In the interest of fairness this tirade...I mean blog posting...has been roaming around in my head since Friday. You all have been warned so continue on at your own risk.
Over the years Hollywood has turned children's stories into movies with mixed results. Disney has made a major corporation using this technique (even when they say its an original idea-Lion King=Hamlet...I'm just saying.) Now some I can separate book from movie (Harry Potter, Twilight series are just two examples). Then there are others that are ok and can be looked at as good but not the book....(the early 90's version of Harriet the Spy) and then there are the horrific versions that have no explanation or defense (The nothing like the book...I don't care if the director says she's a huge fan...even the author slammed it on CNN...ABC version of A Wrinkle in Time -and yes I have a huge bias about this book as anyone who knows me understands. A Wrinkle in Time is my all time favorite book.) There are of course countless others including the following currently in theaters: Diary of A Wimpy Kid, How to Train Your Dragon. This past Friday night, however, I was home and flipping the channels on the television and came across Disney's latest addition to the mix Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars. Harriet is now a teenager competing to write the school blog. All of the names you remember from Louise Fitzgerald's book are there including "Ole" Golly who looks all of 22 (which seems very strange considering Harriet looks about 16). At least they didn't call her "Ole Golly" just Golly. Now granted Disney did not play this up to be a remaking of the book but I would hope (and perhaps this is where my disappointment stems from in a majority of these movies) is that if the author has written what the characters look like in his or her books that perhaps a movie company should not feel the need to ignore that and cast anyone they want in those roles whether they look like the characters as described in the book or not. Ole Golly is the perfect example in both of these movies...the visually sketch in the book Harriet the Spy is of an older woman with a bun on her head, on the thin side and very prim and proper...this, in my humble opinion, does not translate into Rosie O'Donnell (the first movie) or Kristin Booth (the current movie). Unfortunately I feel lately that I may be in a minority about this but I would just like to think that if a movie studio options a book to turn it into a movie or even take a beloved character and come up with an original story at least stay true to descriptions in the book that the story or characters come from.
I realize that this rant is based more on one television movie and that there are examples where there has been outstanding casting and development for a movie based on a children's book but they appear to be harder and harder to come by. I'd love to read your examples of the good, the bad and the ugly. I'm sure there are plenty more out there.
Until next time...happy reading!
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