ok, so before i get into this post, let’s all agree on something:
film adaptations of books are never as good as the original material.
sure, there’s some exceptions, but overall, that’s pretty much a fact. ok? ok.
now that we’ve all signed that treaty, i am free to say that I STILL GET REALLY EXCITED ABOUT MOVIES BASED ON MY FAVORITE BOOKS! MUHAHAA i tricked you guys!! suckas! wait, what? you used invisible ink on the treaty? DANG IT.
seriously, though, i really do turn into a total spazz about film adaptations. even though i KNOW it can turn out really, really badly (please, no one bring up “time traveler’s you-know-who” or i will have to go lie down and never finish this entry). i can’t help it! i love watching scenes imagined in my head played out with a million dollar budget and really good looking people. cos sometimes money makes things better than the imagination can. that’s right I SAID IT (all of my teachers just collectively rolled in their graves, and most of them aren’t actually dead yet).
i can still remember my EXTREME EXCITEMENT when i found out that the babysitters club was gonna be a movie. i went straight to my neighborhood walden books (holla!) and purchased the book-based-on-the-movie-based-on-the-book, complete with cast pictures! and i was in high school, y’all! woo-hoo!
that movie obvs turned out to be extremely heinous, the only redeeming quality being rachel leigh cook playing mary anne cos she’s so pretty! ok and also i had a super crush on austin o’brien (whatever happened to that guy? wait he was on an ep of “bones”?! how did i miss that?) so i approved his casting as logan in spite of his horrible, HORRIBLE “louisville” accent.
ok, so i’m not exactly proving my point here.
wait, yes i am. cos i WAS excited. until i saw the movie.
in a similar vein (yeah, hand me another shovel!), i was ECSTATIC when “how to deal” came out, since it was a combo of two books by sarah dessen (LIGHT OF MY LIFE). more importantly, it starred MANDY MOORE (OTHER LIGHT OF MY LIFE) who i pretty much cast in every single YA book i read because she is just SO GREAT and um let’s not forget about PERSON-MOST-LIKELY-TO-NEED-TO-BE-MY-CRAZY-AUNT, allison janney!!!!
everything about this movie was PERFECT… except the movie itself. d’oh. there was just something *off* about it that left me feeling really unsatisfied as the credits rolled.
i do have to say, though, i *still* covet mandy’s wardrobe, and that trent ford dude? preeeeetty fine!!!
ok so all of this highly scientific analysis leads me to the question: has a GOOD movie ever been made of a YA book?
i don’t consider harry potter to really be YA (although the later books, ok, maybe), so let’s just say, BESIDES harry potter?
well, there’s… and then what about… huh. i actually can’t think of one!! WOW. so there really is no way i can justify my continued excitement about movie adaptations except to say that i get easily excited about pretty much everything. just like a puppy! so it’s a cute quality! right? um… DANG IT, hollywood, i fall for it EVERY TIME! what a fool i’ve been!
but guess what? fools suffer gladly! or whatever! cos when i heard about zack galifianakis’ possible participation in “it’s kind of a funny story,” of COURSE i completely spazzed! so then i looked it up on IMDB, and i discovered that emma roberts will be playing noelle. then i wondered, “hmm, what else has emma roberts been in?” i looked HER up on IMDB, only to discover that she is ALSO starring in…
MEMOIRS OF A TEENAGE AMNESIAC! THE MOVIE!!! OMG!!!
given my love for the book, of course i was totally freaking out, esp. when i saw that ANTON YELCHIN IS IN IT?!! THE SAME ANTON YELCHIN THAT I PERSONALLY CAST AS WILL for the FYA version of the movie?!!!! hollywood you better not be effing with me!!!!
but… wait, why is everyone else in the movie japanese? and why are the characters names different? why is will now known as ACE ZUCKERMAN? WTF?!!
is this all some big joke to you, hollywood? do you ENJOY doing a little stompy victory dance over my tattered film adaptation dreams? esp. when you KNOW how excited i get?!! remember, i’m like a puppy. no one likes people who are mean to puppies!
seriously, though, someone please explain the japanese thing to me? and yes, it’s the same book, cos gabrielle zevin is the author of the screenplay.
while i take a minute to nurse my wounds (don’t worry, i’ll be back to Full Excitement Levels after a minute– just like a… ok. this is the last time i’ll use the puppy analogy, i promise. PUPPIES!), feel free to weigh in. are there any good film adaptations of YA movies? and which books do you (foolishly) dream about seeing on the silver screen? in addition to “the hunger games,” obvs!
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m a freak about movie adaptions, and constantly search for a website that will list all the YA books being made into movies, and have found nothing that satisfies me.
Of course, The Uglies series. Tally Youngblood is such an accidental hero. I want to see someone try to pull her off.
On a weekly basis at least, I lookup the status of Uglies on IMDBPRO.com (Yes, I signed up for pro – I had to have the latest scoop). I was sad to read that A Great and Terrible Beauty’s optioning had expired. I’m ecstatic that Wicked will be brought to the big screen. And a little puzzed that MTV is skipping Tithe and going straight to putting Valiant to life first.
My newest loves that I constantly look for are The Warrior Hier series. As well as this fantastic book that you don’t see too much of called The Knife of Never Letting Go, and it’s sequel The Ask and the Answer.
A couple weeks ago you had reviewed Evernight. That one is good, but the sequel, Stargazer is so much better, … I just think it could be a great great screen adaptation.
And I’ll end on Evermore and Blue Moon by Alyson Noel. That Immortals series is just so satisfying. I would just love to see who would be cast as Ever. Wouldn’t that be just a dream role? I think the casting intrigues me even more than the actual movies do.
Ah yes, Teresa, I’m with you on the Evernight series, and I will be reviewing Stargazer soon! (LOVE IT!)
I really just can’t wait for HG, although I’ll be watching through my fingers, just in case it’s bad.
Also, I would love to see A Great And Terrible Beauty, which I’m reviewing now. Too bad about the optioning rights.
poshd, thanks for drawing attention to this crazy phenomenon. you are SO RIGHT about movie adaptations. i want to love them SO MUCH, but then they usually disappoint. it’s like the moviemakers don’t think 1. teenage girls care about their movie adaptations (which is SO WRONG, of course, except for all those who swoooooooooned over sparkly cedric diggs) and 2. only teenage girls see movie adapts of YA books. duh, totally wrong.
ooh, yes, the uglies series! i LOVE that series. i liked the traveling pants movies, though — i really like all the girls in that movie, and they didn’t do a bad job combining the last three into one movie. AND princess diaries, natch, although it’s nothing like the books.
i’m terrified to see a HG movie — sooooo afraid how sad i’ll be if it sux. i think i’ll cry and cry for days. and boo about a great and terrible beauty expiring — i loved that book. btw, another good similar book, jenny, is bewitching season by marissa doyle. lighter, but kind of similar. can’t wait for your review!
So on IMDB it shows this:
Additional Details
Also Known As:Nakushita Kioku (Japan) (working title)
more
Parents Guide:Add content advisory for parents
Country:Japan
Language:Japanese
Color:Color
Aspect Ratio:2.35 : 1 more
Filming Locations:Tokyo, Japan
Is it possible that this film is being released for Japan and that Yuji Miwa character is the Japanese Will? I’m incredibly confused, and the author’s website has zero information.
By the way, where those Japanese puppies?
WHY IS THIS A JAPANESE MOVIE? i mean, i have nothing against japanese movies, but… seriously, WTF?!!! does this mean it won’t be released in america? why is it still starring an american actress?
WHAT IS GOING ON?
moving on, i think i would actually enjoy the uglies movie more than the book. i really enjoyed the *idea* of the books more than westerfeld’s writing style, which i found kind of… stilted.
so maybe that’s the key with movie adaptations: it’s better if you’re not a huge fan of the book to begin with. after all, i liked the twilight movie WAY more than the book. and this was before i even discovered jenny’s drinking game.
You know what really sucks? When they make movies, and then teh movies become more popular than the book series, probs cause Julie Andrews is in them, and then people think the book series is all about a girl who lives in San Franscisco and her kind-hearted grandmother tells her she’s going to be a princess and also she turns beautiful really easily, instead of how the princess’s grandmother is actually batshit crazy and has drawn-on eyebrows and how Mia loves Star Wars and Buffy and the smell of Michael Moscovitz’s neck.
I mean, not that I’m bitter.
And don’t get me started on the Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants movies.
ok, i think the key is to put LOTS of space between reading the books and seeing the movies. at least if you’re like me and have about a 30-second memory — that way you don’t really notice all the things you hate and can just enjoy the movie. that’s what i did for the princess diaries — i just pretended like it had nothing to do with the book and i liked it. although i DEFINITELY prefer batshit crazy grandmere with her sidecars and drawn-on eyebrows and hairless, neurotic rommel-the-dog to julie andrews. just sayin.
The key is also to only watch these movies on planes. I find myself far more willing to watch schlock that ruins my favorite books on planes than I would in the theater. Although the truth is, I am always highly skeptical of movies based on books and I generally hate all of them until they are proven awesome. I had no interest in seeing The Time-Traveler’s You-Know-Who, and turns out, I was right!
Also! I just looked at that How to Deal poster again and realized that guy is the hot Russian Myxlplyx from Smallville. So.
just saw a road sign the other day that said
“don’t judge a book by it’s movie”
thought that was amazing and made me think of FYA
brazilliant!
also, allison, i find it v. flattering that clever phrases remind you of FYA. we’re not just about books, people! we’re also about being smartasses!