Never Judge a Book by Its Movie

[Jen Wardrip]

Love it or hate it? How do the big-screen and small-screen versions of your favorite books stack up to the real thing?

[Jen Wardrip]

The Princess Diaires I & II - I absolutely adored the movies, and I really like the books, too. But they're nothing like each other at all, so you shouldn't go into watching the films thinking you're going to be seeing the books played out!

Bridget Jones's Diary - One of my top three favorite movies, but I can't stand the book.

Harry Potter - I've enjoyed all of the films, which have stayed fairly true to the books, although in much shorter time frames and with lots of plot points removed.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Both the show and the serialized novels are great, and are pretty much step-by-step replicas of each other.

The Princess Bride - Again, I love both the movie and the book.

[Paula Chase Hyman]

One of my fave adaptations is The color Purple. It's as if Spielberg took the book and simply provided it as the script for his cast. It was one of the truest adaptations I've ever seen!

On the other hand, The Travelling Pants movie did not seem a thing like the book to me.

I'll have to think on more.

[Sarah Bean the GreenBeanTeenQueen]

I agree Jen, that the Harry Potter movies do a pretty good job-although I was a little annoyed at three because I felt they took some main plot points away. Ah well, you have to shorten them somehow!

I LOVE the book P.S. I Love You, so was very nervous about the idea of a movie, but it turned out pretty good. I thought they kept the spirit of the book.

From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E Frankwieler is one of my all time favorite books, but when they made a TV movie, they ruined everything and it was nothing like the book. Same with A Wrinkle in Time.

[TheBookworm]

I really enjoyed reading the Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. But the movie was completely different than the book. They took all the innocence out of the main character Edmond Dantes and made him the bad guy hero. I didn't like it at all.

[Marta Morrison]

When I was a little girl I read that wonderful book, My Side of the Mountain by George. I loved that book. Well, at the drive-in in the small town I grew up in the movie of that book was playing. I begged my mom about going. She took me. After the movie was over I wept because it was so bad compared to the book. That was my first experience with books into film and I will never trust Hollywood to do it right. The only adaptation of a book to movie that I liked was Matilda by Dahl. I agree with you Jen that the Harry Potter movies have been pretty good but the books are so much better.

[Kristin Wolden Nitz]

I have to say that HOLES reflected the book beautifully. Of course the production company brought Louis Sachar aboard to write the screenplay. Very wise.

ELLA ENCHANTED? Bleck!!!!! Actually, I could halfway enjoy it whenever I could forget which book it was based on. It drifted so far away from the source material that this actually happened rather frequently. But then one of the names would remind me, and I would practically howl, "Nooooooo!"

[Randy]

A Walk to Remember was such an awesome movie, but the novel had more meaning in it and explained the title of the novel much better.

Ella Enchanted, the sisters were prettying annoying in the movie LOL my sisters had to skip their parts because it was too frustrating.

The Harry Potter movies have been amazing, so much effects and it really doesn't look cheesy at all. I wonder how they are going to break the last movie into two parts, like when will the first on end? The bad part is they tend to leave out plenty from the books. Of course it would be hard to have the entire novel as the movie. Would it be better if it was a television show?

All of the Roald Dahl movie adaptations of the novels were enjoyable, especially Witches which pretty much stayed true to the novel.

[Carmen Ferreiro-Esteban]

I loved The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants movie. I saw the movie first, then I read the book and it was OK, but for me the movie worked better.
I also liked The Princess Bride movie better.
The Lord of the Ring movies are also great.
Matilda and Witches are great movies from great books.
The first Narnia movie was good. I am not a fan of the books.
The Harry Potter movies are good. I especially liked the third.
The Lord of the Flies capture the disturbing nature of the book but is not as good.
That is it for now.

[Carmen Ferreiro-Esteban]

Some more:

The Little Princess, the 1995 version directed by Alfonso Cuarón is an excellent movie while the book is a little outdated for me.

Alfonso Cuarón is also the director of the third Harry Potter movie and the producer of Pan’s Labyrinth, one of my favorite movies ever.
(Disclaimer: I can be biased here as I am from Spain and Alfonso Cuarón is also Spanish speaking (he is from Mexico)).

When I was young I loved the movie The Island of the Blue Dolphins. I read the book much later.

Two books I think they are better than the movie are The Never Ending Story and The Golden Compass. Although I think TGC movie was also beautiful.

[Maggie Stiefvater]

Pretty much ditto to what everyone says here.

I will also add that I read Neil Gaiman's STARDUST after seeing the movie and was disappointed. I thought the style was really distracting and couldn't get into it, even though I loved his CORALINE (which is also going to the big screen).

And I loved Susan's Coopers THE DARK IS RISING series and was so thrilled when I heard they made a movie -- and then I heard it was so bad I didn't even go to see it. Sighhhh.

[val minnich]

I read the PRINCESS BRIDE long before the movie and laughed through the book. To this day, the movie is one of my all time favorites...as you wissssh. So they're both great.

For Sparks, MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE, the movie can't compare to the book. I HATE when they change stupid details that have nothing to do with it. Like, in the movie, they made Robin Wright Penn's character live in Chicago. WHY?? She was from Boston in the book. It made NO DIFFERENCE for the movie. Stupid things like that!

I know it's not YA, but I think the BEST adaption I've ever encountered between book and movie has been SILENCE OF THE LAMBS by Thomas Harris. It's spot on.

[MockingBird]

Call me crazy... or a heretic.... but I just don't get the "Lord of the Rings" thing... I read them as a kid because my dad loved them. I didn't get them then. But, I thought, now that I'm older I'll give them another try.
Still didn't work for me. I even suffered through each of the movies.
I DON"T GET IT!!! Why does everyone else seem to love them?
Hated the books, hated the movies more.