When you hear the word ‘based’ in relevance to a film, how certain are you of the link with the book; or in other cases real-life story? For example, if you are doing a quiz on Harry Potter, what do you think would be your main resource for answers, the books or films? Even if you are a big fan of the books, how do you know that what you are doing may be sub-consciously referring to the films? In which case, if that quiz was on the books, would you be getting things mixed-up then resulting in wrong answers? This leads on to the main question: are based films losing the original message a book gives us?
Harry Potter may have got its main source of riches and fame from the films but the films don’t have all the information the book has. Of course some of these changes are necessary for the convenience of the production but people are missing out! Most of the beginning in Harry Potter was taken away for the film with all sorts of information about the background of the family- information that only people who have read the books know. Also, if all these great books are made into films, what majority of children will be encouraged to read instead of the easier task of watching a story?
However, like most things, there is a counter-argument. Because the making of films is true in most cases to increase the popularity of a story, that means perhaps, this will encourage people to read the book. In this research by http://13javena.wordpress.com/2010/12/, this is proven greatly as you can see the positive correlation of books sold in the run up to that particular movie release. It shows just how much the films were having an impact on the book sales.
From these drawings of Ron from Harry Potter, it shows just how much the impression of the character in the books contrasts the film-star associated with the stories today.
Harry Potter is not however the only story which has these questionable changes. The popular Percy Jackson series also has differences from book to film. The two films made based from the stories are missing even more than Harry Potter. Firstly, there are a whole load of characters that were completely removed from the stories. As well as this, the remaining characters all have different relationships with each other in accordance to the books, this on top of being given a much higher age which completely vandalises one of the story lines to non-existence. Although people believe they are good films, how do we know that all these changes mean a hidden meaning from the author has been lost?
Katarina
Harry Potter may have got its main source of riches and fame from the films but the films don’t have all the information the book has. Of course some of these changes are necessary for the convenience of the production but people are missing out! Most of the beginning in Harry Potter was taken away for the film with all sorts of information about the background of the family- information that only people who have read the books know. Also, if all these great books are made into films, what majority of children will be encouraged to read instead of the easier task of watching a story?
However, like most things, there is a counter-argument. Because the making of films is true in most cases to increase the popularity of a story, that means perhaps, this will encourage people to read the book. In this research by http://13javena.wordpress.com/2010/12/, this is proven greatly as you can see the positive correlation of books sold in the run up to that particular movie release. It shows just how much the films were having an impact on the book sales.
From these drawings of Ron from Harry Potter, it shows just how much the impression of the character in the books contrasts the film-star associated with the stories today.
Harry Potter is not however the only story which has these questionable changes. The popular Percy Jackson series also has differences from book to film. The two films made based from the stories are missing even more than Harry Potter. Firstly, there are a whole load of characters that were completely removed from the stories. As well as this, the remaining characters all have different relationships with each other in accordance to the books, this on top of being given a much higher age which completely vandalises one of the story lines to non-existence. Although people believe they are good films, how do we know that all these changes mean a hidden meaning from the author has been lost?
Katarina