Hello readers! It’s time for LTB, and this week was a freebie. I went all the way back to June 2022 and found this topic. I wasn’t even participating back then, so there were a ton to choose from.
Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme that was originated by Eternity Books and is currently hosted by Book Nook Bits and Dinipandareads. The accompanying thumbnail was also designed by Book Nook Bits. Each Friday, bloggers craft posts where they engage in discussions centered around the designated topic for the week.
June 24 (2022) Prompts: What are your favorite book to film adaptations? What are your least favorite ones? Do you think that books translate better to movies or shows? Would you rather see a standalone or a book series adapted?
What are your favorite book to film adaptations?
Netflix has been experimenting with live action anime/manga for a while now and I think the first time they really got it right was bleach.
Everyone in this movie was Japanese including the Director Shinsuke Sato (same director as Alice in Borderland), which was a first for their adaptations.
I loved that this adaptation focused a lot on the relationship between Ichigo and Rukia. They really brought their relationship and all these characters to life.
I wish we would get another one down the line, but I know that probably won’t happen.
When A Series of Unfortunate Events was originally adapted into a movie in 2004, it left a lot to be desired. They sort of smashed books one, two, and three together and it didn’t capture the story as much as I would’ve liked.
In 2017, the first season of the TV show came out and it really brought the essence of this story to life. It’s hard to explain unless you’ve read the book, but the characters are specific especially the adults in this series and so is the writing.
I love that they really took their time with the story. They had Lemony Snicket be the narrator and added in a side story that wasn’t in the books.
The only critique I have is probably the lack of dreariness that you get from the story. But I still loved it overall. I hope it brought a lot of new readers to the books so they can see
Atonement is such an amazing and heartbreaking story. I have mentioned on here before how much I love this book and movie and I just had to do it again.
Without spoiling too much, Atonement follows a young girl named Briony who tells a big lie that ruins the life of a servant boy who works for her family.
We follow her before this and all the way into her adulthood as it continues to affect her and others around her.
The one thing that made me really love the movie is that it added onto the original story. We get told very briefly how the story ends for the servant boy, but we don’t get any details. And the movie really brings it to life.
I highly recommend this movie so much! It has Keira Knightley, Saoirse Ronan, and James McAvoy (who happens to be my favorite actor).
What are your least favorite ones?
The Cirque Du Freak movie came out when I was in high school and I was so excited because I love this series. It’s honestly one of my favorites of all time.
Cirque Du Freak follows a 12-year-old boy named Darren who makes a deal to live as a vampire to save his friend’s life. The book series takes place over multiple decades and so smashing as much of the story as they did into one movie was never going to work.
The story was too lighthearted. It focused too much on comedy as well. The original story is very gory and emotional. There are so many characters that were left out that really brought the story to life.
I would love to see someone try again down the line to adapt this, but it would need to be someone who could stick to the books.
I could rant all day about how the 2017 adaptation of Death Note is really bad, but I’ll try to keep it relatively condensed.
I really think it’s disrespectful to adapt a manga and make every character white (besides L). If I ever go to watch an adaptation now, I will skip if the main characters are all white. That is the first sign that everything will go wrong.
Secondly, why was this movie so gory? It was like Final Destination level of gore, which was never a thing in the books.
When it comes to characters, they changed all the integral ones. Light is the main character. We follow Light as he finds a notebook that can cause someone to die just by writing their name within it.
Light’s character is very smart, calculated and narcissistic in the books. He doesn’t really care about anyone but himself. They also add a romance, which I will get to in a minute, that was completely out of left field. Light in this movie was a goofball and was completely clueless.
Another integral character is L. L is also very smart, clever, and had a lot of quirks. They really missed the mark in this movie by not making him as witty and weird.
Misa, changed to Mia for this movie, was a goth queen in the books. There isn’t a hint of her original style in the movie. In the books, Misa at least believes she is dating Light. She is obsessed with him and his power with the Death Note.
In the movie, she is the one in charge. And they added a romance subplot that never existed. Light never reciprocates her feelings in the original story.
Do you think that books translate better to movies or shows?
I think it really depends on the book. Those that are more plot driven like a thriller would be a better movie, but the ones with more of a focus on characters could benefit from a show.
Would you rather see a standalone or a book series adapted?
I love seeing series get adaptations, but they are rarely done well.
What do you think is important for a successful book to film adaptation?
I feel like the adaptations don’t have to be scene for scene like the book, but they do need to capture the story on another level. It’s not enough to tell the story. They need to capture the characters exactly as they are. Not make big changes to magic systems. And also capture the tone. If the book is dreary, the show should be, and so on.
They are taking a story and bringing it to a new medium, which should add to the story, not take it away from it. Sometimes it feels like the person who created the show didn’t even read the original material.
They have to know that most people who are interested in adaptations are the book lovers, but they don’t always care.
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