Feliz Navidad! Friday: Christmas Movies

I've heard a lot of people (women) tell me lately that they can't watch the Hallmark Channel during this time of year because it makes them cry.  I don't have the Hallmark Channel (or any cable channel), but if I had it, I'm pretty sure I'd only watch it when "Little House on the Prairie" is on.  I like that show.  But most of the other stuff on that channel kind of makes me squeamish, and I have a feeling that most of the stuff they play during this time of year would also make me squeamish. 

I'm not a big fan of sappy Christmas movies.  ...unless I grew up watching them, of course.

I've got a few Christmas movies that I have to see every November-December of every year...and sometimes in the summer, too.  Most of them are movies that I did grow up watching, but there are a few that have become favorites just in the past few years.

Elf is one of my newer favorites, which is weird, because I'm not a huge Will Ferrell fan.  In fact, the only movies I like (and, in fact, love) with him are Elf and Megamind.  I think the reason that I love these movies and love Will Ferrell's characters in them is because there's a reason why these characters act the way they do.  In some Will Ferrell movies, he acts like an idiot, and there's no reason for it.  He's a normal guy in a normal life with a normal family, and yet, he's acting like a complete idiot.  I don't like that.  But in Megamind, he's a cartoon extraterrestrial villain with a gigantic blue head.  It makes sense for him to act ridiculously.  In Elf, dude was raised by Bob Newhart wearing bright yellow tights elves.  It makes sense for him to act ridiculously.  And this movie has Ed Asner, James Caan, AND Zooey Deschanel, so it has to be pretty good.  My one issue with this movie is that I really can't help but wonder why Buddy the Elf hasn't developed DIABEETUS.

One of my favorite scenes:



Another movie I have to see every year is the one they play on TBS for 24 hours every Christmas. A Christmas Story. Now, I don't have cable, but that's okay. My mom bought the dvd for me a couple Christmases ago, so I can watch it anytime--even if it's not Christmas Eve. I can relive the tongue stuck to the flagpole, the scary Santa slide, and the Red Ryder BB Gun joy all year long! Last Christmas, my mom gave me a rather remarkable puzzle that is shaped like the leg lamp. It came in a wooden box marked FRAGILE. Fra-gee-lay? Must be Italian.

Now, last week, I think I wrote in my blog that I only liked one version of "Deck the Halls" (the Mannheim Steamroller version). I now realize that there's another version I really like:



I'm not a huge fan of chick flicks, but I don't consider this next movie a chick flick. I guess it technically couldn't be considered a Christmas movie, either, but the plot does take place around Christmas and New Year's. While You Were Sleeping is one of my favorite, favorite movies. I think it has something to do with the fact that I've got a huge celeb crush on mid 1990s Bill Pullman. Or maybe it's just because those mashed potatoes are so creamy...



Now, when I was a kid, I think I could have watched Mickey's Christmas Carol every day and not gotten tired of it. I think the reason that I think this is because I DID watch it every day, and I never got tired of it. I've watched several versions of this classic tale, and I'm ashamed to admit that I didn't read Charles Dickens' book until last year. Really, after seeing so many versions of the story, I pretty much felt as though I had already read it. It's good to know that most adaptations, including Mickey's version, are fairly accurate.  And by the way, the book is totally worth the read.

This is probably my favorite version of the movie, but probably only because Patrick Stewart is my favorite Scrooge:



A few years ago, I found a copy of Mickey's Christmas Carol on dvd along with a Pluto Christmas cartoon, and another cartoon short film entitled The Small One. I got the dvd because I really do like Mickey's Christmas Carol and the Pluto cartoon, but the real movie I wanted was The Small One. No Christmas movie can reduce me to tears quicker than this sweet story about a boy and his elderly "pet" donkey. The boy's father wanted the boy to sell the donkey, but the boy couldn't find a buyer. I don't want to reveal the ending, but the theme of the story is that "There's a place for each Small One, God planned it that way." The fact that Disney (even old school Disney) produced something so clearly Christian is amazing. If you really want a great Christmas story with a good message and fun songs, I suggest you try to get your hands on a copy of Classic Cartoon Favorites Vol. 9: Classic Holiday Stories, which contains The Small One and a couple of other great cartoons.



Okay, so my absolute favorite Christmas movie has to be A Charlie Brown Christmas. I like a lot of things about this. Love the music. Love the characters. I even love the ridiculously simple animation. But the main reason I love this movie is because of this scene right here:



That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.

I have a lot of other Christmas movies I like, but if I were to blog about them all, this would be a really long blog. So why not leave me a comment and let me know what your favorite Christmas movies are? What are your favorite scenes? Any Christmas movies you hate?

Film Adapations of Books

I saw The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader for the second time today.  I hadn't seen it since the day it came out in theaters.  I only saw it today because they were showing it for free at the local theater as part of their free "Summer Kid's Movie Series" program, which is an ingenious way the local movie theater can make a lot of money by selling overpriced popcorn and soda.  I felt silly coming to a "kids' movie" without any kids, and since kidnapping is still illegal, I tagged along with the family I nanny for...on my day off.

Now, I've already written a blog about my thoughts on the third Narnia movie, and I really don't want to go into it again.  But the movie made me think about how some film adaptations of books are really well done, and how some of them really stink. 

Some people confuse me for one of those people who expect film adaptations to be almost identical to the book.  This just isn't the case.  I took a class called Lit and Film in college, which was one of the most interesting classes I've ever had.  And I agree with what the professor said--that a good film adaptation is one that properly captures the essence of a book.  That doesn't mean a good film adaptation has to cover every intricate detail of a book in exactly the same way the book handled it.  Sometimes things have to be changed for time (a 500 page book doesn't always fit well into a 90 minute movie) or because what works in print might not work well on screen.  I know some people who like to nitpick over minor details that don't change the basic themes of the story.  I'm not one of those people.

I am, however, one of those people who will get upset if I think a film did a bad job of translating a book on screen--particularly if I LOVED the book.  The Voyage of the Dawn Treader wasn't horrible, but I do have some major problems with it because I think the filmmakers missed the point of the book (FYI, I LOVED the book).

There are a lot of film adaptations that I really don't like because I feel that the filmmakers didn't really grasp the main themes of the books they were trying to adapt.  At the top of this list is Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (the third one).  Not only did the filmmakers try to cram the theme of "time" into the movie, when the book really didn't have that overarching theme, but they left out all sorts of important themes and details that made the story understandable.  If I hadn't read the book and were just relying on the film, I'd have no idea what was going on.  And this was a common complaint I heard from people who hadn't read the book.  They didn't understand the movie.

A Wrinkle in Time is another film adaptation that leaves a lot to be desired.  It was a made for tv movie, but that doesn't give it the right to suck as much as it did.  The movie got several small details wrong--which might have been redeemable if they had been done well.  But almost nothing about this movie was done well.  The vast majority of the actors were miscast (so even the good actors like Alfre Woodard gave dreadful performances).  The writing was choppy and incoherent.  It makes me a little angry because A Wrinkle in Time is my favorite book, but the film version made it look dreadful.  So all of those people who like to see the movie first to see if they might like the book are now under the impression that it's a dreadful book.  If you're one of these people, I urge you to go read the book.  I promise it is SO much better than the movie.  I'm hoping that eventually someone picks up the whole Time Quartet series and does some major motion pictures that don't stink.  I do have to say, the music wasn't bad.  And the kid they got to play Charles Wallace was cute.  And Mrs Who was actually pretty likable.  Other than that...meh.  I've also heard that the Disney made-for-tv version of A Ring of Endless Light (another Madeleine L'Engle book) was also dreadful.  Maybe I'll see it for myself one day.

I don't want to spend much more time griping about film adaptations I don't like, but here is a list of others that really bother me (I still might watch these movies from time to time, as I often still watch A Wrinkle in Time, if only because I like to relive parts of the story when I don't have time to read the book):

Tuck Everlasting
The Black Cauldron
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (the 2005 movie version--which was not redeemable even with Zooey Deschanel as Trillian AND Alan Rickman as Marvin.  The cheesy 1980 BBC version, however, is epic!)
Twilight
First Knight
The Little Mermaid (Okay, I like the songs.  And Sebastian.  But Disney turned the self-sacrificing (and unnamed) Hans Christian Anderson protagonist into a selfish spoiled brat named Ariel)
Eragon
The Flight of Dragons (based off the book The Dragon and the George)

There are a lot of film adaptations of books that I really don't like, but there are probably a lot more that I do like.  The Princess Bride is my favorite film, and it's one of my favorite books.  I think one of the reasons I'm such a big fan of both the film and the book is that William Goldman wrote both of them (the book and the screenplay).  Not every detail was the same.  There were lots of omissions and changes in the film version, but the film was a hilarious and touching story that paid true homage to the book.

Some of the film adaptations I like are very different from the books, but they're still enjoyable AND they retain the basic thematic essences of the books.  Pollyanna is one of these.  Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (in case you're confused, I mean the Gene Wilder one) is another.  I do like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (the Johnny Depp version), and it IS closer to the book than the Gene Wilder version "Willy Wonka," but I don't like it as much.  The Neverending Story is another film I love that doesn't follow the book very well, and it makes me sad that they tried to make it more like the book by making an absolutely horrendous sequel.  And another sequel--which thankfully, I have not seen.

Here's a list of film adaptations I really like:

Jurassic Park
Jurassic Park: The Lost World
October Sky (based on a memior originally published as Rocket Boys--it's an anagram)
All of the Harry Potter films except for Prisoner of Azkaban (I just can't forgive it)
Ramona and Beezus  (I would love to see more Ramona movies!)
The Hobbit (the Rankin Bass cartoon version, since the live action one hasn't come out yet)
The Return of the King (again, the Rankin Bass version)
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (the Peter Jackson ones)
The Bridge to Terebithia (both the 80s version and the more recent version of this)
Winnie the Pooh (even after Disney mutilated A. A. Milne, I still like it)
The Phantom Tollbooth
2001: A Space Odyssey (the book was written at the same time as the film, but I think it still counts)
The BBC versions of The Chronicles of Narnia (they only did up to the Silver Chair...which makes me sad)
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
A Christmas Carol (while almost any version--including Mickey's Christmas Carol and Scrooged--is likable, my favorite version is the Patrick Stewart one)
10 Things I Hate About You (based on Taming of the Shrew.  True story.)
Alice in Wonderland (again, pretty much any version of this would do--including the Johnny Depp version which was very unlike the original Lewis Caroll story.  I like what they did with it)
Anne of Green Gables/Anne of Avonlea
Hook (which was based off Peter Pan, which was a book)
Matilda
Holes
The Little Prince
The Secret of NIMH (Based on the book Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH--they changed a lot, but the movie was still amazing!)
The Face on the Milk Carton (made for tv and really cheesy, but it's not too bad)
The Jungle Book


I'm sure I could name more, but...that would take longer than I want to spend on typing a blog. 

There are rare occurrences when I actually prefer the film version of a story to the book.  The Wizard of Oz is one of these.  Perhaps if I had read the book before seeing the Judy Garland/Ray Bolger rainbow-riffic classic movie from 1939 (the same year my daddy was born--which makes me extra sentimental about it), I might feel differently.  But I tried to read the book as a grown up.  I found it dreadful and unimaginative.  I get that it was a political commentary and all that, but that didn't increase my enjoyment of it.  I much preferred the musical film version. 

Another musical movie I preferred to the book was Phantom of the Opera.  The book wasn't the worst thing I've ever read, but it couldn't compete with the haunting genius of Andrew Lloyd Weber. 

I also preferred the happy ending Disney version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame to Victor Hugo's classic where everybody dies (hopefully didn't ruin that for you).  The incredible songs, again, didn't hurt either. 

I have to admit I also liked the 90's version of The Three Musketeers way better than the book.  Rebecca De Mornay.  Keifer Sutherland.  Chris O'Donnell.  Tim Curry.  Oliver Platt.  Oh, and Charlie Sheen LONG BEFORE he went crazy.  Ah, what a great flick!  I had a cassette tape of the song "All For Love." Yep.  I was awesome.

Right now I'm anxiously awaiting a couple of film adaptations.  I've read that they're probably going to do "Magician's Nephew" (Chronicles of Narnia) before "Silver Chair" (and that "MN" isn't coming out until 2014).  So I'm not holding my breath for those.  I wouldn't be surprised if they got dumped.  Which is sad.  But after seeing what they did with "Dawn Treader," I'm not sure I want them messing with Puddleglum.

But I'm getting a little excited (along with a lot of people) about The Hunger Games, which is set to come out in March of next year.  I'm thinking that The Hunger Games is the new Harry Potter, at least in terms of waiting for the next movie to come out.  Oh...and I'm waiting for the final HP movie, too...but it will be here VERY soon! 

Other books I'd love to see made into good major motion pictures are:

A Wrinkle in Time and the other books in the Time Quartet (as I said before)
A Ring of Endless Light and the other Austin Family books by Madeleine L'Engle (actually starting with Meet the Austins)
The Chronicles of Prydain (The Black Cauldron was based on the first two books, but it fell sadly, sadly short.  I would love to see the whole series done in epic live action LOTR style.)
The Bunnicula Series
The Space Trilogy by C. S. Lewis

Again, there are probably others, but this blog is long enough. 

How about you?  Are there film adaptations you LOVE?  Are there film adaptations you HATE?  Are there movies you like better than the books?  Are there any books/series you would LOVE to see made into movies?