Kit Kittredge: An American Girl

The Kit Kittredge movie is in limited theaters and is due to open wide July 2. Rotten Tomatoes has given it a fresh rating. I haven't read any of the books in the Kit series, although I've read some of the other American Girl entries, and my niece, who shall remain nameless, was a big American Girl fan way back when. I've seen the direct to DVD movies for Felicity, Samatha and Molly. I enjoyed them, but none of them inspired me to go and read all the books. Maybe I'll feel the need to do so after I see the Kit movie.

Bartimaeus Trilogy: The Amulet of Samarkand

I've seen a brief item that mentions that book one of the Bartimaeus Trilogy: The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud is in development -- kind of like the movie version of the Other Place. The trilogy is one of the best fantasy series I've read in recent years -- a gritty, well-developed alternate world, complex characters, the wry asides of Bartimaeus himself and face-paced plots. It will be interesting to see if they work as movies though. One of the most fascinating elements of the book is how Jonathan Stroud was able to make us care about an entirely unlikeable character. That, I think, is quite a feat.

Magic Kingdom for Sale

When I was reading about Airborn, I saw that Stephen Sommers is also listed as director on the announced book-to-movie production of Magic Kingdom for Sale by Terry Brooks. Announced means it's still pretty iffy whether it will make it into production. Although it's been years since I read it, I remember it as being quite funny.

Airborn

The book Airborn by Kenneth Oppel is listed at www.imdb.com as being in pre-production. It's a great read and a swashbuckling tale so I think it'd make a fun movie. Stephen Sommers is listed as the director. He directed the Mummy movies. Christian Vandal listed as playing Matt.

Airborn is about Matt Cruise, cabin boy on the airship the Aurora, and his exploits with spoiled rich girl Kate de Vries as they battle air pirates, among other things. The sequal Skybreaker is out too. As I said, fun, great reads! Kenneth Oppel also writes the Silverwing series (which I haven't read I'm ashamed to say).

City of Ember

I saw the trailer for The City of Ember before Prince Caspian. It looks pretty good. I can't say I liked the book by Jeanne DePrau that much, but certainly kids love it. I don't see an official website yet. The movie is due out on October 10, 2008.

Prince Caspian

I reread Prince Caspian on Saturday night and went to see the movie on Sunday (I also watched The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe again to get in the mood). Overall, I enjoyed the movie even though it had a rather angry edge to it. The kids' acting was good. I have to admit, though, that it took me a few minutes to really believe that was Georgie Henley. Of all the kids she had changed the most between the two movies. She wasn't given a lot to do in the movie and seemed quite passive even in her heroic ride to find Aslan. I liked Skandar Keynes in the first one. It has to be hard to play the unlikeable traitor but still have the audience feel connected to you and care. He was much more likeable in this one and, if it was him and not a stunt person, did well in his fight scenes.

I didn't like what they did to Peter. That is my biggest gripe with adaptations -- when they mess with character (I've dubbed it the Faramir syndrome after what they did to his character in The Two Towers... hmph). While it might be understandable that Peter had become angry and would lash out at slights and authority, that was not the Peter of the book. Also, I don't think there was enough underneath the anger and poor judgement to make me feel connected to the character. It's too bad because I liked William Moseley's Peter in the first movie.

Susan was portrayed as quite the warrior queen in the movie. Anna Popplewell played her well. The hint of romance between her and the Prince was cute and not overdone.

I could have done without the accent used by Ben Barnes, but otherwise he was an ok Prince Caspian.

Some changes they made that I didn't particularly care for include the attack on the castle. Maybe the whole thing was a ploy to get the audience to switch alligience from Peter to Caspian, because certainly the latter acted more nobly than the former. I liked seeing the White Witch (an uncredited appearance by Tilda Swinton) even though she did not show up like that in the book. I'm not sure why they left Aslan out for so long, or why there was the bizarre repeat of "things don't happen the same way twice" line (which happened almost the same way twice). That whole dream sequence of Lucy's was confusing.

However, as I said at the beginning, I really did enjoy the movie. The kids come across as believable siblings and the special effects were great. As for the Narnians, as a fan of Eddie Izzard (I just went to see Stripped), I was especially happy to hear him voice Reepicheep! And the composer, Harry Gregson-Williams, got to talk as the voice of Pattertwig the Squirrel (let's get some nuts!).

Twilight

I was looking around www.imdb.com today and came across the entry for Twilight based on Stephanie Meyer's book of the same name. For all the Twilight lovers out there, the movie is due in theaters December 12, 2008. Kristen Stewart -- she was in the Showtime Network's adaption of Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson -- acts the part of Isabella Swan, and Robert Pattinson -- you'll remember him as Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by, yeah, I really have to say, J.K. Rowling -- acts the part of Edward Cullen. I guess I should read the series, although I generally avoid vampires on principal.