Watch-It Wednesday: Multilinguist Disney

Hello, hello! Guess what? Beginning this coming Monday, I think I'll be back to a regular posting schedule -- gotta be excited about that. :p

But in the meantime, a friend told me about this video and - all comments about the actual song aside - it pretty much hit #1 on my youtube videos for the last...while. :) I LOVE getting to hear all the different languages! Which one is your favorite?

Have a multilingual Wednesday! :D

30 Day Book Challenge! Day 11: Stay Home from the Movies

Day 11: Name two absolutely awful adaptations of books.

1. Hans Brinker

I've talked about this before, so no need to rehash. Simply, though, don't watch it!

2. Prince Caspian

This movie was just so disappointing in so many ways. Added story lines, detracted story lines, characters acting distinctly out of character (what in the world happened to Peter??) - I cannot even force myself to watch it anymore (except I do have to come in and meet Reepicheep each time; he was the best).

What books do you consider to be completely disrespected by their movies?

30 Day Book Challenge! Day 10: Off to the Movies!

I love the northwest. I really do think it's one of the prettiest places on earth. Driving home this evening, I could not help but pull over to snap a snippet of our vivid sunset sky...

They say a picture's worth a thousand words, so there are two thousand detailing how beautiful this corner of the world is. And since we're speaking of pictures vs words...

Day 10: Name five absolutely great film adaptations of books.

Today's challenge is certainly...well, challenging. I'm not sure I know of 5 whole movies that didn't let their books down, but we'll fudge a little here, and stretch a little there, and I'm sure you'll forgive me if I make a poor judgement call. Who can name five??

1. Pride and Prejudice

Our life holds few distinctions, but I think we may safely boast that here is an exemplary book-turned-movie.

2. Felicity

Especially for combining 7 books, I thought American Girl did a wonderful job transposing the sweet story of colonial girl, Felicity, into a movie.

3. Tintin

While I would at times contend as to whether comic books count as proper "books," my need to reach a listing of five in this post tips the argument in favor of the comics. Tintin was wonderfully done. While again combining several "books" into one story, the movie stayed so true to the characters that one really felt as though she was meeting them right off the page.

4.

...

...

...

...and here's where it all begins to get rather sticky. Having been cursed with extreme picky-ness, I'm just not sure I know of other movies that I would call "absolutely great" adaptations. BBC has done fairy well with Dickens, so I suppose (although, of necessity, so much was left out that it's rather hard for me to acknowledge) that Bleak House could qualify for this list...

That is to say, the actors all portrayed their booklical characters wonderfully, with the exception of Mr. Tulkinghorn who was made quite a bit more sinister for the screenplay. (Nevertheless, he played his part well.)

5. And now I am in trouble. Master and Commander, as I've mentioned before, is much better as a movie than as a book. However, that renders it rather a poor adaptation. I could say the Hobbit movies are wonderful, but I have it on good authority from people who have actually read the book that they are not anywhere near as good as the book. (I like them because they spare me the trouble of reading the books, as I am overwhelmed at the thought of having to read the book, all the background books, figure out all the languages, etc...I simply can't spare that kind of reading time!).

Thus, number 5 is for you, readers! What is a book you think was fabulously transformed for the screen?

30 Day Book Challenge! Day 20: Movin' to Media (The Dark Side)

Day 20: What is a book turned into a movie and completely desecrated?

I had a mental list for this question almost immediately. As mentioned before, most movies are worse than the books. There are only a few, however, that are completely ruined. One of them is Ella Enchanted, which was my first answer, but since it's already been used here, I decided to mention an equally (but in a totally different way) appalling one:

Photo Credit

All I can say is...ugh. gross. nasty. I received a beautiful edition of Hans Brinker or the Silver Skates from my grandparents for Christmas years ago, and read it immediately. I fell in love with the sweet, humble tale of little Hans and Gretel Brinker, the outcasts of society in Holland, growing up with a strong, hard-working mother and a father who has been insane almost as long as little Gretel can remember, after falling one stormy night whilst working on the dikes.

Written in the front: "To Sarah ~ Christmas 1999
For your 'permanent'
library...a classic
children's book...because
you enjoy reading so much.
Love
Grandpa Jack & Grandma"

In spite of - or perhaps because of - this tragedy, the Brinkers are a tightly-knit family, and one feels inspired to better love one's own family when reading of how well the mother, brother, and sister looked out for each other. Stated boringly, Hans Brinker is the story of preparing, looking forward to, and racing for the prize of silver skates, but it's really much more than that... You learn to love Annie, Hans and Gretel's friend, and Peter, the kindly boy who gives no favors to Hans but is always on the lookout to do him a good turn, and Hilda, and others, and all the grand adventures of life that they go through together.

Gretel the Goose-Girl

Skating Expedition

But this movie completely, totally, desecrated the tale!! First off, they turned it into a musical. Now, let me not be mistaken I love musicals - My Fair Lady, Singin' in the Rain, Sound of Music, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, and on and on and on - but if you've read this book, you know how totally wrong it is to turn this into the sweet, cutesy sort of tale a musical can't help but create. Secondly, all the "children" in the story are teens, Hans goes with the boys on their several-day-long skating trip (which he refuses to do in the book, since he needs to take care of his mother and sister), and the whole story is turned into a poor-boy-rich-girl love story between Hans and Annie (and Annie, while better off than the Brinkers, wasn't even rich!). Since we had read the book together as a family, Mama and Daddy got the movie for us kids the following Christmas, and even though we were all under ten, we instantly denounced it for being so "disgusting" compared to the book!

Do you have a movie you just can't stand to watch after reading the book?
 

30 Day Book Challenge! Day 19: Movin' to Media

Day 19: What is your favorite book turned into a movie?

It is a well-known, universal rule that "movies are never as good as the book." However, while I can not think of a single good book that the movie has done complete justice to, there are some few (a very few) movies which actually improve upon a tale. For example:

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World is a family-favorite movie in this household. From the excitement of the chase, to the humor of the captain, to the sorrow of death, to the classical music played both in the soundtrack and by the captain and doctor - we love to sit down and watch it together. However, when I found and bought one of the series in a used book shop, I was sadly disappointed. While still hilariously funny in parts, I was saddened by the complete lack of morals Jack Aubry possesses. From the time I was little, mama's number one advice with regards to my literary (or media) diet has been: make sure good is shown as good, and bad is shown as bad. You don't want to train your taste buds to savor ambiguous morality. Unfortunately, while Jack himself is a fine character (at least as far as I got) he views the immoral, sodomite, and homosexual sailors as a nuisance - because he is required to punish or discharge them - rather than a moral wrong. And the author, Patrick O'Brian, talks about it quite frequently, apparently finding it hilarious. I think this is the only book I began that I did not finish - it was in the garbage can after being only a quarter-way through (which bears testimony to how repulsive it was to me - I never throw books away, it's rather too emotional for me usually).

Despite the nasty experience, the movie remains untainted in my mind - Captain Jack Aubry seems such a different character in the movie than the book. He is strong, not in the least ridiculous, brilliant, determined, and certainly does not give the impression of one with compromised morality. Enjoy the movie, avoid the books, and be excited that, for once, there is a movie that actually improves upon the books!

What is your favorite book-turned-movie?
 

In Case You're Wondering...

For the record, I like watching movies with my bros. I like that they don't mind watching "period films" (aka "chick flicks") with us. It makes me smile when they comment to each other about the gentlemanly manners of the hero. But...sometimes it gets interesting.

Take tonight, for instance.

Emmy, Rachel, and I settled down to watch a movie of the above genre, and Benj and Josh joined us. All was going well (of course, they threw out a few comments, but...), until the end, when they dubbed  the hero + heroine their "favorite football team" and sports-casted the "touchdown" (kiss)...

I sure hope Rachel threw that remote hard enough those welts and bumps on their heads heal soon.

Watch-It Wednesday: Once Upon an Engineer

Yes, I know - only a week and a half late, right? Believe me, I tried to get this ready sooner, but... I shan't bore you with everything that went wrong. Instead, ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to present our masterpiece (*ahem, yeah, well....): Once Upon an Engineer! (You see, Ben and Jonathan are both studying to be engineers, and...yeah, maybe this will make sense, and maybe it won't, but enjoy anyway! :)