In this post we talk about movies and TV series based on children’s books. Before the article ends and you are left with a bad taste in my mouth, we put our hands on: we have deliberately skipped all the Disney classics. It is not a Taliban choice, but surely you already know these films and we would not have said anything new. Instead, we found movies and TV series that were based on children’s films and we didn’t even know it (at least not always!).
Let’s start?
Fantastic Magicians, Spells and Meanders
Let’s get rid of the thought of the elephant in the room immediately and immediately mention a film, or rather a series of films, based on a children’s book that everyone, but everyone, knows and in particular we love madly.
Harry Potter
8 films made since 2001 for the adaptation of the Harry Potter saga by JK Rowling (started in 1997 and ended in 2007). What can we say about Harry Potter that is not already known to everyone? Maybe just one warning: don’t rush! We hear very often in the bookstore of parents reading Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in shared reading aloud to their 4-5 year old children. Why? Why deprive children of the pleasure of reading this beautiful story by themselves by forcing ahead? The story is smooth and enjoyable, but the plot is long and the plot complex for novice readers. In the end it happens that we find ourselves consoling disappointed parents who keep repeating “they didn’t like it, I’m devastated, I didn’t really expect it”. It’s not a tragedy, it’s just not the time. One more thing: if you don’t already, follow Tom Felton (interpreter of Draco Malfoy) on Instagram and Tik Tok, launched the “Potter challenge“, also involving his dad on the screen, Jason Isaacs, and maybe you can try your hand too! Here you will find all the titles of the Harry Potter saga, including the Marauder’s Map!
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
2016 Harry Potter prequel and spin off, directed by David Yates (director of Harry Potter films 5th to 8th) and written by JK Rowling. The protagonist is Newt Scamander (Eddie Radmayne), the greatest magizoophile in the wizarding world. We potterians already know him because he is so famous in the wizarding world that he even has his own Chocoran figurine, and he is perhaps the most famous exponent of the Hogwarts house of Hufflepuff. Despite many “meh” comments from those who have seen the film, also thanks to the hangover that has never been let off by the Potter saga, in our opinion it is worth watching “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” especially because we can meet a young Albus Dumbledore, played by Jude Law, more tormented, in a constant tension between the dark side and the right choice.
A Clumsy Witch
2017 Netflix series, created by Emma Reeves, starting with Jill Murphy’s The Worst Witch series (7 titles were published from 1974 to 2013). Not everyone knows it but among Rowling’s sources of inspiration there is this witch, Mildred Hubble who is actually a “Muggle” we could say, but with a marked sensitivity, that ability to see what others do not see. One day, a young witch, Maud Spellbody, while traveling on her broom, falls on her balcony. Mildred and Maud befriended and together they travel to Miss Cackle’s school of magic. Mildred is admitted, given an opportunity to demonstrate her magical abilities despite not being a witch. But this is precisely the point: to be a true magician you don’t need a family tree that demonstrates the purity of magical blood you need courage, loyalty and what really matters in life are friends (does all this remind us of something?) Mildred is a great read for young readers who want to cut their teeth with a funny and magical story (from age 7).
Roald Dahl’s Masterpieces
Before seeing which of Roald Dahl’s numerous books have been turned into films, it is only right to introduce this great British author. Oh, by the way, did you notice that so far we have only mentioned British authors and works? This is because in the Anglo-Saxon literary tradition the “Picture book” has solid foundations, while in the rest of the world for a long time the illustrated books have not enjoyed adequate consideration.
Roald Dahl is an extraordinary British writer born in 1916, who started writing children’s books during the Second World War. The success of the series and that of Dahl (probably also due to the memorable illustrations by the English designer Quentin Blake, with whom Dahl had started collaborating in 1978) are closely linked. The celebratory site of the author is very well done: there are the plots of all his texts, the presentation of the characters, the galleries with the covers that have occurred, the quizzes with solutions to be submitted to the students or the fun tests to test their knowledge, links to films, cartoons, musicals that over time were born from the original texts. Reading Dahl for a child who begins to follow the structure of a story by chapters means falling madly in love with reading because the stories flow at a fast pace, have unpredictable turns, contain high doses of irony and non-conformism (no morals), but, above all, they are always on the side of the children.
The GGG
The film we are talking about is the adaptation by Steven Spielberg (2016). The giant kidnaps little Sophie from an orphanage and takes her to the land of giants where giants eat children. This is enough to create the conditions for the tragedy, but the giant in question does not eat children, because he is kind, and he is vegetarian. He actually kidnapped her because he felt her loneliness, he can hear all the whispers in the world. This makes us immediately think of the two sides of the coin of being kind and sensitive: to feel means to be moved, but it also means to feel pain, to suffer, for oneself and for others. Sometimes it seems unbearable, but it’s always worth hearing. We recommend the GGG as an independent reading starting from 7-8 years or in shared reading as well in audio book version from 5-6 years.
Willi Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
The film adaptation of “The Chocolate Factory” (1964) was made by Mel Stuart in 1971 and by Tim Burton in 2005 starring Johnny Depp in the role already played by Gene Wilder. In the direct IG with Micaela we saw the #teamGeneWilder and the #teamJohnnyDepp juxtapose, but unanimously the Umpa Lumpa won. “The chocolate factory” is the story that most of all, among Dahl’s works, comes close to the fairy tale in the classic sense: the poor child who eats cabbage every day and for his birthday receives a bar of chocolate, the occasion of the ransom; the antagonists, the greedy, spoiled, selfish children (photocopies of the vices of their parents’ adults) and who are “punished” for this (so to speak), as in a sort of Dante’s retaliation.
James and the Giant Peach
The film (1996) is an adaptation of the 1961 short story of the same name. From the very first pages of the book, after reluctantly reading the harassment that aunts Stecco and Spugna reserve for James, their orphaned nephew, you wait with trepidation that something happens. Something that does justice and gives them a good lesson! But what you don’t expect is that their punishment is being crushed by a giant peach! James is saved from the insects that live in the fishing, together they face vicissitudes and dangerous adventures, they help each other by protecting each other. Here, family is this, but having the courage to say it in 1961 was not for everyone.