Books to Movies- How similar are they?

Curious George

Recently I watched the movie Curious George with my sons.  The movie was very endearing and brought chuckles out of my children.  The plot was how George and the man with the yellow hat, Ted, became friends and roommates.  George lived up to his name by involving himself in the craziest of situations.  I did not remember reading this story as a child and questioned others to see if it even existed.

Upon visiting the library, the media specialist directed me to the first ever Curious George adventure; the one where he met the man with the yellow hat.  Ted was nameless in the book; in fact, he was referred to as The Man.  The story and the movie both begin with George living in a jungle in Africa.  That is where the similarities ended. 

Instead of George sneaking his way on a ship back to the states to return Ted's hat as the movie depicted, he was captured by The Man and brought back to the Big Zoo in the Big City.  Mischievous George found himself in silly predicaments in the movie where he was frowned upon, but in the book he was actually thrown in prison for "fooling the fire department".  In the movie, Ted did reach his limit of patience and understanding with George and tried to send him back to Africa, but guilt took over and he went to rescue him and brought him back home.  They ended together happily.  The book ends with George living in the zoo.

In both versions, there was an incident when George was carried away by a bundle of balloons.  That had to remain the same as it was the cover of the book.  I was very surprised to see how much these two versions differed.  However, I can say that I am happy the movie had a different twist to it.  I intended to buy the book for my oldest son who cannot get enough of his adventures.  I am thinking about letting him keep the happy images of George from the movie in his head.  Instead of buying him the book on the introduction of The Man and George, maybe I'll buy him one of his adventures that has a happier ending!



Horton Hears a Who

The classic Dr. Seuss story, Horton Hears a Who, was recently made into a movie.  While the plot remained the same, there were some differences in characters and in the devlopment of minor parts of the book.

In the story version, Horton finds the "spec of dust" in which Whoville is located and is on a mission to save them by keeping the "spec" away from the kangaroo.  The movie explains in more detail why the kangaroo wants to punish Horton for talking to a flower.  You see, in the movie, he is seen as a teacher of four students.  The kangaroo is bothered that the children are using their imaginations.   In the story, it is assumed that the kangaroo thought that Horton was just plain crazy for talking to a flower.

The plot is the same for both versions.  The creatures from Horton's jungle do not believe him as they cannot hear the voices coming from the spec sitting on a clover.  The Whos try to make as much noise as possible in order for the jungle friends to finally be able to hear them. 

The savior in both versions is JoJo.  In the story, JoJo is only mentioned at the very end when he joins in on the noise-making festivities.  In the movie, JoJo's character is much more developed.  He is the Mayor of Whoville's only son.  JoJo is very quiet and there is not much of a relationship between father and son.  The Mayor looks for him to help with the noise-making and follows him to a music factory that he made.  The Mayor was stunned to learn that JoJo built this and a little connection was made between the two of them.  He was very proud of his son's accomplishment.  The noise still wasn't enough for the jungle creatures to hear them so both scurried to the town center where JoJo let out a huge yell.  It was at that point that the creatures heard him and didn't think of Horton as crazy.  Whoville was saved!


The Polar Express- Caldecott Medal Winner 1986

Well, I read the book first and absolutely fell in love with the storyline.  A young boy, who remained nameless, is told by a friend that there is no Santa Claus.  He goes to bed on Christmas Eve listening for Santa's bells.  Instead of bells, he hears a train outside that is on its way to the North Pole.  The conductor pulls him on board, and he is surprised to see the train car filled with kids in their pajamas.  They all sang carols, ate candy, and drank hot chocolate.

Outside, it was quiet and dark as the train climbed mountains and crossed a desert of ice.  They could see the North Pole from the distance.  Finally, they arrived in center city to see Santa give the first gift of the night.  The conductor explained that he will choose one from the group to receive this present.  At last, Santa appeared and called the young boy over.  He picked him up and placed him on his knee.  After asking what he would like for Christmas, the young boy replied that he wanted a bell from his sleigh.  An elf retrieved one to give to Santa who, in turn, presented it to the boy.  He was elated and put it in his bathrobe pocket.

Santa circled above and left for his long journey.  The children boarded the train and were eager to see the bell up close.  When he went into his pocket, the bell was gone.  It must have fallen through the hole in it.  The children tried to go look for it, but the train started to pull away.  When he arrived home, he was saddened by his loss. 

After opening gifts Christmas morning, his sister, Sara, found a present behind the tree.  It was the bell!  Inside read a note from Santa.  It read "Found on seat of sleigh.  Fix that hole in your pocket."  He shook the bell and his face gleamed when he heard it jingle.  His parents couldn't hear it however, because they were not believers in Santa.  The boy claims that his sister no longer hears the bell ring, but he still does.

As a mom of two believers, I found this story to be very magical, imaginative, and entertaining.  I was excited to view the movie with my three and four year old sons.  I wasn't as impressed by the movie.  Everything that happened in the story, happened in the movie for the most part.  There was no friend, however, that was not a believer.  In the movie, he heard his parents discussing how the magic would soon be gone and that was when he questioned Santa's existence.  There was more character development as well.  A relationship was formed among three of the children.  The children also received tickets mysteriously in their pockets.  One girl's ticket flew out the window and caused quite a challenge for thee young boy.  He did not want her to get kicked off the train.  Miraculously, after being carried by animals and swept under the train, the ticket danced its way back into the train car.

Some parts of the movie made my children quite uncomfortable and I thought were a little unnecessary.  A ghostly man meets the young boy on top of the train and they have quite a topsy-turvy moment as they began skiing down the top of the train.  He made an appearance several times.  The train ride was extremely long and drawn out.  These poor children went through a lot- the train went out of control a few times, and, at times, it was thought that the children would be thrown to the ground.

My family liked the book version much better.  We read it at the library since it was not available in stores at this time.  When the holidays approach, I will be sure to make this purchase.