Of Kings and Tantrums

Greetings, Bookworms!

So we come, as we inevitably must, to yet another period of my life where I have not the motivation to write another review, but know that I have to show my faithful bookworms I still exist. That is why I am introducing a new segment, called ‘Random Opinion’. Basically, it serves as a way for me to voice a certain opinion of mine that has been boiling away inside of me for a while, without having to do all the research necessary for a review. Tell me what you think about these segments: mindless vents or interesting insights? (For the record, they basically are mindless vents. If you like them, that’s a big bonus for me!)

The subject of this mindless ve- I mean, random opinion, is the character development of kings in books.

Now, as someone who loves writing, I have been through the stage of wanting all the good guys in my stories to be flawless. It’s one of the reasons I often wince when reading stories I wrote when I was in primary and early high school. Back then, I thought that if you had a great, exciting plot, everyone would like your stories. Thankfully, my eyes were gradually opened to the truth: your narrative is only as good as your characters.

Back then, in my early writing years when people deemed me too young to receive proper criticism, such as “Your story isn’t as great as you think it is,” (come to think of it, at that age I probably wouldn’t have received that very well- I just wanted to be told that my stories were good) I thought that a good character was one that was good at everything, who was always kind and knew all the right things to say. It’s a good thing that I was never one for romance, because that would have been just painful.

It was only when I was about 14 (pretty late, I know, but better late than never, huh?) that I realised that really good characters are ones that have flaws. Characters that have struggles, fears, tempers and faults they have to get over in order to do a set task. I saw that people don’t want to read about perfect characters leading perfect lives; they want to read about real characters going through real struggles: characters that we all, being humans, can relate to.

I had suddenly entered into a whole new dimension of writing: one where you don’t just enjoy it because of the erotic excitement of creating an amazing plot full of so many twists it makes you dizzy, but because there is a genuine joy in discovering your characters’ strengths and weaknesses, and journeying with them as they overcome their struggles. It’s like meeting new people: at first, you don’t really know them that well. But as you continue to watch them, you begin to get an idea of who they are, with all their complexities and mannerisms. Gradually, they grow on you until a deep friendship is formed, and you get excited because you know who they are at the beginning of the story and the changed person they’re going to be at the end of the story and you’re going to be there every step of the way to watch them grow into that person.

It’s your job to then introduce others to the amazing new people you’ve met, to share the sheer delight you’ve found in watching these characters mature before you through words. That is the joy and challenge of writing I have discovered.

Now, I deeply love stories about ordinary people leading ordinary lives being thrown into situations where they suddenly have to be courageous, strong and do things they never imagined they could do, where they then discover that they are not ordinary; they are, in fact, extraordinary. This is one of the many reasons my favourite book of all time happens to be ‘Voyage of the Dawn Treader’ by C.S. Lewis. This is a delightful tale of discovery: both through literal exploration of uncharted waters and each character’s personal voyage. These two separate aspects of the story merge together at the end of the book, where both journeys come together in the climax: meeting Aslan at world’s end.

I could go on for pages and pages about how each character grows throughout this amazing book, but I will spare you. There are places such as NarniaWeb to let out such observations gradually so that friends and family are spared from people such as myself never shutting up about the wonders of Narnia.

I will restrain myself enough to concentrate on one character in particular- given the topic of this particular ‘random opinion’, can you guess who that is? If you guessed Edmund, take off 50 points. If I was writing a segment on him in relation to VDT, I would name it more along the lines of ‘Of kings and the Midas conspiracy’. Besides, most of his character development is in LWW. Duh. If you guessed Peter, take off 100 points. Yes, in movie-verse PC he is very good at throwing tantrums, but he isn’t even in VDT. Get your facts straight!

No, I am talking about Caspian! You see, Lewis acknowledged that once someone becomes a king, they are by no means perfect. Even three years after he is crowned, when VDT takes place, Caspian still has important things to learn, and the book focuses a lot on how this king of Narnia matures from a boy used to having his orders followed to a man who realises it is not through his experience he can ever be worthy of ruling Narnia, but by the grace and guidance of Aslan.

Of course, he does not suddenly realise this. This wisdom comes through him making many mistakes, and at the end of the book throwing a massive tantrum, after which Aslan gives him a stern talking to. This is the major character development scene for Caspian, and you know what annoyed me about the movie? THEY LEFT IT OUT!!!

The whole movie, Caspian is this guy who doesn’t make mistakes. Yes, it saves time, but at what price? The only slight character development involves no tantrums whatsoever. To put it in a nutshell, from Caspian’s point of view: “To make up for losing my fake Spanish accent, I must brood over my father's death and come to the conclusion he thinks I am a failure (even though he’s dead) to show everyone I still have traces of Inigo Montoya syndrome so they will feel sorry for me!” That is the only reason I can think of as to why the filmmakers would create such a shallow character arc, and even there I can’t really see the logic behind it!

Book-verse Caspian was someone many people look up to, myself included. In fact, he was a character I unknowingly based my main character, King Henry, on (King Henry the Tenth, in case you’re wondering) in my latest NaNoWriMo novel.

To give you some background info on my pal, Henry, he was born a mischievous prince who had a palace at his disposal to play all the practical jokes he could ever wish. However, when he was about 16, his parents were murdered and he was taken captive by a usurper, with only his best friend for company. Five years later, the usurper was overthrown and he was given back the throne.

Imagine what it would be like for a twenty-one year old who is still used to being a spoilt kid suddenly having the enormous responsibility of being king thrown upon him, and you have Henry.  Watching him grow from a childish, immature (but well meaning) boy into a mature and patient king through many tantrums, arguments, and moments of reflections asking himself where he went wrong has been so much fun, and now he’s my best friend trapped in the confines of my mind and ink and paper.

What I never realised when I was writing about Henry was that he would never have existed if it were not for Caspian’s tantrum scene at the end of the Voyage of the Dawn Treader book.

This is the reason why I was so annoyed they did not include Caspian’s tantrum in the movie. Kings have their moments of imperfection, just like the rest of us. And we all love characters we can relate to. Not everyone who sees the movie will know the horrible pain of losing a father, but everyone who sees the movie will know what it’s like to think you’re right when in actual fact you’re wrong, and to make an idiot of yourself when doing so. Audiences need to see all the characters work through their problems in all of their embarrassing glory!

Long live the character development of fictional kings!!!

(For the record, VDT is still an awesome movie with a much clearer message than the other two. I would highly recommend it to everyone.)

(Feel free to comment)

Inkheart

*warning, mild spoilers*

Hey, Bookworms!
Okay, firstly, I would like to thank everyone who has shown interest and given me criticism. I really need it! Someone even pointed out to me that I was spelling 'criticism' wrong. How embarrassing! Thanks for that!
I'm still researching LotR, so bear with me for that review! Anyway, if you're a LotR fanatic and you have an insightful comment you would like me to include in my review, just post a comment and I'll make sure I include it (AND give you credit for it).
To other matters, by request of The Cactus I have made a review of the movie 'Inkheart', which by chance I have been itching to write for quite some time now. Here goes...

Overall Position of the Film:

Okay, I am going to die for saying this. I'm just waiting for a mob of angry bookworms to show up at my door with torches and pitchforks to drag me away and kill me. But I can't lie about my opinion. The fact remains: I actually liked the movie more than I liked the book! Please, be nice to me! I would really like to live long enough to at least complete my review of LotR!
But let me explain the reason for this. You see, the movie is made very, very well. Everything that was put into the movie needed to be there, and all the things left out weren’t really necessary, taking into consideration that the book is at least 500 pages (depending on what edition you get), and that the movie was intended for the whole family to watch.
Inkheart is supposedly a book written for children. I disagree. I certainly wouldn’t recommend it for anyone below the age of 13, for the complexities of the characters and the quite realistic bad morals of most of them.
Don’t get me wrong; Inkheart is a really great book, and Cornelia Funke is a genius to have thought of an idea so original. But the beauty of the film is that it is a movie the whole family can enjoy, with just as much fun and magic as the book but with better morals and heroes that are much more likeable.

Plot:

Basically, as far as plot was concerned, the movie was fairly close to the book. There were a few slight changes, but nothing really major, just a few things to make it a little bit shorter and more cinematic.
The one thing that didn’t really make sense in the storyline was that Capricorn threatened Meggie he’d kill her mother if she didn’t read the shadow out of the book. Thing was, the shadow was going to feast on Resa and Fenoglio anyway if she were to read it out, so why conjure up something when threatened if the thing that is being threatened is going to happen anyway, plus a lot more chaos. It just didn’t quite make sense to me.
Besides that slight glitch, however, the storyline worked really well and was quite close to the book.

Characters:

Meggie- I’ll say it now, Meggie was a lot more likable in the movie than in the book- more resourceful, observant and innocent. It is important for her to be this way, as she is the main heroine in the film (Mo doesn’t play as much of a part as he does in the book). Her longing to have her family reunited and to see her mother again makes the audience sympathise with her and want her to have a happy ending. As a few of you will know, Eliza Bennett’s performance as Meggie has convinced me that she would be a great casting choice for Jill if The Silver Chair ever gets made, as she plays the role (a fairly difficult one for that matter) very believably. Need I say any more?

Mo- From the protectiveness of his daughter to the desperation to find his missing wife, Mo is a great hero for this movie (although he ends up as a bit of a sidekick to Meggie in the end). Everything he does is reflective of his love of his family, from spending nine years chasing up a copy of Inkheart to refusing to read Dustfinger back. For those of you who have read Inkspell and Inkdeath, you can completely imagine him as the Bluejay in the future. As one small, nitpicky thing, I would have liked his voice to have sounded as beautiful as described in the text, but it’s really no big deal, and apart from that he was great- just like the book.

Elinor- In the books, Elinor Loredan was someone who, to me, always seemed like a chunk of ice: harsh, abrupt and cold. It was only Meggie, Mo and Resa who could thaw her. In the film, Helen Mirren portrayed her perfectly, from the mean old lady at the start to somebody who values her family more than her books in the end, and no longer wishes to be lonely. Even though the books always described her as plump, I always imagined her to be thin anyway- thin and tough, rather than plump and soft. So do not fear, bookworms, Elinor is still just as icy in the film as she is in the text.

Farid- In the book, he plays a fairly major role. In the film, he is more a comic relief than anything else, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. He is a lot less serious and a lot more likeable. He still helps defeat Capricorn and learns ‘Dragon’s Breath’ from Dustfinger, but does so in a comical, easy going way. His accent isn’t great, I’ll admit, but in my eyes, dare I say it, the movie verse version of him is still an improvement on then bookverse.

Capricorn- Well doesn’t this guy (Andy Serkis) just love playing criminals? First Gollumn, now this. I have to admit, he plays them very well. And he is hilarious as well as being evil, with his love of duct tape. But yes, he is very good. They probably ‘toned down’ his malevolence a little to make the film more family friendly, but seeing as it is, after all, a family film, I have no problems with that.

Basta- If it were not for his heavy superstition, Basta may have been a fairly scary guy. As it turned out, he still was kind of scary, but comical enough for the audience not to worry about him too much, and that is the beauty of it. He is bad, but far too wimpy to frighten young children too much, even with his knife.

Fenoglio- Absolutely fantastic would be an understatement for Fenoglio. He thinks so highly of himself, as well as being so daft, annoying and utterly useless that you can’t help but laugh. The adoration he has for his characters, even the evil ones, is priceless, and there is no doubt he is their author. Loved it!

Dustfinger- As in my review of ‘Voyage of the Dawn Treader’, I have decided to leave the best portrayed character until last. And let me tell you now, Dustfinger was definitely the best portrayed out of all of them. Like Eustace, it was as if he was stepping off the page onto the screen. In fact, you understand him far better in the film than you do in the text. The thing I love most about Dustfinger is that he is so wonderfully complex; there are two sides to him that are constantly battling within him. There is the weak, deceitful character that will do anything, even betray his friends, to get back to the Inkworld, and there is the other side of him is the part that hates betraying others and wants to do something to help someone for a change. The indecision on his face whenever he is about to betray somebody is really great. You can see that he really hates what he is about to do, but has already made up his mind. He’s the sort of character that the audience loves and hates at the same time. It was Dustfinger’s character that truly brought the movie to life.

Themes:

I really enjoyed the themes they focussed on in this movie. The one they gave the most attention was probably ‘destiny versus choice’ and the struggle Dustfinger goes through to fight against the way he was ‘written’. Another theme I picked out was ‘longing to be with family’, as demonstrated through the characters Mo, Meggie, Resa, Dustfinger and Elinor. A couple they did not focus so much on that were very prominent in the book were ‘growing up’ and ‘the joy of reading’. I was slightly disappointed they did not choose to focus so much on the latter two themes as much, but it’s a family length film and if they tried to include everything you’d be drowning in the themes. So thematically, I thought they did quite well.

Messages:

To be honest, the film didn’t really have any messages… not from what I could pick out, in any case. It’s really an entertainment film only, and it’s not trying to tell the audience anything profound. In that respect, it’s pretty much the same as the book.

Props/scenery:

I must say, the arts department did a very good job for this film. Of course, Italy is a great place to film a movie. When Mo and Meggie were driving to Elinor’s house, there are beautiful rolling hills and cute little villages seen all around. The book store towards the beginning of the movie was really cool: there were beautiful old books everywhere (I wished Mo would read me there so I could see them all). As for Elinor’s library… that was something else altogether. It was completely and utterly drool-worthy. Capricorn’s castle and village was spectacular as well, built all over the hills. Altogether, the props/scenery really brought atmosphere into the film.

Special effects:

I really loved the special effects in the movie- they were really subtle but altogether gave the film a much more magical feel. Small things such as cameras shaking/blurring slightly at the same time as light flashing were a really neat touch to make the characters/objects come out of the books rather than just making them magically appear. The creatures that had been read out of books (flying monkeys, ticking crocodile, etc) had great CGI and were very believable. Perhaps the best special effect of the movie was of The Shadow, which was utterly brilliant. To me, CGI always looks best if it is based on something moving without too much solid form, e.g. the water god in ‘Prince Caspian’ was made out of running water, which was a lot more realistic than some big blue man coming out of the river. The shadow was formed by a huge, billowing cloud of ashes which took a loosely humanoid shape with arms, legs and a head. Its eyes and mouth were gaping, fiery holes in the cloud. It was really stunning and very realistic.

Music:

The music of Inkheart was a beautiful accompaniment to the movie that added a lot of emotional dimension and atmosphere. I really enjoyed the music at the start, which was eerie, beautiful and mysterious and drew the audience right in. In contrast, Dustfinger’s theme was wistful, sad and slightly gypsy-sounding. Use of a whole range of instruments gave different scenes distinction and variation from one another. Use of choirs as part of the score also added to the overall atmosphere of the film. When all these elements were combined, the result was music that moved with the movie and made the audience feel as if they were part of the movie too.

Things I wasn’t really happy about:

I can’t think of anything major I wasn’t happy about, so this list is going to be small and rather nitpicky:

·         Mo’s voice (Meggie’s too, for that matter), wasn’t as beautiful as described in the book

·         The ‘Joy of Reading’ theme wasn’t picked up on as much

·         I would have really loved to see the scene where Mo and Meggie write notes to each other in Elvish… simply because that would have been kind of cool… but yes, you can probably see that I’m really running out of ideas here…

·         Oh yeah, Farid looked a bit like a girl with his long hair and eye makeup

As you can see, this isn’t a particularly big list, and my points are slightly irrelevant. That’s how much I liked the movie!

Things I was happy about:

*laughs* Where do I start?

·         Family friendly movie

·         Characters- Dustfinger particularly

·         Plot fairly close to the book

·         Props/scenery

·         Special effects

·         Music

Altogether:

The film is absolutely fantastic. I really loved it, and, dare I say it, it was quite a bit more enjoyable than the book (for me, anyway). Of course, it doesn’t come close to the Chronicles of Narnia or Lord of the Rings or National Treasure or Inception or anything like that, but is a great flick for the family to watch on a cold Friday night with lots of chocolate in arm’s reach. I would definitely recommend it to any fans of Inkheart who want a lively, close adaptation of the book.

By the way, I apologise for this review perhaps being slightly sloppy. My major LotR project preoccupies my mind at the moment, so my comparative analysis has taken a bit of a small blow. Nevertheless, I will endeavour to post a new review every 2 weeks or so. Happy New Year, bookworms!

~SON