Alexander and the very questionable, how much exactly does this movie have in common with the book?

Did you know that a movie adaption of Judith Viorst's classic picture book, Alexander, and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, is on the way to your theaters October 10th? While the film definitely deals with a boy named Alexander who is having a rotten day, from the previews, it is obvious that whoever wrote this film took some liberties with the script.  Sure, it appears that Alexander's day begins badly, with gum stuck in his hair, but after that, who knows how much of the movie will stay true to the book?


Of course, this isn't a huge surprise. Most movie adaptions make changes to the original. Some are good, some make little sense. Of course, the big challenge in adapting a book like Alexander, is that the book is only 32 pages long! In order to make a feature length film, the story would need some extra scenes, and with Steve Carell playing Alexander's dad, some of the best scenes may not even center around Alexander himself!


Of course, this is not the first time a picture book has been adapted into a very different movie.



Audiences loved Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, when it came to theaters, but while the movie was a madcap adventure dealing with a crazy scientist who creates a machine that makes food fall from the sky, but Judi Barrett's book has little resemblance to the movie.


Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, the picture book, is a quiet story about a grandfather who tells his grandchildren a tall tale about a town where the weather blows in as breakfast, lunch and dinner.







Maurice Sendak's classic picture book, Where the Wild Things Are, tells the story of Max, who goes wild while wearing a wolf suit. His behavior frustrates his mother, who sends him to bed without supper. Max's room turns into a forest with a river, and he sails to an island of "Wild Things" who make him their king. 


The movie, Where the Wild Things Are, shares this plot, but the Wild Things themselves often seem more moody than wild. Some people really loved this movie, and it was beautiful to look at, but it has been hotly debated as to whether the film had the kid appeal that the book continues to have.


What picture books would you love to see on the big screen? If you were to write the script, would you change anything?


-Posted by Miss Jessikah