Films derived from books

work only sometimes.  

Recently I had a bit of fun watching the sequel to "101 Dalmations" - fun because I watched it with two children who were happy to enjoy it for what it was. They cheered and booed in the right places and we talked about it afterwards. We made "spotty dogs" for their mother for when she came home and we did not dwell on why Cruella is such a dreadful character. They are a bit young for that.

Their mother gave me three DVDs to bring home with me. She asked me to watch them. I dutifully did this while I was doing other things that can be done while watching if I try hard enough. (I could not sit there and simply watch the film. I have to be doing something.)

The first one I watched was a modern version of the Secret Garden. It did not keep to the story line - a story line I never found very convincing anyway. I don't suppose I expected it to keep to the story line but it still bothered me. It just wasn't right. People don't survive burning buildings like that. I doubt even a child would find those scenes convincing. But, some people liked all that enough to make the film - and I was told it was "marvelous".

The second one I watched was a sort of sequel to this called "Return to the Secret Garden." The story line in that was not at all convincing either and the main character is much too good to be true. The fantasy and the romance were not the sort of thing I could see capturing the interest of a child.   I watched it to the end only because I was finishing something off and was too lazy to actually get up and press the "off" button. But this is me and there are undoubtedly people who "loved" the film. 

The third one was, if anything, worse. It was "The Secret of Moonacre" and was supposedly an adaptation of Elizabeth Goudge's marvellous novel "The little white horse". If you know it you will know that it is a book with a wonderful array of characters. It is a wonderful story and it well deserved the Carnegie Medal the author was awarded for it. 

The film is nothing like that. The story line is so far removed from the book that if your put the two plots side by side without adding any names then you might think the film plot sounded vaguely similar to something you had read - and that would be it. The wonderful Marmaduke Scarlett is made fun of in a way I found offensive. He is not a figure of fun in the book. Miss Heliotrope is made fun of too - and she is not a figure of fun either. In the book she is a governess of her day, a rather sad figure who is determined to do her best for her young charge. Sir Benjamin, Loveday, and Robin have all been changed into something they are not in the book - and the Parson doesn't even appear in the story.  And Maria herself? No, I did not find her convincing.

Perhaps I am just far too difficult to please but it seems to me that the book and the film should not even be mentioned in the same breath.

It is all rather sad. If this was a child's introduction to the book then they would surely be puzzled when they did read the book.  

I thought back to some other films for children that I have seen, films adapted from books or stories. The earliest I can remember is Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. As a child I found that rather frightening. I've seen other Disney cartoon adaptations since then, some better than others.  I have seen films made from Downunder classics like Storm Boy, Let the Balloon Go, I can jump puddles, and Sun on the Stubble. Of those Storm Boy - the original one - was the best. I have not seen the remake and I am not sure I want to do that. 

And I have seen things like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, Mary Poppins, and of course the first Harry Potter.  None of them kept quite to the books but they were much closer than the three I watched over the last couple of weeks. 

What have I managed to learn from all this? The answer is probably, if I like the book don't watch the film because you will surely be disappointed Cat. I don't know whether I am hard to please or whether I have too much imagination or....something else?