Too controversial for Tumblr

[soc_puppet]

Today, in "Things I am absolutely not going to post to Tumblr because I will be eaten alive":

storywonker posted a new curse:

may your favourite fantasy book series be adapted into a hit TV show

What I Said in a reblog:

In 99% of cases, I’ll take it. Even if I have to retreat into a tiny corner of fandom that only acknowledges the original books when the TV show ends up being a terrible adaptation that completely undermines the original themes, it still means the author is that much closer to financial independence and able to keep writing as much as they want.

Still, there are always exceptions…

What I did not say in a reblog:

Too late, the movie version of Howl's Moving Castle already exists.

(I like Studio Ghibli/Miyazaki! They do good work! And I can respect that a lot of people really love the movie! I just don't know that it's possible for Howl's Moving Castle to be adapted into anything that's less than three hours long and still satisfy me, let alone any number of other changes that were made.)

Comments

[bluedreaming]

Too true! To be honest I like the movie but I absolutely don’t think it has anything more than a passing resemblance to the book.

[soc_puppet]

Accurate 😩 IDK, I might have liked the movie better if I saw it before the book? But it took a lot of things that made them special and turned them into things that make Miyazaki movies special, and it's just. A different kind of special, and not a flavor I associate with the story. Stop putting chocolate on my garlic bread, yanno?

[bluedreaming]

That makes perfect sense! I saw the movie before I read the book, so they slotted into different categories in my brain 👍
But I never watched the Disney movies as a kid so learning that (at least supposedly) the Aladdin movie is inspired by/based on (?) the second Howl & Sophie book definitely made me even less interested in the movie.

[soc_puppet]

Lol, I'd buy that 😂 That said, Aladdin has about as much in common with Castle in the Air as Frozen does with The Snow Queen! I did watch Aladdin when it first came out (it was one of my earliest theater movies, if not the earliest), and didn't read any DWJ books until years later, so I definitely noticed some similarities; some similar plot beats and so forth. I think I did manage the "different categories" trick in this case, but they are also very different stories, and I think it helps that Aladdin isn't even really pretending to be Castle in the Air.

[mistressofmuses]

I love both the book and the movie... but the movie is good as its own thing, NOT as an adaptation of Howl's Moving Castle! It's SO drastically different. I am able to separate the two from each other, which paradoxically makes me happy that it IS so different.

But it's one of my favorite books, and it makes me sad how many people ONLY know the story from the movie.

(I'm partway through posting a fic that's a Howl's Moving Castle fusion, and is based far more heavily on the book than the movie, and I think at least one commenter was surprised by how different those two are from each other.)

[soc_puppet]

Right? They're so different. Not that the movie isn't good! It's just. Not "Howl's Moving Castle" as far as my brain is concerned. I've come to somewhat accept the explanation I've seen on Tumblr—the movie is how Howl tells it, the book is how Sophie remembers it—but it's still just. Really not the same.


Oh yeah, I've been watching those posts go by 😂 I'll admit to being tempted, since I've gathered from your posts that your feelings on Kingdom Hearts are pretty similar to mine (I gave up trying to keep up shortly after KH2 and the ten-plus years of games that weren't KH3 and, as far as I can tell, only made things infinitely more complicated), but I'm not sure how I feel about jumping back into the fandom. Even for just one or two fics. Rassa-frassa complicated feelings...

[mistressofmuses]

I really do love both versions of the story, but the book was one of my early favorites, and I just love it so much! The movie ISN'T THAT. (I like the joke about it being Howl's version vs. Sophie's version, which is very funny.)
But yeah, they aren't the same story, and my favorite aspect of the book (the travel to then-modern Wales! which blew my little mind as a kid reading it!) is very much not in the movie. Also weird choices of which characters to combine and do away with and things.

Oh, zero pressure to read it or anything! Just that I've had a handful of "uh, so... the book at the movie are pretty different, actually..." conversations lately, it feels like.

(But for real. Kingdom Hearts after KH2 just got SO BONKERS, YO. I content myself purely with AUs that let me ignore all the stuff I couldn't/didn't want to follow, haha.)

[redsixwing]

Ahahaha very fair.

I reblogged the original post out of spite, because every remake thing I've seen in the last decade has just been increasingly bad (I am, as has been noted, allergic to JJ Abrams and imitators.)

But yeah. Separation between book and various TV/movie incarnations isn't a bad thing.

[soc_puppet]

Yeah, the soulless, capitalism-driven remakes are. Not inspiring, to say the least. And again, while I don't care for the Howl's Moving Castle adaptation, at least it has heart.

There are maybe a small handful of things that I would prefer not be adapted rather than adapted badly, if only because a bad adaptation would be bad on multiple levels, but mostly I'm following Seanan McGuire's take on it: If it's a good adaptation, great! If it's a bad adaptation, it should still mean the author made bank off of the rights and is now in a more financially comfortable position, possibly even to write more books!

[type_wild]

I adore the Ghibli version, but it was also my first meeting with the story. I never could compare it to the novel (which I read years later and from which I remember absolutely nothing), but on it stands remarkably well on its own.

[soc_puppet]

Yeah, if I hadn't already been in love with the book, I might have felt differently about the movie. They're just remarkably different stories for ostensibly recounting the same sequence of events.

[eastofthemoon]

I fully agree. I love the movie, but I have mix feelings about it. I feel like you need to read the book in order to understand parts of the movie. The fact they left out Sophie's ability to bring things to life annoys me greatly. (Also, hot take, but as much as I respect Miyazki, not sure I feel about him taking someone's else story for an adaptation and then deciding to throw his own themes into it that weren't there aka the anti-war stuff and such.)

Howl's Movie Castle would have to be done in at least a mini series to be done right.

[soc_puppet]

I don't actually know if I like the movie 😅 I think I watched it all of once, was too put-off by all the changes Miyazaki made (including the aforementioned shoehorning in of his own themes and erasure of Sophie's "bossing things around" magic), and haven't watched it again since. I don't think I have it in me to say that I hated it, especially since I like how Miyazaki did Calcifer, but man. If I wanted to watch a Miyazaki movie, I have another dozen or so on my shelf already. I wanted to watch an animated Howl's Moving Castle. All the respect in the world for everyone who loves the movie, I just. Can't do it.

...Specifying "animated" up there just made me realize how absolutely amazeballs a live action Jim Henson Company adaptation would be. I might accept a movie-length if they tried it! Otherwise, yeah, mini-series at least. Minimum three hour-long episodes or no deal.

[eastofthemoon]

Oh man, a Jim Henson version would just be amazing. The effects they would use on Calcifer alone would be fun to watch.

I like and respect Miyazaki, I do, (I love Kiki's Delivery Service) but (as much as people hate to admit) like everyone else he isn't perfect. I read somewhere that apparently when he first started working on the film it was much closer to the book, I've seen early art of Sophie having red hair but then the War in Iraq happened and Miyazaki felt it was more important to put his anti war message in the movie. I have to wonder if Jones had known that was going to happened if she still agree to let him do a movie version of her book or not.

[soc_puppet]

A theater production would also have potential, I think.

Oh, I can see that. I love a lot of Miyazaki's work, but yeah, that's. Not what I would have done. Even as much as I hate the War in Iraq and also W, I would've just made another, different movie about it.