Carmen is really, really upset....
... and I think I should alert Homeland Security so they don't mistake the results as a terrorist attack. On the other hand, "If a little Cuban explodes in the woods, and there is no TV camera to record it, did it really happen?"
It seems that she discovered a trailer to a new movie called "The Seeker" which is actually a movie of one of her favorite series, The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper. She says she is "disgusted," "revolted," and has "her nickers in a twist" (her exact words) with what they have done to it.
The novel is set in a little village in Cornwall of the 1930s where you can cut the Celtic aura with a claymore and the thought of Arthurian figures moving backwards and forwards in time is not ludicrous. The American version is set, as all Hollywood movies must be, in California of the here and now, where magic and mystery are just one more sales gimmick. The hero is now a typical product of Hollywood groupthink: a white, upper middle class kid cruising the mall while he has cute and incredibly clever repartee with his brothers. Gag me with a spoon.
She is demanding why in the name of all that is sacred these idiots would do such a thing to the story. I've tried to explain to her that these are the usual gang of unsophisticates who think drinking latte from Starbucks, eating at a "Mexican" restaurant, and driving a hybrid Hummer makes them cosmopolitan. They are convinced that Americans have to see American kids acting just like American kids in all the other American kid stories that have been regurgitated by all the philistine jerks who ever penned a line for La La Land. I think they are dreaming of another "Back to the Future," but without the cleverness.
Meanwhile I may want to take the ol' dog out for a walk, a very long walk, until she calms down.
Though I can't say she doesn't have a point.
... and I think I should alert Homeland Security so they don't mistake the results as a terrorist attack. On the other hand, "If a little Cuban explodes in the woods, and there is no TV camera to record it, did it really happen?"
It seems that she discovered a trailer to a new movie called "The Seeker" which is actually a movie of one of her favorite series, The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper. She says she is "disgusted," "revolted," and has "her nickers in a twist" (her exact words) with what they have done to it.
The novel is set in a little village in Cornwall of the 1930s where you can cut the Celtic aura with a claymore and the thought of Arthurian figures moving backwards and forwards in time is not ludicrous. The American version is set, as all Hollywood movies must be, in California of the here and now, where magic and mystery are just one more sales gimmick. The hero is now a typical product of Hollywood groupthink: a white, upper middle class kid cruising the mall while he has cute and incredibly clever repartee with his brothers. Gag me with a spoon.
She is demanding why in the name of all that is sacred these idiots would do such a thing to the story. I've tried to explain to her that these are the usual gang of unsophisticates who think drinking latte from Starbucks, eating at a "Mexican" restaurant, and driving a hybrid Hummer makes them cosmopolitan. They are convinced that Americans have to see American kids acting just like American kids in all the other American kid stories that have been regurgitated by all the philistine jerks who ever penned a line for La La Land. I think they are dreaming of another "Back to the Future," but without the cleverness.
Meanwhile I may want to take the ol' dog out for a walk, a very long walk, until she calms down.
Though I can't say she doesn't have a point.
posted by Clemens | 9:58 PM
9 Comments:
unsophisticates who think drinking latte from Starbucks, eating at a "Mexican" restaurant, and driving a hybrid Hummer makes them cosmopolitan.
It doesn't?!?! ;)
I think they are just targeting the Harry Potter demo and thought it would play better to have an American accent on the lead in a familiar setting.
Kind of like 300, everyone has a British accent except Leonidas...who is played by a Scot.
--Joey
I adored the Susan Cooper books as a teenager! Shame on Hollywood.
And just for the record, the correct spelling is "knickers," as in "I laughed so hard I wet my knickers" or "Don't get your knickers in a bunch." There are a few other very funny ones, but I won't post them publicly!
Maire: I knew that. I just wrote the post very very late in the evening. So much for the Ben Franklin plan.
Carmen's favorite use of the word is a journalist who referred to the "knicker hurling frenzy" induced by Tom Jones' singing.
And Joey - NO! Going to Spain, Turkey, China and Japan though MIGHT make one a cosmopolitan, if a conservative libertarian techno-geek can be such a thing.
I too am mortified.
You'd think Harry Potter would have cured Hollywood of this. Although I was surprised that Harry wasn't Americanized.
You can tell Carmen I said, "My sentiments exactly." (Or "Ditto!" - either is fine with me.)
They've taken away everything that made the story good and the movie promises to be a huge flop. :(
Ian - It was. They had to film two copies of scenes involving such words as "pitch" and "philosopher's stone" and the like. I'm so glad Canada gets the Brit versions.
I'm boycotting "The Seeker." I hide my eyes when the trailer comes on.
Yeah. And then there was "The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe," which not only was set in England, it was long, long ago when England was under assault from the evil Reich. I seem to remember it did OK at the boxoffice.
You might cheer her up with this site:
http://www.goldencompassmovie.com/
Check out the deamons. Martin has lion daemon names Olyanda, and mine is a tiger called Erasmus. What about yourselves?
Carmen's is a spider named Sirion. I am a hare named Lysander. More in the next post.
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