I read all kinds of books. There are some that I haven’t tried, but I mostly gravitate towards contemporaries, historical romances, science-fiction, and yes, fantasy. The appeal isn’t difficult to understand. Fantasy worlds give us situations that while can be relatable in some way, are more often than not, larger than life. These stories are not limited by the laws of our world. They have their own rules.
Over the years, many movies have been made based on fantasy books. Some have been successful, others have crashed and burned.
The other day I was talking with a friend about Avatar: The Last Airbender. It wasn’t a book in the first place, but the conversation about it sparked the idea for this post. My friend has only watched the live action movie adaptation. I’ve watched both the original Nickelodeon series and the movie. She told me she’d thought the movie had been okay. And I, of course, was horrified.
There are just some things that don’t translate well into live action. And other things that benefit from having real people portray those stories.
Live action movies
Pros
- You get to fangirl about casting choices. Sometimes you know exactly who would be amazing for the roles.
- Movies can explore amazing effects that truly bring the story to life for you.
- It might be easier to connect with the story because there’re real people on screen telling it.
Cons
- Casting choices can be… misguided. Ahem… Avatar: the Last Airbender.
- Special effects can look disastrous.
- Limited by acting chops and ability of the special effects department.
Animated movies
Pros
- Characters can look exactly like they’re described in the book.
- It’s easier to replicate the atmosphere the book has.
Cons
- Run the risk of seeming to childlish.
- The style of the animation may not be the right one for the story.
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I’m sure there is more to both sides and I’d love to know your opinion! I’m quite undecided. I’d love for every live action movie to work, but the sad truth is that not all of them do. And sometimes animation wouldn’t fare much better, but it’s an interesting thing to consider. Is animation the answer or just closer attention attention to the source material and a good production budget would suffice?
I agree that there are pros and cons to both. Sometimes animated films just don’t appeal to a broad audience, but they can do more with “special effects” than a live action can—sky’s the limit!
Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction recently posted this awesome thing…Dear Evan Hansen: The Novel – Tour Recap
Personally, if done well and well cast, I prefer live action fantasy. The problem is that I think live action is more hit-and-miss, and a lot depends on your taste, and how you’ve always imagined characters and the world of the story.
This is such an interesting discussion! 🙂
Totally giving away my age here, but the first thing I thought of when I saw this was The Hobbit. The animated version was so charming! The live action movie…less so. But I did love the LOTR movies. I feel like a good fantasy live action movie would need a big budget and a team that really loved the source material.
Hahaha, you’re so right about that. And it’s so important. Love for the source material is key. For one, I think someone who really does love it, would wait until the right opportunity with the right budget came along to go forward and make the movie the book deserves.
This is such an interesting discussion! I have to admit that I watch way more live-action movies than animated ones, so my heart tends to go towards live-action, but you make so many interesting points here, like how animations would really re-create the characters and atmosphere of some books and universes really well… hm, I’m craving some animations now haha 😀
XD Live action tends to be the rule. But some fail so spectacularly, like most of the adaptations of manga or anime. There are just some stories that are better suited for other storytelling formats. Of course, I always get excited every time a book gets to become a movie too, even if I’m not sure if it’ll turn out well. Movie news are always great!
this is a really interesting discussion and one i never thought of! i love avatar too and i agree the movie is just AWFUL! i guess i mostly love live-action, even thought the casting is 90% does not match and they tend to change the story A LOT. however, animation can works really well too, especially for stories with whimsical qualities 🙂
The general conscensus is that we should all forget that movie ever happened 😀 I did hear Netflix was going to give it a try, this time with the help of the creators of the original material, so YAY.