The Giver by Lois Lowry was many of our hosts first experience with YA distopias and is truly unique to what the genre has to offer these days. We discuss the society in which Jonas lives and the revelations that he must go through when given memories of the past. Speculating on the upcoming film, however, has us all feeling a bit apprehensive.
EDIT: Our episode on the Giver film can be found here.
Rowell’s Attachments delivers excellent characters in a cliché romcom. It might be a great waste of good characters and witty banter, but it’s definitely worth the read.
Attachments by Rainbow Rowell, a book review by Kendyl Bryant
Something that might be important to know about me is that I tend towards Sense rather than Sensibility. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a good romance and I can ‘ship’ with the best of them, but I wouldn’t call myself a romantic. Rainbow Rowell’s Attachments is for the romantics.
The novel follows Lincoln who has the mildly disconcerting job of monitoring the company email to make sure no one is using it for non-work-related purposes. When Beth and Jennifer start sending long, decidedly personal emails back and forth, it’s Lincoln’s job to read through them and send them a warning. But the correspondences are so quick-witted and charming that he just can’t…
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In their first ever commentary episode, the Adaptation Team sits down and watches The Princess Bride together and discusses all the reasons that this film became a classic!
As a fan of Sailor Moon for the past 20 years, I was more than excited to hear that they were creating a new “season” of Sailor Moon called Sailor Moon Crystal. From what I have read, Naoko Takeuchi has not created further manga beyond the previous Codename: Sailor V and Sailor Moon manga printed back in the 1990s, so I worried about exactly how this was going to turn out.
At first, it seemed that all the news was saying that the new series would not be directly from the manga or the 1990s anime, but based on the characters and canon of Sailor Moon. If this had been the case, it would have been interesting to see where they would go after all we had been through with the 200 episode series from the 1990s (broken down into seasons of Sailor Moon, Sailor Moon R, S, SuperS, and Stars). It would have been a whole new journey for fans to see their favorite characters in a new light, hopefully a good one. The creators would have had a lot of breathing space and could have created a really neat piece of anime that goes beyond what we already have established.
I was pretty disappointed as screenshots and more concrete news came out. The anime looks wonderful, the characters are drawn in a way that better emulates the manga, but it also showed that they are starting from the beginning again. It is in fact, a REBOOT, news of which was posted by our own Jenn back in 2012.
I really had to take some time to mull this information over because of how I feel about reboots. As far as some of the super hero movies have gone, the reboot of Spider-Man is far superior to the previous set, and although I still enjoy the originals of Superman and Batman, the reboots gave them a grittier more real look, which I very much enjoyed. However, when you look at things like Avatar: The Last Airbender– not that the film was really a reboot, but it told the same story- the original was miles above the film. Of course, I do take into account that some things are just better when animated and in the case of this new Sailor Moon, that at least is not an issue. Still, I’m of the philosophy “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
So, do we really need it again?
The short answer is… YES!
This new version is going to be a closer adaptation to the fabulous manga.
Although the 1990s anime (the original, unedited Japanese) is fun, exciting, addictive, and has all the feels you would want from a good TV show, there are things that I would like to see them do differently. I would not say that the original anime is bad by any means. I love it and have re-watched it more times than I can count. And though the manga is not drastically different, there are key differences that no adaptation has covered so far.
What the adaptations have done, is taken a lovely story and woven more intricacies into it so we get the same general idea or story line, but characters are more fleshed out. Some characters are taken in different directions, many times showing that even if they are on the bad side of the story, they have good parts to them. In the manga, characters were added and defeated (or otherwise dismissed) so quickly that one couldn’t grasp the characters. It was a case of we root for the good guys, and the bad guys get destroyed, no gray area, end of story.
One character, however, that had much more to him in the Manga than any of the adaptations thus far is Darien/Mamoru. In every TV related story, he never has any real powers- except for the power of bad puns, appearing and disappearing from strange places (i.e. Street Lamps), and enough aim to distract the enemy with a rose so Sailor Moon can vanquish them. But there is so much more to his character than that. Yes, the general things are there: he is the prince of the earth, he was in love with Princess Serenity in the past, was killed protecting her and they are destined for each other, but there are some things that have always been omitted.
He had powers in the manga, real ones. Darien/Mamoru had the power of psychometry, which allowed him to do many things, as Lita/Makoto/Jupiter explained in the original translated manga: he had the power to heal himself or others quickly, but he could use this same power as an attack. Later in the manga he touches the Earth to feel that the planet as a whole had only been scratched, and he could find just about anyone on it. Beyond that, he is the true holder of the golden crystal, to match Sailor Moon’s silver crystal, which is just one of the many things I disliked about the SuperS series in the 1990s Anime. It is the one that went the most wrong in my opinion.
Even Sailor Moon herself as a character is better in the manga. She grows very quickly and doesn’t need to be told to use her abilities- a friend and I watched through the whole series to see how many episodes someone didn’t say “Now, sailor moon!” and trust me, there were not a lot- and she is the true protector. She also uses cute goggles to see through ruses and was convinced that Sailor V was the true princess to the moon kingdom. Not that anyone was really fooled, but I liked her much better in the manga.
Also, let us not forget the near absence of the overpowering evil presence named Queen Metalia, who is the one who poisons Queen Beryl’s mind and starts the whole war. In the 1990s anime, there is some dark blob that Queen Beryl talks to, but she is not really given a name. They did better with it in the 2003 live action, but instead of Beryl absorbing her powers, Mamoru does, which was just one of the many crazy things that happened in the live action film.
I also miss the fact that the four soldiers under Queen Beryl were once loyal to Prince Endymion (Mamoru/Darien’s past life). They were soldiers under his rule and occasionally felt something towards him even when they were under Beryl’s spell. In death, they turn into the stones of their names: Jadeite, Nephrite, Zoisite, and Kunzite and are freed, allowing them to help Prince Endymion later on. This was never touched upon in the 1990s anime, but it was brought up in the Sailor Moon RPG video game as well as the 2003 live action.
Another thing, that anime viewers may not know is that the it got a bit ahead of the manga. By the time the series R was being made that story had not yet been published via the manga. This is why the “Doom Tree” series seems so out of place and why all the senshi/scouts lose their memories at the end of the first series. The creators weren’t sure there would be more so they wrapped up the season in a nicely wrapped package. This of course, is not how it all goes down in the manga. The enemy of that story is defeated and everyone is happy when Chibiusa/Rini comes crashing down, but there was no in-between, confusion, or needing to begin again.
This is why I feel like another adaptation is not only warranted, but necessary. I would like to see all of my favorite things in anime form. I mean, I could just read the Manga again, and now that it is more readily available to people, so could everyone else. But, for those who don’t get into the manga, I think the anime will be a great door opener.
Of course, there are things that people might miss in the new adaptation: there are no rainbow crystals in the manga, Naru doesn’t have a love affair with Nephrite, etc. And if Sailor Moon Crystal does well enough and they continue onto R with the Black Moon series, Sapphire might not have a cute backstory with Prizma, and he may turn out much less likable as he was in the manga. Things will be different, but the new anime isn’t going to erase the old one. We can always watch the original again (and again and again…)
Sailor Moon Crystal is set to premiere on 5th July across the globe. You can watch it one Hulu+, Crunchyroll [available to Crunchyroll’s audience in the following territories: U.S.A, Canada, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Latin America (Central and South America including Mexico)] and Viz Media’s Neon Alley.
They are planning on premiering subbed and re-dubbed versions at the same time. Hopefully, since the Japanese and Americans are working simultaneously, the dubbing will be much better quality. I could rant about a comparison between original Subbed and Dubbed of the 1990s anime, but that is for another day.
Now, I’m off to re-read the manga for the billionth time. If you haven’t read it, I suggest you do, and if you have, why not once more with feeling?
I am SUPER EXCITED! Here’s a trailer to get you pumped!
What bits do you hope they keep in this version, or what bits do you hope they cut? Let us know in the comments!
Regicide, patricide and uxoricide: Game of Thrones season 4 was full of artful deaths and shocking moments, but was lacking in lingering questions. While this season felt more like setting up a chess board than a murder mystery, the hosts are still excited to see where everyone ends up and what their roles will be next season!
After covering The Fault in Our Stars novel by John Green in a previous episode, the hosts return to talk about the new film adaptation of this teenage life story. They agree that the film was extremely accurate, but still missed a few of their favorite moments and worry that some themes were lost.
What did you think? Let us know in the comments!
In the new film Maleficent, based on the character from Disney’s Sleeping Beauty, we see that the Mistress of All Evil has more of soft side than one might think for someone that casts a curse on an innocent baby. The hosts discuss the astounding visuals, the character’s motivations and the possible themes in the film.
… but then they didn’t. In the new installment in the X-Men series, Sentinels created by Trask Industries have decimated mankind. In order to prevent this future, Wolverine travels back to the 70s to stop the event that set these events in motion. Our hosts come together to try to figure out the intricacies of this new time-line, what it means for the future and how thankful they are for the fixed mistakes.
In this episode of Adaptation, the hosts have a magical time discussing Once Upon a Time season three and three and a half. From the manipulative genius that was Peter Pan to the bratty child that was Zelena, this season was full of irredeemable villains, hardcore shipping and more twisted limbs on the family tree.
It is hard to know what to expect from a stage production of Frankenstein, especially when all of the films called Frankenstein have been off the mark on their adaptation of the novel by Mary Shelley. The production for the London Stage was written by Nick Dear (The Art of Success), published by Faber and Faber, directed by Danny Boyle (director of the opening ceremony at the 2012 London Olympics; Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire), and starred Jonny Lee Miller (Elementary) as the Creature and Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock) as Dr. Victor Frankenstein. When this production was put up, on alternating nights Miller and Cumberbatch would switch parts, and although I would have loved to see both, I was only able to see the aforementioned one.
Shelley started writing the story when she was eighteen, and the novel was published when she was twenty. The first edition was published anonymously in London in 1818. Shelley’s name appears on the second edition, published in France in 1823 and was always titled Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus, which influenced the creators and actors from this production. They also said that even though it takes place so long ago, much of the story still resonates with current events. It was written in an age before science fiction was a genre, when Gothic stories reigned, and the novel stands out above others riddled with fear of what lengths people will take for science, and what immoral acts can come from it. Can Man really play God? It was the first book to ask.
The production begins with a lit circle in the middle of the stage, something of a womb made of canvas and wood. Inside is the Creature being brought to life and he is birthed from this and onto the stage in view. For a while there is a bit of awkward flailing and noise-making as the Creature learns to crawl, stand, walk, run and emit some form of speech. When Victor enters and sees what he has done, he covers the Creature and abandons him, running for his life.
The stage design was Gothic and minimalist- very fitting for this novel. It was dark and sparse most of the time, with only flares of something more, like a patch of grass or a bonfire, or a small structure for a house, etc. There were some scenes that had much more, like the train and rail workers coming in, which was a spectacular sight to see, or where Victor lived and worked. The center part of the stage rotated and was utilized for space and to move scenery. There was also a curtain of lights above, a mass of light bulbs hanging from the rafters, and when they were lit it was a fantastic sight. All in all, the staging was very well thought out and employed very successfully.
The amazing thing about this production that has never happened in a straightforward adaptation of the novel (excluding I, Frankenstein, which could be considered an adaptation of the novel, but is also based on a graphic novel we discussed previously in a podcast) is that the voice of the Creature, his own thoughts and feelings, are so important and central to the production. This differs even from the novel, where although we heard the Creature speak, the story is told from Dr. Victor Frankenstein’s perspective. I have to applaud Nick Dear for taking this approach. This feature is what attracted him and was essential to this production, as Danny Boyle generally said, and unknowingly agreed with me about how previous adaptations of Frankenstein always took the Creature’s voice away, changing the point and the crux of the story.
A curious yet fabulous decision was that the casting for this play went for a colorblind array of cast members. We never see Victor’s mother, but his father (M. Frankenstein), brother (William) and fiancée/wife (Elizabeth) were black, and as most people can easily tell, Benedict Cumberbatch is a very pale shade of white. For the time it represented, it was unlikely in all accounts. As a viewer today, the fiancée doesn’t make much difference, but the blood relatives did pull me away from the story for a while, if only because I was trying to figure out if his father was really his stepfather and his little brother actually his half-brother. However, I am one to love it when directors and casting turn things on their head and surprise people.
The acting, I expected, was going to be the highlight of the play, and they did not disappoint. It is no wonder that Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller share both the Olivier Award and London Evening Standard Award for Best Actor for their respective performances. They brought the characters to life in a way that made you forget you were watching a play. When choosing which version to go see, I figured that Benedict could play either part very well, but I wanted to see what Jonny Lee Miller could do as the Creature.
For most of the first half of the play the Creature is left to roam through the dirty streets of London, hiding in the shadows and scrounging for food. Anytime he is seen, like when he saves a prostitute from an assault, she sees him and backs away wanting to leave him alone, which is the tamest way a person reacts to him.
As I have said in a previous podcast about the 1931 Frankenstein, the Creature Frankenstein creates is like a child. Everything around him is new and interesting and absolutely terrifying. That is Miller’s take on the Creature. When he comes to a patch of grass he plays on it, feels it and rolls in it. Rain is refreshing and amazing. The sun sets and the birds fly and he laughs and jumps around at all the new stimulation.
My only issue with his portrayal is that it walked a fine line between fabulous interpretation and offensive. This child-like Creature with put together parts and a newly awakened brain had some muscular and speech disabilities, which on one hand I can see how that fits, and on the other hand it took on the guise of someone mentally disabled with stutters, spitting and long pauses in between syllables of speech as he gathered his wits. When the Creature makes it out onto a farm and meets up with the blind man who takes him under his wing and teaches him literature and philosophy, his demeanor and mannerisms smooth out a bit, but still felt a little uncomfortable for me.
***Trigger Warning: Sexual Violence*** (skip next two paragraphs)
Still, the most uncomfortable moment was the culminating one, where Victor and Elizabeth have just wed in Geneva. Victor tells her to stay in her room while he and the guards go hunting the Creature. The Creature is actually hidden very well under the sheets of the bed and springs upon Elizabeth when Victor is away. At first, it seems that they are just going to talk. Elizabeth calms and tell him that they can be friends, which seems to be all that the Creature wants at this point, even though we know that he is desperate for someone like himself to be created.
The mood turns quickly as the Creature says that he feels bad that he has to do this and then proceeds to hold Elizabeth down on the bed and rapes her on stage. I do not remember that being part of the book and I think that a disclaimer was warranted. It made me very upset and sick and while I want to applaud the actors and director for making me feel so much, it was a bit too much for me and I’m sure for other audience members.
Besides that, the production was highly engaging. There are so many moments that just tug at you: You watch the creature learn and grow, and you pity him; you see him commit his first crime, and anger takes hold; he pleads with his creator to make a companion, and you sympathize with him; Victor takes into account all the ways this could go wrong and destroys the companion after showing the Creature, and you don’t know what to feel; the Creature murders all that is near and dear for Victor, and you feel disgusted. In the end it all culminates with the both Victor and his Creature in the North Pole, where we learn that they are nearly one and the same: both monsters, both human. All the Creature wants is to not be alone.
This play was dark and gritty, it easily held up a mirror to the audience asking who is the real monster? And it was not afraid to go darker and deeper; nothing was held back. Nick Dear really understood the original novel and made a play worthy of it. I applaud all those who worked on this successful production and now I hope that I can see how Benedict portrays the Creature. Can’t wait!
I do believe that this is relevant.
Recently, Hello Giggles wrote an article highlighting some of the best web series on Youtube: the literary retellings (if you click above, the link will take you there). I admire the article, but in my humble opinion they missed a few. In that spirit I decided to write my own little blurb about some of the best retellings on the interwebs. They’re listed in the order they popped into my head…
1. Jules andMonty. I just finished watching this and the end…oh the end. This is the retelling of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet done by Tufts University students. It’s all student cast (with the exception of Friar Lawrence) and intersperses some of the original dialogue throughout. I found it a little odd, but after the first two episodes it became normal and I became entranced with Jules and Monty’s epic tale. It led me to believe that the story…
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“Damn, I love the sound of Godzilla’s roar,” was the first thing my husband said as we walked out of the movie theater, and I have to admit it was pretty badass. I was extremely excited for this movie, which is kind of ironic since I was only introduced to Godzilla in college. My introductory film was Godzilla vs. Mothra (1992). I never thought a moth would be such a viable villain, but it was amazing and every Butterfree butterfly Pokémon I ever played has been hence forth named “Mothra”.
Some of my favorite moments were pretty classic; the slow emergence from the sea, the charging tail, the surprisingly parallels between Godzilla and Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s character and even a heart wrenching moment when the female MUTO’s babies are killed, but I was also impressed with the plot. The film begins with us seeing an old skeleton of a monster (later coined MUTO) and some dried out egg sacks. Then we skip forward to a mysterious radio active steam explosion in a nuclear plant that kills a few scientists and renders the city inhabitable.
This ties into the discovery of a pair of MUTO no one thought was had survived having a San Franciscan romance. There were so many little touches, and some character arching that made the movie feel just a tad more satisfying then if it had just been fight scenes, interesting relationships between the characters and back-story that made it logical for the characters paths to cross and intertwine.
There was a very nice group of well-known actors: Elizabeth Olsen (Silent House), Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kick-Ass 2), Ken Watanabe (The Last Samuri), Juliette Binoche (The English Patient) and of course I’d be ridiculously neglectful if I didn’t mention Bryan Cranston (Malcom in the Middle, Breaking Bad). The only weird thing about the acting was that Ken Watanabe played this introverted scientist. He mumbled a lot and leaned on things looking gloomy and forlorn and didn’t really do or say much. However, he was an expert of sorts on the history of Godzilla and past MUTOs so it made sense for him to be there.
I could’ve used more Godzilla smash scenes, but then again, I don’t think there could ever be enough of that. To be fair, there was quite a bit and the director had this way of showing just a little taste of Godzilla fighting before cutting away to something else. I really enjoyed those teasers and the fight scenes kept getting longer and more detailed, leading up to the mega fight scene that is a classic cannon ending.
The monster’s themselves looked believable, nothing bulky or awkward. It was actually very realistic looking and I can appreciate that attention to detail. Even simple things like when Godzilla dived under arm ships; it created a wave that rocked the ships. I know I’m gushing and fan-girling a bit, but it was just so well done! Overall I was very pleased and (if you couldn’t have guessed) I am extremely in favor of future films and the revival of the Godzilla movie franchise.
It seems that John Green has been all over the book blogs lately given that The Fault in Our Stars film is only a few weeks away and it was recently announced his previous novel, Paper Towns would be following in those film adaptation footsteps. All this press has inevitably sent new readers in the direction of John’s books, looking to follow up TFIOS with another deeply-felt, smart novel.
If that is you, I would humbly recommend that before latching on to John’s solo work, you pick up his collaborative novel with David Levithan called Will Grayson, Will Grayson. The novel centers around two high school boys living in the greater Chicago area and both named Will Grayson. Their story is told in alternating chapters with John…
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Adaptation Podcast 