Vulpine Entertainment

I don’t go to the movies much. I just, well, I’d rather read a book. But occasionally something comes along that I really do want to see, for some eccentric reason or another. Usually, because of the hassle and expense of actually going to the movies and sitting there in sprung seats with your feet sticking to the floor, we wait for the home release. But a couple of months ago, after Fantastic Mr. Fox came out, my husband and child went to a matinee while I was at work and I was seriously bent out of shape – because (READ MORE and you want to because there's a giveaway...)

Pullman :: Miyazaki

Some years ago, I read all three of the Philip Pullman books in the His Dark Materials trilogy. I love those books. It's a fascinating, erudite and entertaining world he creates, and I ought to re-read them because we finally watched The Golden Compass the other day.

For awhile now, the girl's been enamored of the Hayao Miyazaki movies. We have a pile of them: Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, Nausicaa, Castle in the Sky, Totoro and Kiki's Delivery Service. They are, in a word, wonderful. All of them have strong girl characters at the center of the story - and even when they are princesses, they aren't "princesses". They are feisty, independent, sturdy girls - great role models for my girl child. The Miyazaki movies also move gently between reality and fantasy, are set in an often vague time period, frequently invoke our need to protect the world from greed and destruction, and often feature whimsical flying machines and airships.

While watching The Golden Compass, I was struck by the similarities to Miyazaki. Strong girl as lead character? Check. Vague time period? Yup. Clash between good and evil? Certainly. Flying machines? Oh yes, fabulous zeppelin-like airships and other wild contraptions.

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Have you read the Pullman trilogy? If not, I have a set to give away. I bought paperbacks when I read them originally. But they seemed to me to be the kind of books that you'd want to have around for a while, to be able to pass along to your kid, so I replaced all three with hardcover copies. The paperbacks came out of one of the boxes from the cellar, and they're next up on the great book giveaway of 2008. And they're in great shape, because I'm gentle on my books. So, tell me in the comments if you want the trilogy and I'll do a random select at day's end on Monday the 8th. And I'd rather send all three to one person, so don't ask for a particular one of the three, please.

Snow Leopard

My dæmon is a snow leopard, and I share that with Lord Asriel.

The first book of Philip Pullman's trilogy His Dark Materials is being made into a movie, due for release in December. I loved the trilogy - Pullman makes a complete world, bridging reality and fantasy with strong interesting characters, one of whom is a feisty 12 year old girl. I loved the books so much that I replaced two of my three mass-market paperbacks with hardcover dust-jacketed editions. I am leery about the movie. The books are so dense with intrigue and detail that of necessity will be left out of the movie, and that will be a disappointment.

I can think of only one movie that seamlessly recreated a book, so that you could see the book, read the movie, read the book, see the movie, and not be disappointed - and that was the Merchant Ivory film of Forster's A Room With A View. Heavenly movie, exquisitely done.

Nobody's Fool, with Paul Newman, was a wonderful movie. Years later, I read Richard Russo's book - and was retrospectively disappointed in the movie - so much detail in the book had been left out of the movie. I know it has to be that way, but I still expect perfection.

What other movies are out there that really maintain the density and detail of the book from which they came?


P.S. "Modest, Assertive, Spontaneous, Solitary and Shy" is a pretty spot-on description of me, if I may say so myself.