Adaptation Month - Mary Poppins

We conclude adaptation month with a film that’s loved by everyone, except the writer of the book. Mary Poppins

Mary Poppins is a children’s book released in 1934 and written by P L Travers, a film adaptation was released by Disney in 1964, with a screenplay by Bill Walsh and Don DaGradi, both of whom had previously worked with Disney, in particular in their animation department and had written Son of Flubber. The Sherman Brothers also deserve some credit for the songs in this movie, which they had written.

PL Travers objected to the use of musical numbers and animation, but Disney overruled here, so it’s not hard to see why she was sour on the project. But does it do justice to the book’s story? No, I’m not going to even pretend that it does, so here’s my thoughts on the book just as a book.

The Book

Mary Poppins is a children’s story, it’s filled with a sense of magic and weirdness that kids are likely to be drawn to but lacks any real nuance or narrative, or really much in terms of character for adults to enjoy reading on their own.

The Film

This film does have its problems, in particular in regards to the ending, but I think they did a marvellous job. Considering the technology that made this film possible was very new around this, the animation/live action integration is impressive. The songs are fantastic and the film provides wonder for kids whilst also providing the depth and narrative the book oh so desperately needed to appeal to adults.

Please note, I am only looking at the first Mary Poppins Book, if ideas are taken from its sequels, that’s great but I haven’t read those, so I’m judging this purely as an adaptation of the book it’s named after.

Adaptation Month - The Golden Compass

This one is an infamously bad adaptation, but is it as bad everyone claims it is?

Northern Lights was written by Phillip Pullman and was released in 1995, being an adventure story aimed at Young Adults, of course it was part of a trilogy, named ‘His Darkest Materials.’ The US name for the book was the Golden Compass, hence that being the name of the film adaptation.

Handling the adaption to screen, in both screenplay and directing is Chris Weitz, at this point in his career he’d written Antz, Nutty Professor II and About a Boy and this is his first project as a director without his brother, Paul helping him along. They also tended to work together on the screenplay side too.

The book had its share of controversies and they were carried over into the adaptation process, with criticism from both sides leading to the studio demanding massive changes in post-production. This is rarely ever a good sign.

The film had a $180m budget and made $372m at the box office, a strong international performance saving it from a dismal $70m performance in the US. The reviews were mixed, the film has a 42% Rotten Tomatoes rating with an average 5.61/10 score, and audiences gave it a 51% rating with a 3.22/5 average score.

Before we start, my thoughts on the book:

Adaptation Month - Mortal Engines

A wrinkle in time was the second biggest box office disaster of 2018, but now we look at the actual biggest, Mortal Engines.

Mortal Engines the book was released in 2001 and the first of a quartet written by Phillip Reeve. The film rights were purchased in 2009 by Peter Jackson, best known for the fantastic Lord of the Rings trilogy and the dull as sh*t Hobbit movies. He’s no stranger to adaptations is all I’m saying. He’s among the writers for the screenplay along with Fran Walsh and Phillipa Boyens, both of whom also worked on the aforementioned trilogies.

Directing the movie is Christian Rivers, who has experience in quite a bit of film-making, having met Peter Jackson at 17 and worked with him on various projects. This is his first stint as a full on director though. Not exactly encouraging for a project with a budget of up to $150m. It really backfired, earning $83m at the box office. And it didn’t do great with audiences, 27% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with an average 4.9/10 and an audience score of 50% average 3.17/5. Before we get to adaptation, here are my brief thoughts on both.

The book

Ignoring the premise that is ludicrously absurd, the book does a decent job of tying it to something resembling reality… Until a moment right near the climax of the book which is so ludicrous it takes me out of the story and into the next galaxy. It’s been a while since I’ve read a book written from a third person perspective. It’s probably for the best since we follow so many characters in this.

The Film

It’s a very pretty movie, and I’m afraid that’s about as far as I can go when it comes to compliments, I guess it’s self-contained which is something. It’s blatantly clear that Christian Rivers’ skills aren’t in directing, as this film isn’t the best acted. I can’t really talk too much about the plot but there are tones of holes in it. I can see why Peter Jackson made little effort when promoting this.

But let’s talk adaptation

Adaptation Month - A Wrinkle in Time

A Wrinkle in Time was a book released in 1962 written Madeline L’engle. The film rights were acquired by Disney and 2 attempts of an adaptation have been released. One a TV mini-series released in 2003, and a feature film released in 2018. I’m going to be looking at the latter as that’s the most recent and frankly it’s the worst of the two. Handling the adaptation process are Jennifer Lee, a major figurehead in Disney’s animation department with works including Wreck it Ralph and Frozen and Jeff Stockman, who had previously brought Bridge to Terebithia to screen

The film was a box office Bomb for Disney, making a mere $133 million on it’s $130m budget, making the second biggest bomb of the year, we’ll be covering the biggest in due course. It holds a mixed 42% with critics but audiences were less kind, giving it a 27% rating

So quick summary of my thoughts on them as individual entities

Adaptation Month - The Darkest Minds

The Darkest Minds is the first of a trilogy aimed at Young Adults. Try and contain your shock at that prospect. Unlike successes like the Hunger Games this film adaptation bombed critically and commercially. Is that because of the adaptation? Let’s take a look

The Darkest Minds was written by Alexandra Bracken, handling the adaptation is Chad Hodge, who has worked on adapting a stage play from a musical but this is his first foray into movies, as he’d mostly worked on TV. Jenifer Yuh Nelson is in the director’s chair, and she’s got a decent record, but mostly in animation being responsible for directing the Kung Fu Panda sequels.

I know they really wanted to hype the Stranger Things connection in the trailers but in truth, Sean Levy is one of the producers, he has a decent track record including Arrival, but there’s a limit to what producers actually do for film, other than secure funding and arrange schedules, which is why I generally don’t mention them.

Adaptation Month - Ready: Player One

Ready: Player One is a book written by Ernest Cline, released in 2011, the film adaptation was released in 2018 co-written by Ernest Cline and Zak Penn, who has co-written for Marvel and DC films both good and bad (and in the case of Elektra, terrible)

In the director’s chair is Steven Spielberg, who is no stranger to adaptations and is of course one of the master visionaries of our time.

But how does this fare as an adaptation? Let’s start with a brief rundown on my thoughts.

Ready: Player One the book is a fun read, but there are problems. It’s reliance on 80's pop culture and just the wealth of references to it scattered throughout the book can be a bit much. In addition, the nature of the story requires a f*ckton of exposition. Then we have Wade himself who has problematic moments, including a couple of comments that could be considered transphobic.

Ready: Player One the film is a visual treat as you’d expect with Spielberg and they did well to modernise some of the ideas presented in the book. Wade is less of a problematic character but unfortunately he’s not left with very much character, and neither is anyone else. It does have a similar problem with exposition, its first 20 minutes or so is full of it and there’s a number of major bits of plot convenience but it’s not unenjoyable.

Adaptation Month - Love, Simon

Ladies and Gentlemen, Welcome to Adaptation Month

There’s nothing original in Hollywood anymore, is something you’ve probably heard from a lot from people who enjoy film. Of course, there are all smaller indie studios working on original stuff but it’s generally overshadowed by Hollywood Blockbusters, which often adapt either IPs, like Superhero movies, or books, like the ones we’ll be looking at for the month of November

I’m going to try and put my own unique spin on Dominic Noble’s adaptation formula. First off, there’s no exception for ‘In Name Only’ adaptations, and I’m pretty sure there’s at least one in this line-up. But let’s start with one of my favourite films of last year: Love, Simon.

Love, Simon is an adaptation of Simon vs The Homo-sapiens agenda written by Becky Albertalli. Adapting her material are Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger, who both have experience with TV, but little with film-making. Heading up on the directing side is Greg Berlanti, who is the involved with the DC TV Universe with shows like Arrow, the Flash and Legends of Tomorrow.

It had a modest $17m budget and made a decent return, gathering $66m at the Box Office and was a success with both critics and audiences, with 92% and 88% Rotten Tomatoes ratings respectively. How does it fare though? Here’s a quick summary of how I feel about each.