04 · 25 · 14

Ten Unmissable Films Based on Children’s Books

Ma. Cristina Alemán (@mcristina)

Antes de comenzar este recuento de las diez mejores adaptaciones de literatura infantil al cine, es importante colocar la palabra “infantil” entre comillas, porque no hay nada que detenga a un adulto de disfrutar los libros de Roald Dahl o las películas de Disney. De hecho, no es necesaria ninguna excusa para escribir sobre estas obras, todas (por lo menos en mi opinión) son imperdibles. A continuación presento diez películas basadas en libros para niños que vale la pena ver, a cualquier edad y sin importar la fecha.

Alice in Wonderland / Alicia en el país de las maravillas (1951), de Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson y Hamilton Luske: Con el perdón de Tim Burton, creo no se ha superado esta versión del libro de Lewis Carroll. Captura el “sin sentido” del libro de manera sutil, sin necesidad de tanta explicación, y mantiene al espectador siempre entre la risa y el terror.

[:en]Before beginning this summary of the ten best filmic adaptations of children’s literature, it’s important to define our use of this term (“children’s literature), since there’s nothing to stop an adult enjoying the work of Roald Dahl, or the films of Walt Disney. In fact, we don’t really need an excuse to write about these films – all of them (in my humble opinion) are classics. Below, you’ll find ten films based on books originally written for children that are highly worth seeing, however old you are.

Alice in Wonderland (1951) by Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson and Hamilton Luske: Begging Tim Burton’s pardon, I don’t think that any film has yet managed to outdo this adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s classic novel. It subtly captures the “nonsense” of the book, without over-explaining itself, and keeps the spectator in a delicate balance between laughter and terror.

Where the Wild Things Are (2009) by Spike Jonze: Maurice Sendak’s book features a series of incredible illustrations, and the film version doesn’t fall behind – it is simply beautiful. But beyond this, Jonze (helped by the music of Karen O) manages to transform this story into a feature film filled with adventure and innocence, with just a hint of nostalgia.

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) by Mel Stuart: Although Tim Burton’s version is also worthy of note, my favorite adaptation of Roald Dahl’s novel is this one, in which the oompa loompas have green hair and Willy Wonka is Gene Wilder. The film, like the book, is disconcerting at times, but this is just part of its charm.

The Wizard of Oz (1939) by Norman Taurog, King Vidor, Victor Fleming, Mervyn LeRoy and George Cukor: I like this adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s novel so much that recently I put together a series of interesting trivia about its production. But suffice to say that The Wizard of Oz is a classic that any cinefile should see, especially if you like musicals.

The Jungle Book (1967) by Wolfgang Reitherman: Rudyard Kipling could find the beauty in any situation, including the story a boy raised by wolves who loses sight of civilization. The film explores this aspect of the book, with great music and excellent voice-over. I particularly recommend two musical numbers: “I Wanna Be Like You (The Monkey Song)”, which was sung by Louis Prima in English, and “Busca lo más vital”, sung by Tin Tan in Spanish.

Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) by Wes Anderson: A film based on a book by Roald Dahl, directed by Anderson with a cast that includes George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman, can’t go wrong. The stop-motion animation and all of the tiny details in the film’s art direction are adorable, and the sharp British humor helps the film stay true to the original story.

The Neverending Story (1984) by Wolfgang Petersen: Admirers of Michael Ende could argue that the literary version of this story is more profound than the film, and they might be right. But, this 80’s classic film was a huge part of the childhood of many: how could we forget the scene in which Artrax sinks into the swamp of sadness, or when Atreyo has to confront the Sphinxes?

Mary Poppins (1964) by Robert Stevenson: It seems that the writer P.L. Travers didn’t much like the idea of adapting her novel to the big screen, but Walk Disney did a great job of overseeing the production of Mary Poppins. Julie Andrews plays everyone’s dream nanny, and Dick Van Dyke is your favorite uncle. There are so many memorable scenes that it’s hard to pick just one, but if I had to, I’d go for supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

A Little Princess (1995) by Alfonso Cuarón: This Mexican director, in collaboration with DoP Emmanuel Lubezki, made this spectacular adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s novel. It might be trite to describe this film as beautiful, but I can’t think of a better word for it.

The Phantom Tollbooth (1970) by Chuck Jones, Abe Levitow and Dave Monahan: All of the films that we’ve talked about up until now are based on books that I’d highly recommend, but in the case of The Phantom Tollbooth I suspect that my love for the film is largely due to the influence that Norton Juster’s novel had on me. Juster’s play with language is difficult to translate to the cinema, but Jones, Levitow and Monahan did a great job, and the film’s psychedelic animation makes it unmissable.