Popular Movies Based On Books
Every child eagerly waits to listen to a magic story before bedtime. It makes the imagination create wonderful pictures which slowly pass to sweet dreams. However, it is much more difficult to make films out of these classic children bedtime stories. It is a real ingenuity to reflect all the colorfulness of bookish language on the screen. The first animation director who showed this skill was Gerhard Lamprecht. His film Emil and the Detectives appeared in 1931 and became a sensation. As the time flies, more and more film adaptations come on the cinema market. Here is the list of the best movies based on books.
Emil and the Detectives (1931)
The story begins as the horrifying and dangerous murderer Hans Beckert roams the streets searching for a new victim. The second storyline describes a poor boy Emil who travels from the province to a huge city. Therefore, the spectators have a chance to enjoy the views of a rushing and busy metropolis of the first part of the nineteenth century. What is more, the screenplay specifies unfairness of the police and corrupted society. All in all, the main hero changes the situation and defeats evil of this World. The screen version quite differed from the original source book by Erich Kästner. Nevertheless, it did not lose its charm and amazed the audience.
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
L. Frank Baum’s book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was an unqualified success. After publication, many stage directors competed to be the first to represent a play based on the book in their theaters. But MGM’s version made in 1939 was really special. It showed the spectators magical sound effects. Nowadays, the story is still topical and catches the attention of talented people in the cinema industry. As evidence, the newest producing of the movie took place in 2013, called Oz the Great and Powerful be Sam Raimi.
Five on a Treasure Island (1957)
Every child could easily tell the plot of the Famous Five. The story begins as a company of Julian’s two siblings and a couple of friends go off on a journey to find treasures on the Kirrin Island. Gerald Landau was the director of the series made in the 50s. This version is called to be one of the best while it reproduces all the magic described in the book. The film shows treasure maps, wonderful nature, shipwrecks, dangerous, and breathtaking adventures.
Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959)
Jules Verne narrative prose is recognized to be the masterpiece of children literature. In Journey to the Centre of the Earth, the main hero, Professor Lidenbrock buys an Icelandic manuscript. This ancient document is told to contain a special code to reveal the secret of the Planet’s interior. In the late 50th, 20th Century Fox produces a marvelous adaptation showing bowels of the Earth with a phosphorescence-lit design.
The history of filmmaking has a lot more to impress children and even adults. The list of the favorite beloved adapted screenplays can be completed with many more films, for example, Swiss Family Robinson (1960), Mary Poppins (1964), Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971), Alice (1988), and others. These titles seem to be well-known not only by people of all ages and can be watched again and again.
