Sure, the “original story” that breeds adaptations is important. Without it, there would be no adaptations—no blockbuster movie based off a best-selling novel, or no famous Billboard hit based on a poem’s imagery. But besides its “ancestral” role, the “original story” isn’t necessarily better than its adaptations. Adaptations are opportunities for different artists to put their own spin on it, using the original as a vehicle for their own vision of the story, or to expand on certain aspects of the original.
Take Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, a children’s novel that has been adapted into two feature films. Both the 1971 and the 2005 movies have been held under public scrutiny for their various differences from each other and from the original book. Both movies follow the book’s basic tale of Charlie Bucket and, after finding one of Willy Wonka’s five Golden Tickets, his lucky adventure through the chocolatier’s factory. However, as many a movie-goer can testify, the two movies couldn’t be more apparently different representations of Dahl’s fantastic world. Aesthetics aside, the storylines themselves still build upon Dahl’s “original story.”
For instance, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory’s twist comes to light at the end of the movie when Slugworth—Wonka’s competitor who bribes each of the winners to steal the recipe for Everlasting Gobstoppers—turns out to be an employee testing each child’s integrity. Charlie, out of the five children, was the only who didn’t take a Gobstopper for “Slugworth’s” money and instead returned the candy to Wonka. This added litmus test further brands Charlie as the deserved winner and heir of Wonka’s factory.
In Tim Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Mr. Willy Wonka has his own backstory not present in the book. Underneath his social quirkiness and deep love of chocolate, Mr. Wonka turns out to be the son of a reknown dentist, who disowned Wonka after discovering his love for candy. This explains Wonka’s ongoing awkwardness with the children’s parents and, near the end, his initial decision to take Charlie, his now new protégé, away from the boy’s family (another aspect not in the book). Charlie’s subsequent refusal to leave his Bucket family leads Wonka to reconcile with his own estranged father (with Charlie’s help). The movie ends on a warm-and-fuzzy note, suggesting the importance of having loved ones as well as the things you love in life.
In their own respective ways, the film adaptations work off the book and even improve it. I’ve read the book and have watched both movies, and it’s honestly hard to say which out of the three is the “best.” In a way, they could stand as three different accounts from three different points of view of the same tale. (Even each depiction of Willy Wonka is different!) Adaptations from stories such as Charlie can fill in the blanks that the author may or may not have left purely for our imaginations.
I disagree that adaptations are better than the originals. I feel as if other authors and directors undermine the morals and themes that the original author has written into their stories. It's as if the original writers have put a piece of themselves and what's important to them into their works and the authors of the adaptations change them into what they believe, when really, they should just have written something of their own in the first place.
ReplyDeleteI found your blog to have the most interesting example. I suppose some adaptations can be acceptable, but certainly not as good. Take the Harry Potter books, for example. I do prefer the movies because the books are much too long to keep my interest. But quality-wise, the books have the full story. The movies leave parts out, such as Peeves the Poltergeist.(which the computer games actually include).
ReplyDeleteI found your take on the adaptations to be very intriguing. I agree with your view that these adaptations of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory did improve on the original in some aspects like filling in details previously left out. However, I do not find this to be true for all adaptations; I believe the original should always be held with the most esteem as the story was told as the author first intended.
ReplyDeleteI like how you talked about how each author's take on the story of Willy Wonka was great in its own way. I agree that these stories are a way for us to create our own image of the chocolate factory and that it is hard to decide which one is the best. If I had to choose which story I enjoyed the most, I would probably choose the first movie because I grew up watching it and consider it one of my favorite movies.
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