Escape to Witch Mountain, movie vs. book
Dec. 30th, 2005 01:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ceebeegeeI watched the DVD of Escape to Witch Mountain last night. It's a fun movie--it's enjoyable and the kids are adorable--but I just can't get past how much better a more book-faithful adaptation would've been. The movie is just too '70s-era Disney, too cutesy and corny. And my GOD, do they hammer home the exposition--"Tia, what an UNUSUAL star box!" And "Oh, I'm playing outfield and a fly-ball was hit over my head, I think I'll JUMP 30 FEET INTO THE AIR to catch it, and then play dumb when all the kids seem surprised!" Especially annoying is when Aristotle Bolt, who up to now has been the absolute villain of the piece, gets this silly dialogue at the end--the Winnebago is flying through the air, being levitated by Uncle Bene, and it "pulls up" next to Bolt's helicopter. Poor Ray Milland is forced to do these silly double-takes and say dumb stuff like "that kind of vehicle can't fly upside-down...it can't even fly at all..." Dumb, dumb and annoying. It's amazing how for both Witch Mountain movies, they were able to get these legends to sign on--Ray Milland, Donald Pleasance, Eddie Albert, BETTE FREAKIN' DAVIS, Christopher Lee--and the end products are still so very corny, these amazing actors can't really overcome the treatment. (Donald Pleasance is GREAT in this movie, though--he never once gives in to the corniness, he maintains total believability throughout. And is genuinely scary as a result, even though his character is watered down from the book.) Eddie Albert does a decent job even though they tried to sentimentalize his character--I love how rude he is to the two gas station attendants. "Nice day, isn't it." "Not with the prices you're charging for gas!" The kids are cute and do a decent job but what are you gonna do--they're too young to give fully immersed performances, at that age it's all "act by numbers" (that is, you can see every motivation they're told to so). They do have excellent chemistry together though.
I love how Deranian is just able to drive onto the school grounds and ask questions about Tony and Tia without anyone stopping him or asking for ID. And I like the flashback scenes--nice mytery there (although again with the heavy-handed exposition, "Tia, you look like you're REMEMBERING something!"). Weirdly, I also like the opening credits, with silhouettes of the kids running, and the dogs chasing them. Nice and creepy.
The book vs. the movie--I talk about the book here, which I really loved. I really wish they'd kept the kids older--for one thing, no matter how smart and psychic the kids are, it's hard to believe an 8- and 10-year-old would be as resourceful as they are. Tony and Tia being young teenagers grounds the story more--they can face more peril and it's more believable that they outsmart some of the adults--as does the grittier feeling of the book where they're getting out of the West Side Story-like slums and they see the mountains for the first time. The movie has a strong element of fantasy and wish-fulfillment (because of its target audience, little kids who want to be just like Tony and Tia and have a perfect, twin-like sibling and these awesome powers) that is not in the book. And the plots are somewhat different--there is no Aristotle Bolt in the book, there's only Lucas Deranian who is a figure from their past (he left them with their foster mother when they were very young). He figures out what they can do, and convinces a court he's their uncle, so he can take them out of the country. He is a truly bad character with no scruples whatsoever, and is not beholden to some rich guy the way Deranian is in the movie. Mrs. Grindley is MUCH less sympathetic in the book--instead of this sweet, grandmother-type as in the movie, she's overworked and tired and doesn't give a crap about Tony and Tia. The Mrs. Grindley in the movie is actually funny, because she's so different. Jason O'Day, the crusty Winnebago-ing widower in the movie, is Father O'Day, the sympathetic Roman Catholic inner-city priest in the book, and other than the name and their function (adult who helps them) don't have anything in common. Tuck, the bully in both the book and the movie, is of course older and much more menacing in the book--he reminds me of one of the AlphaBats in Madeleine L'Engle's book The Young Unicorns with his switchblade. He and Tony get into an actual fight where Tony gets cut up before beating the crap out of Truck (and no, Winkie doesn't help).
The scene where Tony makes the broom dance with the raincoat, terrorizing the sheriff, is the same in the movie and the book, and is genuinely creepy both times.
I love how Deranian is just able to drive onto the school grounds and ask questions about Tony and Tia without anyone stopping him or asking for ID. And I like the flashback scenes--nice mytery there (although again with the heavy-handed exposition, "Tia, you look like you're REMEMBERING something!"). Weirdly, I also like the opening credits, with silhouettes of the kids running, and the dogs chasing them. Nice and creepy.
The book vs. the movie--I talk about the book here, which I really loved. I really wish they'd kept the kids older--for one thing, no matter how smart and psychic the kids are, it's hard to believe an 8- and 10-year-old would be as resourceful as they are. Tony and Tia being young teenagers grounds the story more--they can face more peril and it's more believable that they outsmart some of the adults--as does the grittier feeling of the book where they're getting out of the West Side Story-like slums and they see the mountains for the first time. The movie has a strong element of fantasy and wish-fulfillment (because of its target audience, little kids who want to be just like Tony and Tia and have a perfect, twin-like sibling and these awesome powers) that is not in the book. And the plots are somewhat different--there is no Aristotle Bolt in the book, there's only Lucas Deranian who is a figure from their past (he left them with their foster mother when they were very young). He figures out what they can do, and convinces a court he's their uncle, so he can take them out of the country. He is a truly bad character with no scruples whatsoever, and is not beholden to some rich guy the way Deranian is in the movie. Mrs. Grindley is MUCH less sympathetic in the book--instead of this sweet, grandmother-type as in the movie, she's overworked and tired and doesn't give a crap about Tony and Tia. The Mrs. Grindley in the movie is actually funny, because she's so different. Jason O'Day, the crusty Winnebago-ing widower in the movie, is Father O'Day, the sympathetic Roman Catholic inner-city priest in the book, and other than the name and their function (adult who helps them) don't have anything in common. Tuck, the bully in both the book and the movie, is of course older and much more menacing in the book--he reminds me of one of the AlphaBats in Madeleine L'Engle's book The Young Unicorns with his switchblade. He and Tony get into an actual fight where Tony gets cut up before beating the crap out of Truck (and no, Winkie doesn't help).
The scene where Tony makes the broom dance with the raincoat, terrorizing the sheriff, is the same in the movie and the book, and is genuinely creepy both times.
