People quite often say, “The book was so much better than the movie.” They say a three-hour movie could never do justice to the characters and storylines portrayed so brilliantly in the book. However, that is not always true. Rare are the occasions when a movie is indeed better than the book, but almost always, it is just as good.
Here are some books that have been made into books. If you’ve read the book, but haven’t watched the movie (or vice-versa), we recommend that you do.
The Night at the Museum by Milan Trenc
In 1993, Milan Trenc brought the exhibits in New York’s Museum of Natural History alive with his fantastic children’s picture book The Night at the Museum . Little did he know that the story would be adapted into the blockbuster movie of the same name. In the book, Larry is the night watchman, who guards the dinosaur exhibit at the museum. One night, he falls asleep and wakes up to find the entire exhibit missing! Did the dinosaurs vanish? Where are they? Are the other guards playing a prank on him? Larry sets off on a whirlwind journey to uncover the mystery behind the vanishing act.
The movie, directed by Shawn Levy, stars Ben Stiller, Robin Williams and Dick Van Dyke in prominent roles, and was released in 2006.
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
J.R.R. Tolkien is a master storyteller, having created worlds of wonder inhabited by wizards, dwarves, elves, trolls, dragons and other mystical creatures. The Hobbit is the prequel to the Lord of the Rings series and explores the adventures of Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit living in a cosy hobbit-hole. Bilbo is thrown into a situation where he agrees to accompany Gandalf the wizard and a group of dwarves on their quest — to reclaim the Lonely Mountain of the dwarvish kingdom and retrieve the treasure that the mighty dragon Smaug has in its possession. What are the chances of surviving an imminent war?
‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’, released in 2012, is the first of the movie trilogy directed by Peter Jackson, and stars Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen and Richard Armitage.
How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell
Before Hiccup and Toothless wowed you on the big screen, they set pages on fire (figuratively, of course!) in the books by Cressida Cowell. Hiccup is the son of Stoick the Vast, the head of the Viking tribe, Hairy Hooligans of Berk. As is tradition, Hiccup captures a dragon to train, but the training doesn’t go as smoothly as he would like. His failure to train his dragon, which Hiccup has named Toothless, causes him to be exiled from Berk. But trouble is brewing along with a raging storm as three Sea Dragons are washed ashore and threatens the existence of the Vikings.
The book was made into an animated movie of the same name with Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler and America Ferrera voicing the principal characters. It was released in 2010.
A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket
Lemony Snicket is the pseudonym used by Daniel Handler. A Series of Unfortunate Events is a series of 13 books that follows the lives of the Baudelaire children — resourceful Violet, intelligent Klaus and baby Sunny. They are orphaned when their parents die in a fire, and the children are sent to live with Count Olaf, a distant relative. Throughout the series, Olaf is in constant pursuit of the children’s inheritance, and devices many plans under many disguises to get rid of them.
‘Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events’, starring Jim Carrey as Count Olaf, Emily Browning as Violet Baudelaire and Liam Aiken as Klaus Baudelaire, was released in 2004.
The Spiderwick Chronicles by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi
The Spiderwick Chronicles, originally a five-book series, revolves around the Grace children — nine-year-old twins Jared and Simon, and their 13-year-old sister Mallory — who move to the Spiderwick Estate. They stumble across Arthur Spiderwick’s Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You , a book full of information on “faeries” and their invisible world. The children encounter brownies, hobgoblins, trolls and ogres in an effort to safeguard the Field Guide, which is not meant to be in the hands of humans. But the magical creatures of this realm have other plans.
Freddie Highmore stars as the twins Jared and Simon in ‘The Spiderwick Chronicles’, which was released in 2008.
