The Chronicles of Narnia! Of course! In all the book-to-movie translations that I’ve seen so far, this one comes really close. It’s actually perfect. There wasn’t ONE SINGLE suggesstion I could have made to change the movie to reflect the book any better.
You can read my really long review about this, but the fact is that they really did not make it more Hollywood-ish like the Harry Potter books were made when turned into movies. Narnia is just what it was supposed to be. No changing of spell names, no changing of characters and preserving the basic theme.
Most of you will criticize me that the Harry Potter books were way bigger than the Narnia books – and this is true – the Narnia books are possibly one-fourth the size of the smallest harry potter book. But it’s about the basic theme. There’s that internal gut feeling that you get. The Narnia movie completely portrays _what_ it’s all about – the whole concept of the Narnian world, the concept of the books, the principals behind the story. The Harry Potter books are great – they have this element.
The movies, however, are pure entertainment. I mean, for people like me, that was the major downer in LOTR. I’m a guy who wants a strong story line, a strong underlying principle, and if you can cram them in, loads of special effects. But a compromise in the story’s weight to increase battle scenes or to have Harry fighting dragons and all just doesn’t impress me. I like dialogs. I like philosophy. I like to see characters in challenging situations, as humans where they must use their brains, their courage, their wit, their personna to escape. That’s what books are all about. The Narnia movies did a great job of it. I feel Prizoner of Azkaban is the best HP movie so far – a really great one where the story is kept strong.
