I'm Vanessa, the associate editor at book
riot. And if you have been paying any
attention to the bookish Internet at all,
then you don't have to be told we are
living in adaptation nation right now.
Seems like every day there's at least
one, if not ten pieces of adaptation news.
If it's fiction, nonfiction, etc.
that is being adapted, either as a film,
as serious. It's just, it's everywhere/
People have their feelings about that
which is something I'm very aware of
given the fact that I moderate social
media for book riot. And so I'm seeing
people's reactions to this sort of stuff
all the time.
So between that experience and a recent
bonus episode of the book riot podcast
that focused on a particular adaptation
that I'll be talking about in a bit,
I just have come to the realization I kind
of love bad adaptations. So I thought I
would go over three of those with you
today, poke a little bit of fun at it
maybe. But to explain also why I am super
into most adaptations. So the three that
I have a lot of love for that people are
like, really? One, Harry Potter. In general,
you know of all the eight films, people
have a lot of feelings about all or one
or more of the films and with good
reason. To this day I could not get over
the fact they didn't give the Lily
Potter green eyes when she was a little
girl in that last film. Like what? Lily
Potter's eyes were green. That's why
Harry Potter's eyes were green. They
talked about it all the time from the
first book to the last. Couldn't you put
some contacts on the girl or like CGI.
Overall though, I do just really enjoy
them. They're a fun thing that I like
spending time with. But the film that a
lot of people have feelings about that I
kind of dig is the third one based on
the third book of course. That's Harry
Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. It is
markedly different than the first two. So
if you were attached in any way to the
decidedly kind of happier, glowier,
cutesy-er still, I think targeted at a
younger audience tone of the first two
books and/or films, then that third film
was probably a bit of a shock.
But, as I learned on the Warner Brothers
Studio Tour when I lived in England for
a while and did all things geekishly
Potter, the shift, the difference in
theme that you notice is very, very
deliberate. They brought in a director
whose job it was to take the books or
the film and just completely shift the
tone to accommodate the like darker plot
points that were slowly but surely
making their way. And, you know, yeah, 
right around the third book stuff starts
to get a little more real.
Alfonso Coron was brought in to do it,
which hey, brown man directing. But yeah,
I think he kind of accomplished that
mission. He definitely took the theme of
the books and movies and just in that
third one was like follow me to the dark
place. Everything about the film, from the
way it's shot, the music, the background,
the like kind of color wash. It's a
little bit kind of gloomy, murky the
entire time. Everything about it was
different. But again, it's deliberate. So I
think it did a bit set out to do. And
overall, yeah, it's funky. It's different.
But I kind of dig it. The second
adaptation that the people were like girl,
"who? what?" And I just really loved and is
actually the whole reason that this post
came to be or this video, is my love for
The DaVinci Code. The DaVinci Code was, as
I mentioned, recently discussed in that
bonus episode of the book riot podcast.
Jeff and Rebecca did a rewatch. I knew
that they were doing this and I saw
Rebecca re-watching it as she posted on
like her Instagram stories. I actually
went and rewatched it the same day. And
while the general consensus among both
of them, and really people in general, is
that it's so, so bad, I so, so don't care.
I love the whole like robert langdon series.
The books, we, lots of us at book
riot love. Its unabashed, unapologetic.
I wouldn't even call it a guilty pleasure
because there is ZERO guilt. Nada.
Me gusta. But the film's a lot of
people are like, yeah, so listen. Whereas
I'm just like, yeah, give it to me. I love
them. I just think they're fun.
I think overall that it's one of the
themes that links my taste for most
adaptations. It's just
they're fun from either an
outlet of escape. I don't go into them
necessarily expecting to be profoundly
moved and changed. That is the case with
some adaptations. But a lot of the ones
that I choose to spend the most time
with are just ones that are adaptations
of things that I just find intensely
like likeable even if they're not
highbrow. And so I kind of don't mind if
they're a little cheesy corny. Yeah, Tom
Hanks probably isn't the best choice for
that like Robert Langdon swag. And
maybe I'm giving him too much credit
because I think he's just a cool dude in
general. But yeah, I really enjoy them.
I definitely watched the crap out of
angels and demons too. I will be watching
inferno probably tonight. I just think
they're enjoyable and they're-- I know
what I'm getting when I sign up for this
stuff and I tend to get exactly what
that is. So yeah, I don't mind. The third
adaptation I really like that most
people were sending me text messages
and calling me to check up on me because
it is based on a author that I love, one
who occupies like two and a half shelves
on my bookcase. That is Agatha Christie's,
specifically the most recent adaptation
of Murder on the Orient Express. The one
that starred everybody really Kenneth
Branagh as Detective Poroit, Michelle
Pfeiffer's in it, Penelope Cruz, Johnny
Depp, whatever. But I get why people have
their feelings. There are parts of it
that could have been done better. I did
not appreciate, and if I'm just like
off-base here and my memory doesn't serve me
right, feel free to correct me. I have
read all of Agatha Christie's works. It's
been a while since I've reread some of
them. Like a while.
But I don't ever remember there being a
point at which Poroit's kind of
fastidious quirkiness was ever described
as being the result of a woman who
changed him forever because she broke
his heart. And I don't even remember in
the film whether it's that somebody who
broke his heart or if it's someone that
passed. But there is that scene, spoiler
kinda not really, in the end where you
see or find out that a lot of why Poroit
is the way that he is is because
there's like a broken heart situation.
And then I was like no, Poroit was just
fastidious and kind of
annoying because he just was. Sometimes
I'm annoying. It has nothing to do with
the guy. It's just who we are. So I don't know
though. Again I kind of knew what I was
sort of getting. And then as I've
mentioned I can think a couple times now,
I just have such appreciation for some
of these particular works or things that
I love that I just want more of it and I
am okay with someone else's
interpretation of it even if it isn't a
hundred percent what I would have
interpreted it as visually or otherwise.
I have a lot of respect for people in
the visual arts because I don't know how
you take a work that is either, you know,
again like a lofty piece of literary
fiction or a piece of sci-fi or fantasy
or magical realism or the visual details
that are described or gonna be
challenging to actually put into a
visual medium. Or if it's just like a
Harry Potter or another series it is so
beloved that the bars already impossibly
high. I think it takes a lot of mmm to
look at that and go, yeah, I'm gonna put
that on you know the bigger small screen.
I'm gonna rock it. Like I could never. So
go you. And I think maybe that's why I
give a lot of this stuff some extra room.
I do draw the line at stuff that is
either offensive, harmful in any way. And
there are some adaptations that truly
are just that bad. There are a few. I
didn't want to be a mean girl so I'm not
going to talk about those today. But I
say 95 percent of the time I am going to
be interested and probably appreciative
of an adaptation just because again I
want to spend more time the things
really love. If that means seeing it
in film, even if it doesn't
hundred-percent hit the mark, I'm okay with
that. So yeah, that's just my little
corner of the adaptation world. Please
tell me if you have adaptations that you
love in spite of the fact that everybody
else is like, boo. Again, at the end of the
day, I'm always gonna be a proponent just
loving the things that you love as long
as they're not harming anybody in any
way. But I want to know what yours are
cause now I'm just really curious. Thanks
for watching. See you next week.
