Fairy Tale Spotlight: Movie Adaptations

You may have noticed that I have reviewed a bunch of obscure books based off of older films. It doesn't happen quite as much as it used to, but it has been a long held tradition for a movie producer to commission an author to write a book based on their production. That is assuming the movie is not already based on a book, of course. I tend to look for these book adaptations quite a bit, but I generally am looking for ones that are a bit obscure.

If there was an old movie that I liked, I will pop onto the internet (often Thrift Books) and check to see if there was a book adaptation for it. In many cases, I have found them, and they tend to be incredibly cheap. ($3 to $5 sometimes.)

Because of this personal curiosity, I found a book written to promote the original Adams Family series, a readable version of the movie "Tron," and a books made to promote a rather surprising number of other Disney films going far back into their history. Almost every one of the latter's live action movies had books. Their so many of them.

There are some fascinating novelties out there such as "Return to Oz." That was a book written to promote the movie which was based on two of Baum's Oz books. The fact that it exists was extraordinary, and I got so much out of it. It gave more context to the villain of the film.

The thing about these books that interest me is that they are often commissioned to be written while the movie itself is being made. They do this so that the book can come out at the same time as the film. Because of this simultaneous production, the books are often based off the original script. The author almost never gets to actually see the film while they are writing it.

Since the book is based off the original script, content can be left in there that doesn't make it into the film itself. In some cases, the book can be largely different than the movie, giving me a new perspective on what happened. I live for moments like these.

Two cases that took me by surprise was the sex scene in "Tron" that was cut in the movie but left in the book. There was also the fact that the "Misadventures of Merlin Jones" was presented completed out of order to the movie, yet it still somehow played out the same way.

At times, however, the adaptation can be so precisely like the movie that it can be a chore to read. It can feel more like it is describing the movie rather than actually giving me a deeper context into it. This has happened to me (and it's bad), but more often than not I have enjoyed reading these adaptations.

Since these books were only intended to act as a promotional for the movie at the time, very few of them ever become a success. They would momentarily show up in book stores so people could see the titles, and then after that they would become obscure, making their way around the world. They would sit in dusty bookshelves, unwanted, unloved. After all, the movie was the whole point.

I am here today to say that I do recognize them for what they are. There were authors commissioned to turn these movies into works of literature. Many of them were quite good, and I am pleased with the majority of my experience. Sometimes there are bad moments, such as the case with my favorite movie ever "The Black Hole." The author who wrote that adaptation sadly did not understand the ending of the film and totally blew it. But things like that are still interesting in their own right. I want to see the differences, and differences are what movie adaptations are all about.

Also they are dirt cheap.

This blog was written on November 26, 2022.

Thank you for reading my blog! Did you enjoy it? Either way, you can comment below, or you can email me at tkwadeauthor@gmail.com. Also stop by my Amazon.com listing by clicking this link: https://www.amazon.com/T.K.-Wade/e/B07BQK9RTZ

Check out my books! Thanks!