more than one book-to-movie adaptation

[liri]

Went to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with the parents. It's a treasured childhood memory, though that's true for most people my age; unlike most people my age, including my own brother, my treasured childhood memory is of the book, not the Gene Wilder movie. I saw bits of that version - I remember Charlie's mom singing some drippy song, I remember the apparent nonexistence of Charlie's dad, I vaguely remember what the Oompa-Loompas looked like, and I think I remember Violet's transformation, but that's about it. I don't remember the legendary Creepy Boat Ride with Poem, and I don't remember any of the other kids or anything. I never wanted to watch it much, because Gene Wilder did NOT look like my mental image of Willy Wonka, at ALL, and what was with all the musical numbers? I mean, of course the Oompa-Loompas sing, but the rest...

Anyway. Johnny Depp didn't look like my mental image of Willy Wonka, either - later on, when he was shown without the hat, I thought "That's Salome's haircut!" which just goes to show you fandom is a mental illness - but he was much closer, and the tone of the film just got the book right somehow. I was especially struck by the spy slipping another man an envelope with "SECRET RECIPE" written on it in red, during the exposition about spying in the factory, by the crowd materializing out of nowhere to read the notices about the golden ticket giveaway, and by the fairytale tone of Grandpa Joe's backstory - it felt the way I visualized the book when I read it, as an overly-literal kid. The backstory about Daddy Wonka to me didn't clash with the tone of the rest of the movie; the scene of the young Willy going back home to find that the whole house was gone anchored it in the rest of the movie, for me at least, though obviously not for every reviewer. Violet Beauregard's mom - and the neighborhood where they lived, all treeless suburb - was perfect. The mom was such a Southern ex-sorority girl, I kept snickering every time she was onscreen, but that's probably just me. I actually enjoyed all the changes and adjustments they made, and kept grinning whenever a line made it in word-for-word or nearly so (I can't be sure, I mean, it's been over fifteen years) like the matter-of-fact way Wonka declared breakfast cereal's made out of pencil shavings, or "Violet, you're turning violet!"

Obviously it was a much, much more satisfying book-to-movie adaptation than, say, Howl's Moving Castle. And I really want candy now.



Sky High looked like the lame version of a movie that could have been cool. Barnyard (the cow-tipping movie) just made me roll my eyes, plus, all the "cows" had male voices... and udders. I don't want to think about it. Apparently, neither did anyone involved in the movie?

The trailer for King Kong did its job - I'd heard there was going to be a remake of King Kong, and at the time I heard this, I said "meh, why?" The first part of the trailer made me think "Yay, Adrien Brody in a movie that's not going to disappoint everybody" (I kind of liked The Village but apparently no one else did) and had me curious, then Peter Jackson's name kept me actually kind of willing to see the movie once I knew what it was.

The new Zorro movie is most notable, to me, for the scene of Zorro's horse rearing atop a moving train - I thought "oh, Kenshin's Magic Horse is still getting work!"



The new Pride and Prejudice is... um. It has no Colin Firth. Automatically it is operating at a huge disadvantage compared to the miniseries version from back when I was in high school. More substantively... The trailer was weirdly structured (sticking Mr. Collins at the beginning? playing up Lady Catherine? Teh hell?) and focused strangely on "dramatic conversations in rain" at the expense of "witty people bickering" even though any fool knows what the true selling point is, and what was with Elizabeth wuthering on the heights there? I don't know what a moor actually looks like, but whatever windswept thing she was standing on belonged in a Bronte novel, not in Jane Austen.

And it overstated the "Elizabeth Bennet, feminist icon" case to the point of pain. She didn't refuse to marry Mr. Collins because of twenty-first-century-style-feminist reasons; she refused to marry him because he was a babbling, sanctimonious, patronizing twit, just like she turned Darcy down not because she wanted her independence but because he sabotaged her sister's relationship, insulted her family, and acted like he was doing her a favor by proposing, and because she believed Wickham's extremely slanted account of his and Darcy's shared history. It wasn't even just about him being a jerk the way we understand it, it was about morality, and about pragmatically trying to choose a good husband, two things that were closely related. A lot of that's almost certainly going to be lost in any movie version, but especially one that's being marketed as "Elizabeth Bennet is secretly Jane Eyre ahead of her time!" Austen's heroines are perfectly in line with other heroines from novels of the time in terms of their views on men, love, and marriage; the books are still read because they're good, not because they're so modern. I could do a feminist reading of P&P drunk and with my eyes closed - it'd probably be easier that way because it's been a while since I wrote anything other than fanfic and LJ rants - but the one they're marketing doesn't fit.

Sigh. Of course I'm going to watch it, it's Jane Austen, sort of. And there's always the chance they'll actually, for once, do a film version where Jane's the prettiest one, which would be enough of a surprise that I'd forgive it for a lot. I just hated the trailer and fear, on the basis of that, that I may hate the movie, but then, it's not like the existence of this eradicates the miniseries.

PS - Sorry to anyone I offended with the Bronte-bashing. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and if it involves liking Wuthering Heights, or even just being able to read it without feeling a desperate yearning to shoot Cathy repeatedly in the face, I would really appreciate having that explained to me because while I want to understand, my imagination just doesn't stretch that far.

I really like Anne's novels, though. And Villette, so there's the proof I'm not normal.


Using the book icon because I haven't in a while, and I have no icon for "ignoring food to play with intarweb" even though I probably ought to.