Sunday, August 09, 2009

Best. Adaptations. Ever.

I got this link off the Child_Lit list: Best movies adapted from children's books

Not sure I agree with all of them (I like the Johnny Depp Wonka better than the Gene Wilder one, and frankly Snow White would have improved that whole movie 1000% if she'd just jumped in the dumb wishing well) but it's something to think about. I do agree with most of the honorable mentions.

What are some of your favorite adaptations?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree with you on both: Snow White is too scary in parts for kids anyway. And who doesn't like Johnny Depp better?!!! Good calls on the critique!!!

Jennifer said...

I think the new Wonka is waaay creepier than the old one - he creaks! and all those dentist nightmares! Shudder. Plus, I like Gene Wilder. Can't say I agree with Iron Giant - I thought it was rather boring and never made it through the whole thing. I was surprised not to see Matilda - it doesn't have quite the Dahlesque flavor of the story, but still a good adaptation imo. My personal favorite adaptations are the stop-motion animation of Wind in the Willows (Cosgrove Hall) and the original Lindgren films, especially Emil, Children of Noisy Village, and Pippi. But I don't think they've all been translated into English, so I suppose they don't count.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

Re-posting to correct grammar: I was surprised Coppola's "Black Beauty" wasn't on the list. It's perfect. I saw it when I was in college and pretended my bike was The Black all the way home =).

Though I wholeheartedly agree about "Oz," "The Princess Bride," "Babe" and "Azkaban," I think Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" was a disaster. The whole crux of the story is that he LOOKED like a beast but behaved like a gentleman.

And for the record? Gene Wilder rules.

Jennifer said...

Ooh, yeah what about Black Stallion? And I hated the new Charlotte's Web, btw. Didn't really like the old animated one either.