April 02, 2008
It is a trite and tired thing to simply link to an Onion article but this week's editorial is many sigmas funnier than most Onion articles:
Stop Making Movies About My Books - by Dr. Seuss in Seussical rhyming meter. This must have been a ball to write.
Well, if true it didn't stop them all. It must be public domain by now right?
Oh natedogg, believe that Disney has really not sinned
That show is not based on a word Vicky penned
They first take the book and they slash and they hack
And create a movie that is hopped up on crack
The musical is based on this movie, a hit!
And Germany did not mind, did not mind a bit!
So Quasi and gang sing as Germans all look
not knowing that he once came from a book
So know that as Hugo quietly slumbers
He can not get mad at the musical numbers
for his will has been followed right down to the letter
And I'm sure kids all think that Disney did better!
Okay, well I can't argue with the fantasticness that is beckto's comment but I can point to another wikipedia page with 3 other more faithful adaptations of Hugo's novel for the musical theater (one by Dennis DeYoung of Styx fame).
I'm sure I would hate them all.
Oh, I was just trying to point out the irony of something as famous as Les Misérables becoming a musical. I have done everything I can to blot out the nightmare that was that fucking disney movie from my memory.
That was fantastic Beckto!
(two points though: 1) i'm a pedantic asshole, and 2) hugo is french see point #1.) One of Lessig's points in his Copyright talks is that almost all of Disney's early work adapted other people's creations. Steamboat Willie even was a cartoon vamp on a popular film, the kind of which would not fly today.
And was anyone else disturbed by the aggressive obscenities directed at Mrs. Geisel? If it matters, I believe they donated a huge amount of money to UCSD and Oxford(?), and most of the incoming money goes to their Dr. Seuss foundation philanthropy. (That is, she's way more Melinda Gates and not at all Paris Hilton). I think I wouldn't have minded as much if the meter were better.
Oh, the musical that nate linked to was German, I know Hugo's French!! Who they hell else would write like 4000 pages about the french revolution!!!!! Are you talking about my meter or the onion's?
Aw, geez, I'm a douche. I just looked at Nate's URL and saw "Hunchback of Notre Dame" and thought "why does Becky think that Hugo is German?"
Also: !!Not!! your meter, which was much better than the onion's. Theirs was oddly sub-par -- they usually get that stuff pitch-perfect.
LOL...Becky completely "wins" this comment thread.
: )
Enjoyed the Onion link, it was funny and pretty well done however I have to say, I'm not as outraged as the author was about Seuss movies. I guess I'm just weird but I don't have a problem separating the original work from the adaptation of the work as a film, musical, death metal video, whatever. However the I guess I should admit the conservative in me is also not automatically outraged by commercialism in general either.
I typically do not see adaptations as somehow ruining the original. Though I do agree with Jerry that the Disney Le Mis was pretty bad in and of itself, irrespective of a comparison to the original work.
I guess my odd perception is to just view original/adaptation as separate things with are both enjoyable for what each of them are.
*shrug*
Everyone knows the only real le mis is the single reel, silent version
I'm not a huge fan of adaptations in general but I can see the value in introducing a new generation of people to a classic. What really chaps my hide is people who don't even know the original exists or have no desire to see/read it. Case in point, a 22yr old at my work who has never seen the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. I mean, really! COME ON!
My utter disdain for adaptations and remakes has been previously reported. In an age where every piece of media in history is available at the click of a mouse (or even just Netflix), almost nothing is anymore unobtainable. For me this begs the question: why spend the money, time, and creative effort to retread the same ground? Isn't this effectively the same thing is when people complain about creatively bankrupt sequels churning the money crank?
Of the last 10 movies I saw from the 2000's and the last 10 movies I saw from the 1970's, I enjoyed a far far greater proportion of the ones from the 70's. Perhaps I am filtering for only the good stuff? (Or maybe Hollywood sucks.)
By the way, I did eventually see the remake of The Wicker Man and it was so insanely bad I can't even form the words.
And in further news on contrasting 70s and 00s movies
Hmm. When it's done well, I guess my enjoyment of an artist's personal interpretation or a reexamination in new cultural context has been previously reported.
Here's a dozen (in no real order) unnecessary remakes or sequels:
- Little Shop of Horrors
- The Man Who Knew Too Much
- Cape Fear
- Fistful of Dollars (Yojimbo)
- Magnificent Seven (Seven Samurai)
- Scarface
- Brewster's Millions
- High Society (Philadelphia Story)
- The Wiz
- Aliens
- 2010
- Evil Dead II
Each of those took a highly-regarded movie and either remade or sequelized it, all with worthy results, all celebrating the original and all causing many to revisit the original. In fact, I'm gonna say that all but the Akira Kurosawa remakes, The Wiz and High Society were better than the originals.
(I've left off The Color of Money, because all Tom Cruise movies are overrated turds, but you can add it back if you want. I haven't seen The Departed tho it's apparently also a remake. Payback is a remake of the XMFC-screened Point Blank, but I can't really call the original 'highly-regarded'. Let's also go ahead and throw Battlestar Galactica on the "Unnecessary Remakes better than the original" list.)
My last word on the Hunchback Musical: according to this (pretty funny) CollegeHumor article the short-lived cartoon series The Critic "guessed" that someone would have so little taste to create one a few years before they did.
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On this note, I have heard, though I am having trouble verifying via a five minute google search, that Victor Hugo's will prohibits any translation of his literary work into musical theatre
posted by Valatan at 04:56PM CST on April 02