The movie critic

I had promised Ane that once we had read all the Ramona books, we would go see the new movie.  Well, we finished Ramona’s World right around Tad’s birthday, and she has been waiting to see the movie ever since.  On Sunday afternoon, the Webmaster watched the boys while Ane and I went to the movie theater.

Ramona and Beezus was a really sweet, fun movie (also appropriately rated G), but I am glad that I insisted that Ane read all the books first.  The movie is a more modern take on the stories – considering that Ramona the Pest was published in 1968, and Ramona’s World was published in 1999, all the stories had to be modernized in order to fit together into one cohesive script.  And the movie does borrow elements from all the different stories.  For example, one of the major plot points is Mr. Quimby losing his job (very appropriate for these times), which is taken directly from Ramona and Her Father.  However, Roberta is also a part of the family (she makes her appearance at the end of Ramona Forever), and Aunt Bea’s relationship with Uncle Hobart is also a big part of the movie.

The casting was perfect, though I had initially expressed my doubts to Friend about the casting of John Corbett as Mr. Quimby (My Big Fat Greek Wedding came out 8 years ago???) because he didn’t strike me as a good “Dad” type for the movie.  However, it worked!  I also liked the fact that the movies reflected the characterizations of the books, possibly even better than the Ramona TV series from 1988.  Speaking of the TV series, my Dad taped those shows all those years ago; now we need to borrow them and put them on DVD so Ane can watch them.

Ane enjoyed the movie – though she kept talking through it, mostly because she was pointing out all of the things she remembered from the stories – but even she noticed how the movie was not exactly true to the book.  And so, my daughter learns one of the sad truths of movie adaptations: The  movie ALWAYS leaves things out.  Being Ane, she was quite indignant about it later, but that didn’t keep her from asking if we could get the movie when it comes out on DVD.

Oh, and I cried when Picky-picky died – at which point Ane, who was quite clearly exasperated with me, hissed, “Mom!  MOM!  It’s just a movie!”

Anyway, Ane’s criticisms aside, we had fun.  It was nice to be able to take her to a movie and enjoy a little time away.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 25th, 2010 at 2:08 am and is filed under Children, Media.
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