Today's book to movie was a little differently approached. When I was a children's librarian, I noticed that Inkheart, by Cornelia Funke was immensely popular. While the back of the book synopsis didn't really get me at 'Hello', I appreciated that it catered to the right ages and let it at that.
A couple of years ago, however, the movie came out. When it did I heard a variety of oral reviews from children to adults either complaining about how the movie didn't do the book justice, or it was their favorite movie to date. Not having read the book and not feeling it was really my 'speed', I didn't bother watching it.
And then a couple of months ago Blockbuster went out of business in my area. I wasn't paying too much attention until someone said all movies were on huge discount. I hopped on over and was pleased to find a variety of movies for 3 bucks, some even cheaper. Inkheart was one of them, and I thought it was worth a shot.
And THEN, a couple of weeks ago we remembered we had it, pulled it out and watched it.
Inkheart (2008)starring Brendan Fraser
from the Amazon.com review:
When Meggie’s father, Mo reads aloud from books, he brings the characters to life--literally. Mo discovered his power when Maggie was just a baby. He read so lyrically from the the book Inkheart, that several of the book’s wicked characters ended up blinking and cursing on his cottage floor. Then Mo discovered something even worse--when he read Capricorn and his henchmen out of Inkheart, he accidentally read Meggie’s mother in.
Meggie, now a young lady, knows nothing of her father's bizarre and powerful talent, only that Mo still refuses to read to her. Capricorn, a being so evil he would "feed a bird to a cat on purpose, just to watch it being torn apart," has searched for Meggie's father for years, wanting to twist Mo's powerful talent to his own dark means. Finally, Capricorn realizes that the best way to lure Mo to his remote mountain hideaway is to use his beloved, oblivious daughter Meggie as bait!
Raspberry: This is, of course, the premise for both the book and the movie. The movie is cute and well done considering...but really much more suited for children. I can't imagine ever really wanting to see it again, but it was enjoyable for a one-timer.Graded a B-.
Trackgeek: The movie held fairly true to the book, except plot changes that made the movie not as open to a sequel as the book. In someways I liked the completeness of the movie better than the book (all though the whole happy ending part may seem more pat than the book). An enjoyable family movie.
Graded a B.
Inkheart, by Cornelia FunkeJuvenile, 2003
The plot is the same as the movie, although I didn't feel as motivated to read it as Trackgeek did. His review:
Enjoyable - I like the author's unique ideas, especially the effects of bringing characters to life from books by reading them out-loud. I liked the greater emphasis on the details of characters coming out of the book. It was more based on how good a person could read, etc. and it seemed more realistic than just they read and it happened. The characters were well done, doing a little more developing of Capricorn, and the author's intent. What's enjoyable is that the back story that the author never wrote applies to the characters, creating a base for a real person/character.
Graded a B.
1 comments:
We thoroughly enjoyed the movie. I read the book, too, but don't really remember any of the details. My daughter never read the book and didn't seem to really want to bother, even after seeing the movie.
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