In which we set a record for list length and tell you about the nine screen adaptations that had awesome scripts.
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#22: Because… High School (The Perks of Being a Wallflower)
#30: Do Bananas Float? (Life of Pi)
#34: The Merry Old Land of Manipulation (The Wizard of Oz)
In which we list plot changes in film adaptations that actually worked with the story.
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#26: Luckily For Hobbits, Size Doesn’t Matter (The Hobbit novel)
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When I got to the end of episode 24 of Emma Approved and saw that I had to wait until February for a new video, I didn’t think I’d make it, especially when it ended with an uncharacteristically defeated Emma being comforted by a sweet rather than snarky Knightley. Like a lot of other fans, I filled the void by rewatching the series, multiple times, to pick up on the things that I may have missed the first time around. And now, on this our last Emma-less Thursday, I wanted to get out some thoughts about the series so far.
I have to admit first off, that it took me some time to get into the series and that made me very nervous. The Lizzie Bennet Diaries had me hooked from the first video, but with Emma Approved I was letting the videos stack up for a week or two before I caught up. Happily, I have moved past that phase and am now firmly in the refreshing-my-feed-every-Monday-and-Thursday-for-the-new-video phase. It’s a grand yet torturous place to be.
But the hiatus has given me time to think about why there was such a difference between the two. Emma needs set up. The story itself and the character take time to get into. In The Lizzie Bennet Diaries the set up is just about introducing characters, most of which live under one roof and whose situation in life is familiar to most of us. But Emma’s world is different. The story hinges on the audience really understanding her world, her place in it and her flaws. Emma Approved even took it upon themselves to add additional setup that wasn’t in the original novel in the form of Annie’s hesitations about her marriage to Ryan. It gave us time to see how Emma works, how she schemes and how much she trusts that her own point of view is the only point of view. And it gives us time to fall in love with her despite her intensity so that when she falls, we’re rooting for her to get back up.
Before Emma Approved started, we did a podcast on Jane Austen’s novel where we tried to predict what the big mystery was going to be in the series. For The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, we spent most of our time speculating how Lydia’s story would be modernized, but we couldn’t quite put our finger on what the Emma equivalent was. At 24 episodes in, I’m still not convinced that there is that One Big Thing, but I think I’m having just as much fun with the little story tweaks. The note and concert tickets taking the place of Elton’s riddle. The song taking the place of the painting of Harriet (which I find exceedingly more believable than Clueless’s “I have the picture you took in my locker” moment). It’s all the little misunderstandings leading to the big reveals that create the tone for Emma, and Emma Approved is hitting that note perfectly with those cringe-worthy, look through your fingers, second-hand embarrassing moments. I will admit that I had to watch the Emma versus Senator Elton showdown in small intervals while taking deep breaths.
While I do love where we’re at so far with the series, there are a few things that have been bothering me about how Emma’s world fits together and how that world fits into ours.
In Austen’s novel, Emma and her father hold the highest status position in their town of Highbury, second only to Mr. Knightley. Mr. Elton, however, is a bit lower on the totem pole, to the point where Emma is a bit insulted that he thinks he has a chance with her. In Emma Approved, we are given the impression that Emma runs with a pretty elite crowd, but the status equivalencies of the other characters are a little messy after that, especially in the case of Senator Elton. While his status does make him almost laughably uninterested in Harriet, it also makes him much higher than Emma and Knightley, which is a bit disappointing. I suppose it’s a lesser plot change, but it does change the dynamics between the characters a bit. Even Knightly being more equal with Emma rathat than higher than her is a slight change to their relationship that could have some consequences down the road.
While we’re talking about everyone’s place, the other thing I find a bit confusing is the videos themselves. When the series started, a lot of people were asking how the videos fit into the world of Emma Approved and the creators made this post to explain it. To sum it up, Emma is recording the footage for her future documentary, but the edited videos that we see do not exist in-world. So the characters know that they are being recorded, but the videos are not publicly available as far as they are concerned. This cleared up my original confusion, but also saddened me because I thought that meant that we wouldn’t get any Q&A videos, which were some of my favorite videos in The LBD.
But apparently we can have Q&A videos, as we’ve now seen two of them. But I don’t understand how people are sending in questions for Emma and Knightley to answer in videos that they are not supposed to have seen. Earlier this week, there was an advice blog post written by Knightley and that seemed to make a bit more sense. Of course Emma would run a blog for her company. But the videos also get posted on the blog, which further messes up the fact that these videos don’t technically exist or at least haven’t been edited by lovely documentary makers yet.
I can understand the disparity from a creator’s viewpoint. They want the blog to be a place where viewers can go to get all the new Emma Approved content. And since The Lizzie Bennet Diaries was heralded for it’s interactivity with the fans, they wouldn’t want to give that up either. But I still can’t deny that it makes my head spin to think about the logistics.
With all that said, I’m really just ready for this hiatus to be over so I can get some more lovely and occasionally cringe-worthy content. And I’m also ready for my standing ovation for getting through this whole post without dubbing anything as “so Emma approved.”
When I was younger there was a certain collection of classic stories that were turned into movies. It seems like everyone around my age was sat in front of them, only to find themselves so engaged they had to watch the films over and over again. Essentially, they may have been the first adaptations we saw, without even realizing.
As a child, when I first saw The Secret Garden I could not read. It was a story that captured me and the relationship I felt I had with my own backyard. I remember being a little girl, thinking the robins that bobbed around could understand me and that we were exploring together in the woods of my backyard, complete with wild flowers and wild rose bushes. It was years later when I discovered the book by Frances Hodgson Burnett. The pages engulfed me once again, but as age does to a reader, I found a new story in the pages that kept me entranced. It was less about the garden and much more about the secrets.
The movie was made for children. Just enough dark to keep you frightened and hiding behind the couch, but enough light-hearted adventure to pull you closer to the screen. The white pony, the castle in the hills, magic around a large fire, the stone walls around a secret place to play and that old wooden swing remain images in my mind as I recall the film. Even the hint of a romance with the dashing Dicken, (the first love of my life), and Mary.
Of course, as a child you can’t quite put a finger on that layer of love, but are intrigued by it all the same.
The book was still made for children, but as literature does in comparison to film, the plot and story lines are considerably slowed down. When I first read it, I was a very slow reader, and the pacing seemed to change the tone of book. I began to see the darkness in the family in contrast to the lighter story of getting a boy in a wheelchair into the garden.
The loss of a mother and a sick little boy abandoned by his father, who refrains from looking at his son from the hurt of memories. The same hurt that caused him to lock up and neglect his wife’s garden for years until Mary’s appearance. The type of loss and the impact it was able to have over an entire household was something new to me and it forever changed the way I watched the adaptation of the film.
The older I became, the more I could see these lines in the film. It seemed the more disturbing depth I could see, the more hooked I became as I began to see the brilliance of a film created for all generations. A good time to a three year old, but with the abilty to bring tear to a woman in her 50s. It even can bring a second thought to a title so familiar that we hardly notice the depth in the words chosen by publishers long ago to describe the entire story…
The Secret Garden
In this episode on The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, our hosts talk about the added/extended storylines, the awesome CGI, the unnecessary CGI and what it all means for the third film. And also how they would watch an entire film of elves fighting because oh. my. god.
Also, we have an episode on the novel by JRR Tolkien and films 1 and 3.
The entire Adaptation team comes together to prove how important a child’s first book can be for 2013’s Project For Awesome!
Read more about First Book
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Check out the Project For Awesome!
In which we give you the scenes that were epically accurate in translation to the screen.
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#42: All About the EL-BEE-DEE! (on the Lizzie Bennet Diaries)
#7: Seneca Crane’s Beard Invalidates Your Opinion (on The Hunger Games film)
#29: Toners for Dwarves (on The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey film)
In which our Adaptations hosts list those films that we think Hollywood should take a second crack at…or a third or fourth.
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Minisode #2: A Bronte Double Feature
Serving as proof that Jess and Kendyl shouldn’t be left alone, this episode consists of the overly excitable duo’s discussion of Jane Austen’s Emma as well as their thoughts on the first video of Emma Approved, possible spin-off vlogs, and desired LBD cameos.
In which our hosts list character adaptations that we thought were the “whole package” on screen. In fact, we’re convinced that these aren’t actors–they ARE the characters straight from the page! After all, you’ve heard of Inkheart, right? It could happen!
In which our Adaptation hosts present the banes of the film industry: seven of the worst film adaptations of all time! Jess may have gotten a little carried away with the ranting, though.
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The Adaptation team rehashes their favorite and least favorite storylines from Once Upon a Time season two, discussing what stories are (or should be) crossing the line, how this season compares to the first and what tales we can’t wait to see more of next season.
EDIT: We now have an episode on OUAT season 3!
Taking full advantage of another chance to moon over a Joss Whedon film, Jess and Kendyl rehash Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing and reel at the depth of understanding the film presented, from the line delivery to the filming to the background action.
I recently came across the 1995 film The Scarlet Letter. Knowing that this is a story that is required reading in most US high schools, I was honestly surprised I had never seen it before (nor known about it). It stars Demi Moore as Hester Prynne, Gary Oldman as Rev. Arthur Dimmesdale and Robert Duvall as Roger Chillingworth (aka, Prynne). Overall, I enjoyed the film. The sex and birth scenes were a bit long, and I wasn’t keen on Pearl narrating, but as a film on it’s own it was pretty good. It sure made me wonder how well I knew the book!
At first, I thought that this was more of a prequel to the book because it starts with Hester arriving in Massachusettes, and the credits said that the film was “freely based on the book by Nathaniel Hawthorne”, but by the end I saw that it was the book’s story, just unraveled in a different way.
CAUTION: The remainder of this article contains book and film spoilers!
Adaptation Podcast 