{"id":2573,"date":"2022-05-31T12:07:06","date_gmt":"2022-05-31T16:07:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/?p=2573"},"modified":"2022-05-31T12:07:09","modified_gmt":"2022-05-31T16:07:09","slug":"are-adaptations-ever-better-than-the-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/are-adaptations-ever-better-than-the-books\/","title":{"rendered":"Are Adaptations Ever Better than the Books?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Riley Gonzales, Staff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hearing about a favorite book being adapted for the screen can produce mixed emotions: excitement over getting to see the story come to life, and dread over whether or not it will turn out well. There have been both disasters and triumphs in translating page to screen. Are books always better than their movie counterparts, or can a show turn out better than its source material? River Hill students had opinions to share.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Season two of Bridgerton<\/em> and the slightly newer Heartstopper<\/em>, which were released on Netflix this spring, are both recent adaptations that received enthusiasm from viewers. Junior Marley Cosgrove expressed her enjoyment of the latter, explaining, \u201cIt was a very good adaptation from the book. They strayed a little bit but I like the new stuff that they added, it still added to the story without getting too far from the plot of the book.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Junior Emily Fuentes shared a movie that she thinks also stuck to its source material well: The Hunger Games<\/em>. She described, \u201cI really liked it because I think it stayed really really true to the books. It was really accurate, even with the casting and the plotline.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A lot that goes into an adaptation is the casting. While some are concerned with how similarly the actors look to the characters written on the page, others want to see actors that accurately reflect the demeanors of their favorite characters on screen. It seems that The Lord of the Rings<\/em> movies were able to do both, since multiple students had good things to say about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think the casting for The Lord of the Rings<\/em> was done really well,\u201d commented Marley, \u201cThe characters in the movies looked a lot how I envisioned them when I read the books.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Junior Dora Zhou agreed with her, honing in on a specific character, Aragorn, who was played by Viggo Mortensen in the movies. Dora liked his casting because \u201cI thought he played the part really well, and I think it required a lot of physical stuff and I think he was really good at that, too.\u201d She referred to the actor\u2019s stunt work, and the great amount of effort that was required to play the role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It can be disappointing for some to see a series  that strays too far from the original story, but adaptations rarely follow their source material word for word. It\u2019s difficult to fit everything that a book has into a movie, but it can also be beneficial for TV shows and movies to add their own insight. As junior Emma Orlando put it, \u201cI think that the interpretation, the adaptation, exists for the interpretation of the director. So it shouldn\u2019t just be a carbon copy.\u201d It can be refreshing and exciting for fans to see adaptations do something original with the books, and when it\u2019s done well, it can enhance the story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, book readers would still like to see accurate depictions on screen. Junior Anika Nair commented, \u201cImagine how much of a fanbase they build just from producing a show that was already a book, but if they ruin it, they\u2019re going to lose so many fans and they\u2019re going to disappoint so many people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for whether adaptations are ever better than the original, students have differing opinions. Anika prefers movies most of the time, elaborating, \u201cI think they\u2019re usually better. Even if they\u2019re not exactly like the books, I still think they\u2019re good movies on their own.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Others, like Emily Fuentes, prefer the originals over the adaptations. Emily explained, \u201cI think that the books are always better than the movies, just because you have so much more creative freedom in your own mind when you read books.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the end, though, the answer to this question may not be so black and white. As Dora puts it, \u201cIt depends on which one you watch or read first. [T]he one you see first is where you build the whole world in your mind off of, so the one you see second will probably contradict that.\u201d In addition, some simply prefer movies in general over books, or vice versa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way, movies, TV shows, and books all serve the same purpose: to entertain an audience. Whichever one is preferred, one can still enjoy the idea behind both.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Riley Gonzales, Staff Writer Hearing about a favorite book being adapted for the screen can produce mixed emotions: excitement over getting to see the story come to life, and dread over whether or not it will turn out well. There have been both disasters and triumphs in translating page to screen. Are books always…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":2576,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Screenshot-2022-05-31-12.06.34-PM.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2573"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2573\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2578,"href":"https:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2573\/revisions\/2578"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}