Discussion of Children Literature to Film Adaptation: Why there are large changes to storyline?

Abstract

This paper is to explore the potential reasons and causes for adaptation from literature to films. You may have once watched a movie adapted from a household work, but you couldn’t realize why it was totally different from the story you used to know. Here I will discuss further and analyze different aspects of features by providing some convincing sources written by experts and scholars, and then give you a comparison between original and adapted ones to see the difference clearly. Moreover, as now the younger generations rely too much on film versions to read a literary work, I found it important to indicate to the public. My analysis will be surprising you because the factors include tensions from life, stereotype and benefits of box office are three major reasons that movies tend to change the original literature. I initially explain the intent of children literature and take Charles Perrault as an example to make it clear, and compare lifestyle to different eras. Later in the paper you can see a gigantic change of the notion that men and women are equal and people shouldn’t decide their social position and personality by gender. Lastly, adding or deleting plots, movie producers increase people’s propensity to watch the adapted films. If people view this change as a new way to appreciate literature works, they will ruin the chance to feel the original production of emotions, meanings, or it will be hard for them to engage in the story with their own minds. Shallow and superficial edited versions easily misguide audiences’ understanding of original versions. My paper may help understand the significance of reading and critical thinking, and so that the public does not ignore the problem of changing storyline. After reading this paper, I assure that it will be more fun to have a taste of literature before watching adapted movies.

此份研究報告目的在於探討文學改編電影大大修改其劇情的潛在原因，我們也許都有過相同經驗，就是當你看著大螢幕上播映著膾炙人口的故事時，卻發現電影的劇情發展與你所知道的故事內容完全不同。為了用不同角度更進一步討論分析，將提供許多專家和學者的文獻資料並且比較原著和改編後電影的不同之處。再者，因為現代年輕人太依賴從電影中去閱讀經典文學，我們忽略了其中的問題和危機，理應藉由這份報告讓大家重視這個問題。文章內提及的劇情改編原因可能令你感到訝異，原因包括三點: 我們日常生活中的壓力、性別刻板印象的突破、電影公司的利益考量。第一點以Charles Perrault為例，比較不同年代生活方式和風格，促使現代的高壓症候群。第二點是近年社會對男女生定義的改觀，性別平等對待和性別角色的改變。最後一點為電影公司對劇情刪刪減減，以便增加觀眾對改編電影的興致和興趣，衝高票房。如果大家認為看電影去了解一個文學作品是新的方法，他們將會失去一個去了解、感受作者內心意涵的機會，而且他們會更難融入劇情產生共鳴。許多膚淺粗糙的文學改編電影誤導民眾對一些作品的欣賞，希望能藉由此份報告讓大家了解到閱讀和批判思考的重要性，別忽略的電影改編的潛在問題，我也相信閱讀完此篇文章，必定會促使大家在看電影之前，有了更多動力和熱情去閱讀原著的精華和靈魂。