Trutharchivist

So, I'm going to pretend a lot of people are going to read this. In truth, there's a slight chance this'll be another swing-and-miss where no one reads (or reacts) to it. It could be that some of my followers read and reply. I would bet on a "people read but don't reply, just drop upvotes", considering this is the reaction to any status update that is longer than three paragraphs. So maybe I should just keep it short or something...

Anyway, this time I'm going to do a "don't judge a book by it's movie" rant. You'd think it'd be wasted on the avid book readers who make up most of the Shard; that's what I think, at least, but why not ignore that too? I mean, if nearly no one reads this, nearly no one is going to protest and say they never judge a book by it's movie. They'll probably tell the truth. But today, I actually want to talk about average to good movies, that people don't know are adaptations.

Fine, I'll admit it. Even though my list of books I've read is huge, I can't really say I've read many books which got this treatment. There's apparently a Jurassic Park book, and I've never read it or watched the movie. There are far more than a handful of others that got actually such good films as adaptations that the original was forgotten. Did you know the Prestige was based on a book? An example I can sadly note I've watched but not read. And that's a pity. I really should read this book. I'm not sure what's the situation with World War Z - maybe with that the book is just as famous, maybe not.

But here, I want to lay down some films that're based on books that I have read, and that went to be better known than the source material: Howl's Moving Castle, the Secret World of Arrietty (the original book is called the Borrowers), How to Train Your Dragon and perhaps Home (originally the True Meaning of Smekday, too). With Arrietty and HtTYD I'm afraid I've found the books because of the movies, too.

I'm not here to say those movies aren't good; but I'd defenitely say they strayed from the source material, far enough that I'll consider every one of them an independant work of art from the books that happens to share names and a small amount of charcterization from the books. So don't get me wrong - I loved most of those movies (Home being an exception here, but I'm not getting into that). But... When I read a book, and then I learn that it has been adapted, what I want is not a different story with similarly named characters and some plot points from the books. I want to see, as much as possible, the same story, translated to another medium. And it's true that at least three of those gave us amazing stories and the world will be lacking without them, but... I kind of wish those adaptations never existed, at least sometimes. Now that they're there, no one is going to make an actual adaptation of the book.

Take the Jungle Book, for example. Or Peter Pan. Or heck, Alice in Wonderland is only out of place here because it's hard to say it has any plot in the first place. All three of those bring to your heads, almost immediately, the Disney animated movies. And if there's one thing I don't trust Disney with it's loyalty to the source material (though I hope this trend will change with Percy Jackson) - just look at the Black Cauldron, or Artemis Fowl, or heck - every single fairy tale these guys put their hands on. And the live action remakes just make sure that the image in your head is going to be that same image they placed there. So right, the exmples I brought were actually Studio Ghibli and DreamWorks. But that's because I don't want to start thinking over Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland or the Jungle Book to make sure the differences were significant, and considering the Black Cauldron thankful relative failure (I wouldn't want to see too much defiling of one of my favorite book series) it's hard to say the movie is better known than the book. And I didn't mention Shrek because I've never read the book.

Pause while you gasp at the realization Shrek is loosely based on a book.

Actually, I'm starting to sense a pattern. Maybe DreamWorks in general are great at expanding on existent ideas and making them work even though they changed the source material beyond recognition. Studio Ghibli seemed decent at it on two occasions so far at least, too! Anyway, there's the "there's never going to be a loyal adaptation" angle, which is sad in and of itself, but also... How many people have seen those movies and never even bothered thinking about the fact they're based on books? How many of my imaginarily large audience even knew all those movies were based on books? My eldest brother said he watched Howl's Moving Castle and so doesn't want to read the book. Maybe it's because he has a lot on his reading schedule and it really didn't catch his eye (and it probably says something about how much he trusts me when it comes to book recommendations), but in any case - he lost a story that, in my opinion, is great. And I'm sure I did too by not reading the Prestige, Shrek, and many other books I didn't even know existed. I just... really wish more people would know about the books, because they're awesome. Especially the True Meaning of Smekday, which I'm not sure could ever really be translated to the big screen. 

Anyway, that has just been your latest rant from a slightly depressed Trutharchivist. Hope you liked it. Maybe I should've tried making YouTube videos about it or something. Anyway, have a good day.

Honestly, at this point, I should probably just go to sleep.