Sometimes, the little differences aren't that noticeable, or not that big a deal. Sometimes, the changes even make the story more interesting (see: Lord of the Rings). And sometimes, people don't even know how far off the movie actually is. So today, I've made a list for your amusement. Below are 5 books-to-movies that didn't stick to the book very well.
1. Lord of the Rings
This one I'm not really complaining about though. The book had quite a few dry spells, and quite honestly they could have squeezed out another two movies with all the content. Some of it was gratefully left on the cutting room floor, like the scene in the Two Towers where one of the Tree Ents tells a several page long story about the Ent's history and bores you into oblivion. Other things would have been cool to keep, like a chapter in The Fellowship of the Ring where the Hobbits find themselves surrounded by ghosts and Frodo has to chop a hand off to save his friends. Honestly, Frodo was a lot more badass in the book. Also, the book mentions the elf princess only a few times, she was nowhere near as big a character as the movie depicted (of course, the book was pretty short on romance in general). All in all I'd give the book to movie adaptation 4 out of 5 stars, because it's still a great movie.
2. The Hunger Games
You guys know me well enough by now to know that I have a special place in my heart for the hit series by Suzanne Collins. So when I noticed a few little *issues* in the movie, it bugged me. Now, overall, it was a fantastic adaption, but in the first movie of the franchise, there were a few little things that bugged me that they changed or left out all together. The two biggest ones were about the cat and the pin. While they barely mention Buttercup the cat in the movie, it's worth noting that she was supposed to be an ugly yellow, and yet for some reason, the first movie decided to use a BLACK CAT. I guess it's hard to find a yellow cat? Also, in the movie, Katniss is randomly given the Mockingjay Pin by a random character in the black market, while in the book, it was given to her by the mayor's daughter, who was left out of the movie entirely. Yeah yeah, time constraints and all, but I feel like that was kind of a building block to the tragedy later. Oh well. All in all, the movie still get 4 1/2 stars out of 5, because they still did a fantastic job.
3. A Series of Unfortunate Events
Boy has this one been butchered. This one is also pretty special to me, since it was literally my favorite series until The Hunger Games. With a new tv series coming out, I have high hopes, but in true Snicket form, I'm not really holding out for it to be any good, especially if it follows in the movie's footsteps. Don't get me wrong, the casting for all the adults in the movie was spot on, but they missed a few important things, like EVERYTHING. For example, Klaus, one of the main characters, very specifically wears glasses in the book. Like, it's actually an important plot in the series, because he literally cannot see without them, and in one of the books it's used against him. But in the movie, they decided to give him reading glasses that you see for all of about 2 seconds as he takes them off in the beginning. Also, they took the end of the first book and put it at the end of the third book, which threw everything off, because Olaf doesn't really get the kids back in his home, Olaf was never punished like he was in the movie, and the end doesn't end well at all. Overall, this one tanked, and every fan will back me on this. I'd give this one a 2 out of 5 stars, and only that because the cast was excellent.
4. Forrest Gump
To be honest, I didn't even know this one was a book the first time I saw the movie. And as we all know, the movie was a hit classic, and always will be. But it was almost nothing like the book. I won't even be able to name all the differences, so I'll just hit the highlights. For starters, the famous line "Run Forrest, run!" was never said in the book. Not once. Also, Jenny's father was never mentioned, so we don't actually have a reason for her wild behavior, other than it was what all the kids were doing. Also, when Jenny becomes pregnant with Forrest's son, she and Forrest were actually in a relationship, living together, and Jenny begged him to stop wrestling and settle down, but he refused, so she left him. Then later, Forrest doesn't get to raise his son, because Jenny doesn't die. Instead, Forrest sends money to the kid throughout his life, but can't become anything to them because Jenny is married. Not to mention, Bubba and Forrest met in college, there was an ape named Sue who spent most of the story with Forrest as his best friend, and basically everything. Literally the entire story was changed, other than a few key adventures, like the war. He's not even sitting on a bench telling his story to a bunch of strangers. Overall, I'd have to give this adaptation 0 out of 5 stars, even though it was a really good movie. But it was nothing like the book.
5. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Oh boy, where do I start? How about with the fact that the iconic ruby slippers were actually silver slippers? Or the fact that they left out a rather large amount of Dorothy's adventures? Or the fact that Glinda the Good Witch is way to glamorous in the movie? I can understand some of the issues (kind of) like the fact that Judy Garland was much too old to play Dorothy. Given the fact that a way interrupted them, Garland obviously aged a bit in the intermission, and instead of recasting, they kept their promise and let her play the beloved Dorothy Gale. In that era, Hollywood was notorious for basically using a title and recreating the entire story (basically anything with Shirley Temple in it is trash for that reason), in spite of that, The Wizard of Oz surprisingly wasn't too far off. They kept the same basic plot, same basic characters, and even kept most of the appearances the same. But, they left out a few things, like the entire last half of the book. Bet most of you had never heard of the Dainty China Country until the new movie with James Franco as Oz (that's an entirely different can of worms that I'm not going to open right now). But, since there have been several versions of Oz, and none of them have correctly stuck to the books, they've all at least done a decent job of telling the viewers more and more of the lore of Oz, which is actually very in depth. I'd have to give the Judy Garland Oz adaptation a 3 out of 5 stars, because it wasn't terrible as far as adaptions, but it wasn't really great either. Still a classic though.
So there ya go, five book to movie adaptations that didn't quite do their job. If you guys enjoyed this post, let me know and I'll do more! Hope ya'll are having a great day, love you all so much!
Cheers!
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