Hi all! I hope you’ve all had a good week, mine has been relatively quiet really, I’ve been catching up on Game of Thrones over the past two weeks (whilst I have a free NowTV trial), and have just started Season 5. I think it’s safe to say that I am officially addicted, but dodging spoilers for S7 whilst I catch up is gonna be hard!
Anyway, as usual, I am back with another one of my makeshift Top Ten Tuesday topics whilst the Broke and the Bookish ladies are on hiatus (congrats to Jamie who just had her baby!). This week I’m going to be talking about Book To Movie/TV Adaptations and the ones that are *takes deep breath* better than the book, because there are some out there (very few, but some). So here we go, the Top Ten Movie/TV Adaptations that are better than their source material:
- The Perks of Being A Wallflower-Stephen Chbosky
Okay confession time, I actually saw the movie before I read the book for this one (I saw the movie in the cinema when it was released and only read the book this year) but I still think the movie is better. I wasn’t all that keen on the epistolary format of the book and the movie manages to flesh out all of the characters better than the book did I think. The movie is pretty close to the book anyway, but I felt just that bit better because it wasn’t confined to the letter writing format of the book.
2. The Maze Runner-James Dashner
The Maze Runner is one of those books that I feel like just works better on the screen. It’s such a cinematic, visual type book that when you see it on the screen, you feel like that’s how the story was meant to be seen. Unfortunately the second movie was not so good, but I have high hopes for the third!
3. PS I Love You-Cecilia Ahern
I think this is one of those cases where I preferred the movie simply because I’m not that keen on romance centred books but I can manage (and okay, quite enjoy) romance centred movies. Okay Gerard Butler’s Irish accent could be a little better, but overall, I found this movie a lot more enjoyable than the book it is based on.
4. Heartland-Lauren Brooke
The CBC TV adapatation of Lauren Brooke’s books is amazing! By this point (and for a long time really), they’re telling their own story simply using the characters from the books and it doesn’t really bear any resemblance to the books at all, but it keeps the heart and feel of the books whilst also developing the characters far beyond their book counterparts. I loved the books when I was a kid, but I love the TV show even more now!
5. The Princess Diaries-Meg Cabot
Granted, again, The Princess Diaries are the sort of book that I would be more inclined to enjoy as a movie anyway, but I loved the movie way more than I loved the book. I found Mia far less annoying and way more relatable in the movie, Grandmere is Julie freaking Andrews and the movie was just far more fun for me than the book was.
6. Gossip Girl-Cecily Von Ziegesar
Granted, I watched the show before I read the books and I only read one or two of the books anyway, but I felt like the characters in the books were just unbearable and okay, the TV show doesn’t portray them as model human beings (they’re not meant to be) but they felt a lot more fleshed out and real on the show as opposed to the stereotypes they seemed to be in the books.
7. Mockingjay-Suzanne Collins
Whilst I don’t think the movies necessarily needed to be split into two parts, I found them a lot more engaging than Mockingjay the book. For the other two films, yes, the book is better, but I would argue that the Mockingjay movies are far less tedious than the book.
8. Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants-Ann Brashares
Again, this might be a case of me preferring certain things in movies rather than books, or the fact that I read the book such a long time ago, but I love the Sisterhood of The Traveling Pants movie, even more than I did the book.
9. 101 Dalmatians-Dodie Smith
I read this book when I was a kid and I remember liking it, but the movie has real dalmatians (well at least the live action one does) so it wins!
10. Divergent-Veronica Roth
I liked the book, but I thought the movie had a much better pace and was generally more exciting than the book was. It’s a shame the subsequent movies were as bad as they were because they could have had a good thing going!
That’s all for this week, it got a bit hard at the end to even make it to ten! I am of the general bookworm opinion that the book is better than the movie, although these are definite exceptions for me. Which movies have you enjoyed more than their book counterparts? And conversely, which movies utterly destroyed your favourite books? Let me know in the comments!
We still have another 4 weeks of my improvised TTTs, next week I’m going to be talking about books I feel everyone has read but me (spoiler alert, there will be a lot!). In the meantime, I’m hoping to get my Wishlist Wednesday posts started up again, starting tomorrow, so stay tuned for that.
bookloversblog 
Oh no, now that’s fighting talk! Haha. Good list!
Thanks!
I LOVED the Gossip Girl TV show, but I’ve decided to avoid the books. I had a few of them, but after flicking through them they definitely looked like they were going to taint my memories of the Upper East Side gang. Still need to watch The Perks of Being a Wallflower… I’ve had the DVD for so long, but I love the book so much.
That’s fair enough, I actually decided the same thing with Pretty Little Liars, I watched the show, but didn’t want to read the books in case they changed my opinion of the show. Oh you definitely should, it’s a great movie!
Ooo! You’ve got some really good ones on this list. I remember really liking “PS, I Love You” (the film) but haven’t read the book. Also LOVELOVELOVE “Princess Diaries” (and again haven’t read the book). There’s something so “nostalgic” about the movie though, plus yes, the cast is fabulous.
‘Sisterhood’ is also one of my favorite film (series), but I haven’t read the books. I did pick up the first two recently, so maybe someday I’ll read them.
I’d tend to agree “Mockingjay” is better as a film than book.
Thanks so much for visiting Finding Wonderland. 🙂
Thank you! I wouldn’t bother, the book is honestly nothing worth raving about. Princess Diaries is definitely very 00’s yes! The Sisterhood books are good, I preferred the movie, but there’s not much in it really so if you liked the movie, I would definitely say try the book. Yes, I found Mockingjay as a book quite dull but the movies were more exciting. No problem 🙂
I haven’t seen Perks of Being a Wallflower, but I was upset I didn’t enjoy the book after all the hype it gets, I must find time to watch the film though! I do agree with Mockingjay though, as much as I loved the book, I just found the film a tad more exciting! My TTT: https://bookmuffin.wordpress.com/2017/07/18/books-im-dying-to-read/ 🙂
That style is very hit and miss I think, either it really works for you or it really doesn’t. If it makes you feel better, I wasn’t a huge fan of the book either! The Mockingjay films were definitely more exciting than the books, yes!
I’ve not watching or read any of these apart from 101 Dalmations, which IS A BOOK!? I’m gonna have to read that at some point haha
Ha ha yeah, it’s a children’s book! I’m pretty sure I only read it because I loved the film though!!
I might have to check it out. I’ve heard of Dodie Smith before too 🙂
Enjoy!
Great list! The perks of being a wallflower is one of my favourite books and movies 🙂 I love how the film does stay true to the book even though after watching the film first it was hard not to picture Emma Watson & Ezra miller etc
Thanks! Yes I was impressed with how faithful the movie was to the book, though I actually saw the movie first!
I completely agree with you about The Maze Runner. I thought the book was okay, but was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the movie. It was so entertaining. Great topic for this week!
Yes it was great! Thank you 🙂
I really love how The Hunger Games translated into movies!
Some books are just made to be movies!