When the whirl of last month finally settled down to a precious few days with family, I was reminded again of how important children’s stories are to all of us. There may always be a new cartoon, a new film—more on those in a moment—or a plastic bit of promotional ephemera, but in the end we seem always to return to books.
More so than old videos or DVDs, we collect our books—where we might have a stack of (mislabeled, forgotten) VHS tapes in the cabinet under the television, families save children’s books (stained, torn, and filled with memories) in a basket by the fire, or on a special shelf of the bookcase. Though they are not always made to withstand the rigors of childhood, we fix them up as best we can, replacing broken bindings and torn corners with masking tape and glue. The best ones can last long past a single childhood, so that a particular favorite can end up in the hands of both aunt and niece or father and son. A single book can end up telling many stories.
Something different happens when we make films from these books. Film seems more fixed in time than a printed book—partly, I think, this is due to the technological changes of the medium, especially in the world of animation. Animated films of today, so often built with computer-generated images, simply look different from the rougher, hand-drawn work of yesteryear. (There are, of course, occasional and beautiful anachronisms: see The Fantastic Mr. Fox for a gorgeous example of stop-motion animation.) Then, too, the voiceover work of modern actors will often betray when the film was made—syntax and vogue words can mark a film as easily as a 1970s lapel.
So instead of collecting these films, each generation seems to embrace a new variation on an old story; classics are recast in the clothes of the time, and whether or not they succeed in the long run—and certainly there are some that manage to cross generations—is less about what they do that’s new and more about what they do that’s old: that magic we call the story. This week, a host of new competitors takes the field.
From the Walt Disney studios comes Tangled, an updated twist on the Rapunzel story. Imbued with the power to sustain eternal youth, Rapunzel is kidnapped as an infant by Mother Gothel—who covets the magic trapped in the girl’s golden hair—and locked away in a hidden tower, where she lives alone into her teenage years. Then passing bandit Flynn Ryder, on the lam after a royal robbery, tumbles into Rapunzel’s tower. The resourceful young woman strikes a bargain with the rogue that promises a chance at freedom, love, and a world beyond her walls.
Eighteenth-century satirist Jonathan Swift gets the film treatment with Rob Letterman’s (Monsters vs. Aliens) take on Gulliver’s Travels. Jack Black stars as Lemuel Gulliver, a mail clerk cum travel writer whose route takes him to Liliput, an island inhabited by people half a foot tall. Captured by these miniature militants, a bumbling Gulliver must win their trust to undo the damage he has done. For all the bad reviews Gulliver has been getting, it has a capable cast, featuring Emily Blunt (The Young Victoria) and Jason Segal (Forgetting Sarah Marshall), among others.
Finally, the C.S. Lewis series of Narnia books gets a new installment when The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader hits area screens. (It also continues the series’ string of annoyingly long film titles, none of which will ever fit on a marquee.) In this third go-round, the Pevensie children are again returned to their magical world, where the new king, Caspian, is on a quest to save Narnia from a malicious force that seeks to corrupt the land.
Will any of these match the brilliance of their source material? Only time will tell, but if you’d like to be in on the ground floor, now is your chance to do it.
Jack Brown can be reached at cinemadope@gmail.com.