Monday, January 12, 2009

A Tail that Wasn't

On Saturday Daddio took the family on a little date.

The boys and I worked all week on a read aloud of the Tale of Despereaux, and upon finishing Daddio took us to the movie.

While at times the subject matter in the book was rather dark... we really enjoyed the book. And to be honest we were really looking forward to the movie. Although, I was rather unsure how they were going to deal with some of the content.

Well, as it turns out, they skipped over anything that was of a darker nature, changed the story line, added characters, changed the gender of a character, even changed the nature of the characters (including the patronage). All of the symbolism from the book is gone. In its place is a nice movie. It has cute parts, funny parts, and then it's over. Snookie thought that the movie and book were two completely different parts... as in the book was part one and the movie part two.

The boys take on the book and the movie... they liked them both. Daddio enjoyed the movie as well. For me, I was disappointed, it was cute, but the film makers should have changed the name because it was a different story. (Plus the seats in the theater SUCKED!)

But a big thanks to Daddio for getting us out of the house for a movie and dinner.

And if you want to know why the title of this post has the word tail instead of tale... read the book!

4 comments:

nicole said...

I chaperoned Princess's class on a field trip to see the movie. The teacher commented that it was quite different from the book too. Princess didn't seem to mind, but I think she was just caught up in the field trip fun.

Elizabeth said...

I loved this book! I tried to read it to Pigeon but she was very sensitive to the evil displayed by his parents and the rats. I was so excited I tried reading it to her when she was 5 but I think I need to wait a few more years before I try again. Great story!

justme said...

I finally saw this movie over the weekend. I enjoyed the movie as a movie but I was disappointed that it was so different from the book. I hope people still read the book regardless of whether they liked the movie or not. The book is SOOOOO good!

Jenna said...

Stephanie,

Great article, I'll check the movie out. I have my own blog www.Jugglingmama.com. I would love to add you to my blog roll and hope you will do the same - let me know your thoughts. I am also part of www.ShesConnected.com you should check it out and add your profile, it's a great way to promote your business and blog.

I look forward to connecting with you and continuing to read your blog.

Best,
Jenna