Picspam time!
I'm slooooowly making my way through the picspams y'all voted you wanted to see. First up we have:
Top 5 Book to Movie Adaptations
Note that these are not necessarily the ones that are most faithful to their book counter parts, or the ones I think are the best movies ever. These are the adaptations that I enjoyed the most. I also tried to limit it to movies who's book counterpart I've read (which I only did to help me narrow it down).
Again, as with all these picspams, these are in no particular order. Also, please note I am very free with spoilers, both in the pictures and the text. So check the tags first to see if there's anything you want to avoid.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
The Harry Potter movies are always polarizing. It should be noted that I'm not a book purist. I think the books are better, just by virtue of being infinitely more detailed and rich, but the fact is, short of a 20 hour miniseries there's really no way to capture all of the details of Rowling's work, so I'm OK with the films changing things to suit the medium. I think the movies get 'worse' as adaptations as they go along, but better as movies in and of themselves. Yates is by far my favorite Potter director, though none of them are without fault. Between OotP and HBP, I chose OotP because I enjoy rewatching it more. And it's very possible that that's because I've been more overexposed to HBP lately and so OotP felt 'newer' in a way when I rewatched both recently. But I love the tone he captured. I love the relationships that come through loud and clear. Harry's relationship with Sirius hadn't really been touched on in GoF very much, not compared to the book, but Yates sold the pseudo father figure status so that come the end we feel Harry's pain. Plus, even though some of my favorite Ginny stuff from the books got cut, we did get her Crowning Moment of Badass during the DoM fight scene, which I love unreasonably considering how short it is.
Howl's Moving Castle
I'm a huge fan of Miyazaki films. They're always so rich and vibrant. This is an interesting case in that I have no preference between the book and the movie. Neither is really better, IMO, they're just different. There's always a sense of his movies being fables, but without feeling preachy with a specific message. I love the strange little family they all form, and how it's dysfunctional and weird but still Sophie's happier there than she was before.
Penelope
This is quite possibly the the sweetest love story I've seen in a long while. But it's not really just about the love story. It's a modern fairytale but the main point is about coming to terms with who you are and learning to love yourself. Penelope and Johny spend most of the movie apart, each on their own journey, and it's only when they've already made sense of their lives that they come back together. Romance is the icing on the cake, not the entire point.
The Jungle Book
This is, without a doubt, the movie on my list that has the least to do with its source material. But it's a sweet story. It's not perfect. There are some issues with the 'civilizing' of the native boy, but it's a period piece and it fits so I can hand wave it to a certain extent. Plus, I find that certain things from my childhood get a lot of slack from me, just for nostalgia's sake. Plus, Lena Headey! Being adorably British! And John Cleese! Everything is better with John Cleese.
A Little Princess
This is such a visually stunning movie. I remember, this was one of my favorite movies as a child, and years later I read the book it was based on without realizing it was based on it. I was halfway through when I realized it sounded really familiar, lol. At times Sarah seems almost too nice to be believed, but that's part of the charm of the thing. She's the lone sane voice in a crazy world. She manages to remain innocent despite having ever reason to become bitter and jaded.
Top 5 Book to Movie Adaptations
Note that these are not necessarily the ones that are most faithful to their book counter parts, or the ones I think are the best movies ever. These are the adaptations that I enjoyed the most. I also tried to limit it to movies who's book counterpart I've read (which I only did to help me narrow it down).
Again, as with all these picspams, these are in no particular order. Also, please note I am very free with spoilers, both in the pictures and the text. So check the tags first to see if there's anything you want to avoid.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
The Harry Potter movies are always polarizing. It should be noted that I'm not a book purist. I think the books are better, just by virtue of being infinitely more detailed and rich, but the fact is, short of a 20 hour miniseries there's really no way to capture all of the details of Rowling's work, so I'm OK with the films changing things to suit the medium. I think the movies get 'worse' as adaptations as they go along, but better as movies in and of themselves. Yates is by far my favorite Potter director, though none of them are without fault. Between OotP and HBP, I chose OotP because I enjoy rewatching it more. And it's very possible that that's because I've been more overexposed to HBP lately and so OotP felt 'newer' in a way when I rewatched both recently. But I love the tone he captured. I love the relationships that come through loud and clear. Harry's relationship with Sirius hadn't really been touched on in GoF very much, not compared to the book, but Yates sold the pseudo father figure status so that come the end we feel Harry's pain. Plus, even though some of my favorite Ginny stuff from the books got cut, we did get her Crowning Moment of Badass during the DoM fight scene, which I love unreasonably considering how short it is.
Howl's Moving Castle
I'm a huge fan of Miyazaki films. They're always so rich and vibrant. This is an interesting case in that I have no preference between the book and the movie. Neither is really better, IMO, they're just different. There's always a sense of his movies being fables, but without feeling preachy with a specific message. I love the strange little family they all form, and how it's dysfunctional and weird but still Sophie's happier there than she was before.
Penelope
This is quite possibly the the sweetest love story I've seen in a long while. But it's not really just about the love story. It's a modern fairytale but the main point is about coming to terms with who you are and learning to love yourself. Penelope and Johny spend most of the movie apart, each on their own journey, and it's only when they've already made sense of their lives that they come back together. Romance is the icing on the cake, not the entire point.
The Jungle Book
This is, without a doubt, the movie on my list that has the least to do with its source material. But it's a sweet story. It's not perfect. There are some issues with the 'civilizing' of the native boy, but it's a period piece and it fits so I can hand wave it to a certain extent. Plus, I find that certain things from my childhood get a lot of slack from me, just for nostalgia's sake. Plus, Lena Headey! Being adorably British! And John Cleese! Everything is better with John Cleese.
A Little Princess
This is such a visually stunning movie. I remember, this was one of my favorite movies as a child, and years later I read the book it was based on without realizing it was based on it. I was halfway through when I realized it sounded really familiar, lol. At times Sarah seems almost too nice to be believed, but that's part of the charm of the thing. She's the lone sane voice in a crazy world. She manages to remain innocent despite having ever reason to become bitter and jaded.