A note on adaptations
Written on Thursday, January 23, 2014 by Unknown
It is hard to create an adaption. Any book that has ever been turned into a movie has run the risk of "not being as good as the book." Take these for example. See any that you would dub, "not as awesome as the novel I cherish so deeply"?
Yep. It happens. And yet adaptations are completely unavoidable. Why is that? Because they sell tickets. People want to see their favorite characters come to life on the big screen. Sometimes it works. Most of the time it doesn't, and then you just love to hate it which somehow manages to reinforce your original dedication to the book/series. You aren't a true Harry Potter fan if you haven't seen all eight movies and have strong opinions on things like the decision to remove S.P.E.W. or the lack of quidditch matches.
I mean come on Water for Elephants, I'm looking at you here. Why the hell did you choose Reese Witherspoon as the love interest when she could basically be Robert Pattinson's mom? She was not that old in the book. Not even close. I call bullshit.
I believe that when an adaptation is done right and done well, fans won't need to draw so many comparisons to the book. Instead, the media should stand on it's own and be judged thusly. No need to point out all the moments that were done wrong, but instead look at all the parts that were done right or maybe even done differently.
This is why I love The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. I don't need to jump back and forth from novel to web show and say "ugh, I hated that they did this" or "why did they take that out when it could so easily have been incorporated?" While I have read (and love) the novel and enjoy the sly references they make to Austen's other works, I don't think about it in terms of the book whenever I watch it. Instead I see the characters as they are and appreciate the show for what it is. Yes it has it's faults. Especially in the beginning there were quite a few problems. But, I'm not going to fight about the decision to make Kitty a literal cat. I actually thought that was an awesome and creative way to incorporate the character without needed to hire/introduce a new actress. All she does in the novel is follow Lydia around anyway, and so that's what she does in the show, just in cat form. It's modern, it's funny, it worked.
And so, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries is my artifact.
-Danny
like the use of specific examples a lot -- and the tone.