Les Miserables: The Musical and The Anime
I have watched the musical film!! It was AMAZING!! Love it so much!
My opinion on each cast's singing performance:
-Hugh Jackman as Jean Valjean... he's pretty good, but I dislike his "Bring Him Home", sounded like he was singing while being squeezed between two doors.
-Russell Crowe as Javert... don't like his singing. But acting-wise he was good, if only he starred the non-musical film instead.
-Anne Hathaway as Fantine... amazing! Bravo! Unbelievable! How could she manage to make her voice sound so stable with all the sobbing??O_o Her performance was breath-taking!!
-Amanda Seyfried as Cosette... omg, she had so little screentime! O_o I love Amanda... but I'm sorry her little screentime really didn't help me to like Cosette at all. I never like the grown-Cosette in the musical... Amanda's Cosette is the better one... but still, I'm just indifferent toward this Cosette. I didn't have the urge to root for her or anything, I really don't care about this character.
-Eddie Redmayne as Marius... I'm a big fan!! I realized his singing voice sounds weird after I heard him on the CD album, but... in the movie... I don't know, perhaps his facial expression and skillful acting overshadowed his weird voice haha... (maybe his looks too^^) His singing is good, but I guess he tend to use falcetto too much. But so far, this is definitely my most favorite Marius!!^o^ He could actually make a decision, he care about his nation, ... not the Marius who only care about Cosette.
-Samantha Barks as Eponine... love her so much! She's really on par with Lea Salonga!
Redmayne-Barks' A Little Fall of Rain was totally my favorite!!! No matter what.... it's Eponine-Marius Forever for me, in the musical! All hints in the musical, shows that these two are meant to be together... no, the musical WANTS the audience to root for these two, so I'm just following that XD I mean look at how devastated Marius was and how he ssshhh-ed her when she was losing energy to sing(talk?).
And the Thenardier couple! Love them! They were hillarious! They saved the film from being too dark and tragic. (the original Thenardier in the book, I believe was a true criminal and a detestable character)
I have also finished 52 episodes of Les Miserables: Shoujo Cosette! LOVE IT!
It stays true to the book for most of the plots, complete story, complete characters (even some additionals) due to the length of the series.
However, since the original Les Miserables' story is a dark, dramatic and tragic story, the anime, "Shoujo Cosette" made it lighter and more enjoyable to watch for children, by not leaving out the dramatic and tragic parts. But even with the changes of plot, I think "Shoujo Cosette" is still too depressing for kids below 10.
It focuses more on Cosette's life rather than Jean Valjean. So the anime spend alot of time trying to depict how much Cosette and Fantine love each other, and Cosette's daily life in the Thenardier's inn. Something we have never seen before in the other adaptations. But rest assure, the anime also showed ALL of Valjean's worries and thoughts. The ending also included Valjean telling Cosette and the audience the complete summary of his past life.
Following the original book, Eponine was a mean little girl and bullied Cosette when they were children. Even after she has grown, her over-jealousy toward Cosette didn't make sense. She was a better person after she has grown, of course, but I still couldn't feel pity on her, because everything she did to Cosette when she was a child. Plus... Eponine was never friends with Marius, and Marius met Cosette FIRST before he met Eponine.... so naturally, I was rooting on for Marius and Cosette the whole time! What a miracle!
Yes I actually come to love Cosette watching this series! Though she is still the feminine, quiet, almost boring Cosette like in the book, but the series made her appear so many times, so we could see her lovable and adorable traits. Especially since we get to see her hardships during childhood, would made you pity her and love her.
Her romance with Marius made me feel dokidoki too, with all the quiet glances in the Luxembourg Garden, and how it was so difficult for them to meet, though they have fallen in love with each other by first glance. I guess what makes it different is that the anime series took enough time to describe how Marius and Cosette fell in love with each other as they come to the Luxembourg Garden everyday. While the musical showed that just by one scene, which didn't make sense.
This Marius is very close to the book. I get to know his background about his grandfather and father. But since he was still yearning for Cosette even the night before the Revolution and he was late in joining his ABC friends... I still prefer the musical Marius who didn't think of Cosette too much before the Revolution and immediately joined his friends hehee.... And just because he kept calling Cosette "Ursule" due to U.F initial on the handkerchief she left, was totally stupid lol.
During the episodes on the June Rebellion, it was so exciting that I couldn't stop watching! It was that good! And they actually made Cosette a little bit more active than the book-Cosette who just stayed and just slept (maybe lol) the whole night... she actually went outside to look for Marius and Valjean. But she found dying Gavroche instead. I love Cosette and Gavroche's sibling relationship since childhood^^
I really love how this anime developed Cosette's character. It really has good development of story and characters. Very recommended to those who wants to know how Les Miserables original book goes, but don't want to go through all the boring narrations heheee....