s your favorite weather?
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