CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

What, in your mind, are the best book-to-movie adaptations? (Meaning, they stay true to the book and are just good movies anyway.) Most suck horribly, but there are a few that are actually done well. Not many, but still.

The ones that come to mind right now are the Lord of the Rings trilogy and Bridge to Terabithia. Oh, and Howl's Moving Castle (some liberties were taken, but I think it still holds true to the spirit of the book).

The one that immediately comes to mind is the LOtR trilogy. That was fantastically well done and, if you get the extended editions, relatively true to the books.

Second would be the Harry Potter movies. All in all, I think they have not only captured the essence of each harry potter book, but also cut out a lot of unneccessary filler that made the books so bloated. Obviously, this only counts for first five movies/books.

The Bourne movies are the best I can think of at the moment. And The Princess Bride was a book before it was a movie...which is rather amusing in light of the way the story is told in the movie...

Jurassic Park... While its not true to or as good as the book really, it was a well done and awesome movie.

LOTR of course.

I never read The Name of the Rose, but I really liked the movie with Sean Connery. Most people said it was an excellent adaption from book to film.

"I'm ESPECIALLY looking forward to my all-time favorite fictional character, Tom Bombadil. His delightful yellow boots, the big blue coat, his whimsical songs...'Hey dol, merry dol, ring dong a-dillo!'"

"Tom was actually cut from the film."

"WHAT?! Why?"

"It might have been the yellow boots and the leaping about and singing actually..."

"Well at least there's Radagast the Brown. Communing with the animals, shapeshifting-"

"Yeah he was cut too."

The Princess Bride, although the book is easily better written.

I haven't finished reading The Princess Bride yet, but I've read bits and pieces, and apparently, they stayed fairly true to the book in the script, although I've heard each character gets quite a bit more development.

Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet is an obvious choice, if only because it's unabridged. XD

Even with the liberties taken in the LOTR trilogy, I felt the movies were very well done, and as true to the books as they could be within a time limit (hence no Tom Bombadil (who I always found boring anyways XD) or Radagast the Brown), while adding other points here and there (like the Warg battle in TTT). I'm also biased because I've been a huge LOTR fan since 7th grade, and the movies got me started, but what can I say, they're still well-done. XD

One that half-works is The Count of Monte Cristo. The movie (2001-2?) was excellent, but differs from the book in a lot of ways. I still like both, though. XD

The Lord of the Rings trilogy for sure. the Bourne movies were also quite good but i'm not sure how closely they followed the novels since i've never read any of the novels.

The Best adaptation of a written work is definitely The Shawshank Redemption. The novella it was based on, Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King, was good, Frank Darabont did so much more with the story when he shaped it into a movie.

Schindler's List --I read the book and it's amazing--made me cry in so many places. I heard they were pretty true to the book in the movie (but I haven't seen it yet--I'm a little concerned about the nudity in it though it's necessary given the people are in a concentration camp.)

Though I haven't finished the book yet, I thought Memoirs of a Geisha was well done.