Harry Potter VI
No spoilers. Just wanted to say that having seen the movie, I think they’ve really reached the point where even a 2.5 hour movie is an inappropriate format for rendering the later books. Quite simply, the richness that makes the later books so good is gone. The movie is still a visual feast, but the characters often act in a way that would seem disjointed if you didn’t know the book.
In truth, a mini-series that lays it out over 7 - 14 hours is really the only way they could get it right. Too bad there just isn’t the money side to support that sort of move.
November 19th, 2005 at 12:53 pm
One of these days I’ll get around to reading these and seeing the movies. And speaking of children’s-fantasy-book-to-movie conversions, I’m really looking forward to “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe”. The Chronicles of Narnia are some of my all-time favorite books, I really loved them as a kid. I only hope my expectations aren’t so high that the movie is destined to disappoint. (Disappointment is by no means a forgone conclusion, thankfully: I need only say “Lord of the Rings”.)
November 19th, 2005 at 1:38 pm
Yes, the Chronicles of Narnia were my childhood favorites as well. I watched the previews before HP, and I have to confess I got chills and was crying at the end. More than LOTR, I want this one to be right, and if their choices for the children are any indication, I think its going to deliver.
–T
November 21st, 2005 at 9:51 am
Hmm… I liked the first few books in the Narnia series (I have memories of really getting into The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, but stopped reading about half- or two-thirds of the way through and somehow never felt motivated to finish it. The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings had already captured my allegience by then; I don’t know if Narnia suffered by comparison or not.
Still, I’m pretty keen to see the movie version; I hope it’s at least decent.
— Peter
November 21st, 2005 at 1:50 pm
Like Peter, I liked the first few Narnia books, but couldn’t stay interested after the first hand-full of them. Got an audiobook of the first one from the library recently and listened to it on a road-trip. It seems it was better in my memories.
I’m not sure how I feel about the Potter film series. I love the books, though.
November 22nd, 2005 at 2:39 pm
Well I have to confess I’m a bit challenged to speak to the later books. Read LWW, Prince Caspian, Silver Chair several times as a kid, and I know I made it through the whole series at least once. The first ones stuck with me. I can’t wait until my boys are old enough to appreciate them.
–T
December 2nd, 2005 at 7:16 pm
Having read all of the books to date (both HP and The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe), I can agree that trying to bring the later books (5,6 and presumably 7) will be difficult if not impossible. Each of the later books is running almost double the length of any one of the Lord of the Rings book.
I can see any of the books on Narnia being put on film without to much cutting, each of those was no longer then 250 pages at the longest. I can see the religious fundementalists getting a little bit over enthusiastic about this series though.