Awesome Adaptations is a weekly bookish meme, hosted at Alisa Selene’s books blog, Picturemereading. Anyone can play along! Each week there is a new category of adaptation to blog about. Any format (television series, film, web series, etc.) is acceptable as long as it is based in some form on a book. If you’re playing along on your own blog, just mention Picturemereading in your post and include the banner above. Let them know which film you’d pick and why it is an awesome adaptation worth watching. Oh, and don’t forget to share the link to your own post in the comments for that week’s challenge so that everyone can read your thoughts!
An Awesome Science Fiction Adaptation
Adapted from: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
I love this story in every form it takes really. And based on Douglas Adams' own multiple adaptations of his story, this film does several new things to the narrative. The main characters are all pretty much intact (except for the new take on Zaphod Beeblebrox's second head, which allows for less tacky looking special effects probably), and the movie begins in the same way as all the incarnations of this story has (radio, TV and book) in which Arthur Dent hitchhikes off Earth with his friend, alien Ford Prefect. In my opinion the casting for this movie is perfect. Martin Freeman, Alan Rickman, Zooey Deschanel, Mos Def, Sam Rockwell, and so many wonderful actors! It's a brilliant collection of talent that adds so much to the wacky characters Douglas Adams created.
What I love about the different incarnations of H2G2 is how it can be different. No version is exactly alike, so every version has some unique aspect to make it special. The changes to the story in this film created some very thought-provoking and challenging scenarios and especially wonderful scenes near the end. Although The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is funny in a slightly off-kilter kind of way, the story is imbued with an interesting philosophy about life and has some nuggets of wisdom. It's very intelligent that way because the humor is laced by brilliant insight into humanity. The story has a way of putting humanity into perspective by taking the last human (or rather there are two) and throwing them out into the unknown and seeing how they adapt. While I think with such lofty ambitions behind this science fiction comedy, the story is better suited to longer form adaptations, the film does a wonderful job of capturing the wit and whimsy of the story and has many great, memorable scenes.
And after seeing this movie years ago when it came out, I was super obsessed with the song "So Long And Thanks For All the Fish." I still love (both versions of) this song.
An Awesome Science Fiction Adaptation
Title: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
I love this story in every form it takes really. And based on Douglas Adams' own multiple adaptations of his story, this film does several new things to the narrative. The main characters are all pretty much intact (except for the new take on Zaphod Beeblebrox's second head, which allows for less tacky looking special effects probably), and the movie begins in the same way as all the incarnations of this story has (radio, TV and book) in which Arthur Dent hitchhikes off Earth with his friend, alien Ford Prefect. In my opinion the casting for this movie is perfect. Martin Freeman, Alan Rickman, Zooey Deschanel, Mos Def, Sam Rockwell, and so many wonderful actors! It's a brilliant collection of talent that adds so much to the wacky characters Douglas Adams created.
What I love about the different incarnations of H2G2 is how it can be different. No version is exactly alike, so every version has some unique aspect to make it special. The changes to the story in this film created some very thought-provoking and challenging scenarios and especially wonderful scenes near the end. Although The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is funny in a slightly off-kilter kind of way, the story is imbued with an interesting philosophy about life and has some nuggets of wisdom. It's very intelligent that way because the humor is laced by brilliant insight into humanity. The story has a way of putting humanity into perspective by taking the last human (or rather there are two) and throwing them out into the unknown and seeing how they adapt. While I think with such lofty ambitions behind this science fiction comedy, the story is better suited to longer form adaptations, the film does a wonderful job of capturing the wit and whimsy of the story and has many great, memorable scenes.
And after seeing this movie years ago when it came out, I was super obsessed with the song "So Long And Thanks For All the Fish." I still love (both versions of) this song.
I love this book as well! Marvin is one of my all time favorite characters in literature!
ReplyDeleteHee, Marvin is so great! I love quoting his depressing lines. :D
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