Reading something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue
I’m normally apprehensive about watching film adaptations of favorite books, but I figured there wasn’t much to mess up in Something Borrowed so I went ahead and watched it anyway.
In case you didn’t know, Something Borrowed is a novel by Emily Giffin, and it’s one of my favorite chick lit books, mostly because it’s not that fluffy, and I was so engrossed with it I read it in one sitting!
Beverly Cleary was a big part of my childhood — I discovered Ramona in second grade at the classroom reading corner, which had a classmate’s dog-eared copy of Ramona the Pest. Soon I was hunting down the other Ramona books in the library, and reading Beverly Cleary’s other books, too. I wanted so badly to live on Klickitat Street with Ramona, Beezus, Henry Huggins, and the whole gang.
Ramona Quimby was a character I could really relate to (yep, the highly independent middle child / little sister consumed by the need to find her place and stand out, forever getting into trouble with her wild imagination and crazy ideas) so I was really curious when I found out about the Ramona and Beezus movie.
I just saw Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland today, and much like the Sherlock Holmes movie some months ago, it’s not part of the canon, although it does borrow much of Lewis Carroll’s Alice is 19, doesn’t remember any of her “Wonderland” adventures, and falls down the rabbit hole again as she flees from a marriage proposal from the foppish Hamish. Alice must fulfill the prophecy in the oraculum and slay the Jabberwocky to save Underland from the evil Red Queen.
Like all Tim Burton Films, it’s a visual spectacle, and I credit him that. I liked the Cheshire Cat, the Blue Caterpillar (Alan Rickman!), and the Red Queen, not so much the jaded Alice, the depressing Mad Hatter (as much as I love Johnny Depp, I don’t like his Wonka and his Mad Hatter and they both seem like the same eerie caricatures on crack), or the hammed up White Queen. With this grown up version of Alice, I missed the heart and whimsicality of the original Alice, and I wouldn’t trade that for all the visual effects in the world.
Last year, the graphic novel was one of the new genres I started getting hooked on, and Craig Thompson has fast become one of my favorite graphic novel writer-illustrators.
I’ve been salivating over Blankets at the bookstore for years now, but it’s waaay out of my budget, and so it remains on my wishlist. A couple of years back, though, I was able to mooch Thompson’s Goodbye, Chunky Rice, and so I started with that.
Late last year, I finally got the chance to read Blankets, when Flipper friend Mike (aka GNP, or Geek and Proud) lent me his copy, along with his prized volumes of Maus. Of course, before I read Blankets, I felt a reread of Goodbye, Chunky Rice was in order, so I could review the two books side by side before I finally return Mike’s book this weekend (I returned Maus earlier), with gratitude for entrusting one of his favorite books to me for several months now. Continue reading “Blankets and Chunky Rice”
I saw the Christmas Carol movie this weekend, and I have mixed feelings about it.
On the one hand the animation was amazing! Five years has certainly done wonders for 3D performance capture — compared to Zemeckis’ 2004 Polar Express, Christmas Carol looks phenomenal! The musical score (especially Bocelli’s God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen) was hauntingly beautiful too.
I’m glad Disney didn’t “cutesify” this movie, but for a holiday flick, it didn’t do much for my holiday spirit, and the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come terrified quite a few kids in the audience — a bunch of parents had to take their kids out of the theater because they started screaming and bawling. I think the film lacked the warmth and goodwill that the classic story evoked.
Anyway, this post isn’t the start of my Christmas posts, but it is related to A Christmas Carol.
