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    Jesus Christ WhyCaroline Siede
    10/12/15 8:50am

    I know that I'm wrong for this, but nothing can get me to acknowledge the trend of adults reading dumbed-down books marketed towards high schoolers who don't like to read as legitimate. I know I shouldn't judge anyone for what they read, but I do. And that shit is DUMB. It just seems that more and more effort is being put into attributing a higher or more profound meaning to books that have the depth of a puddle, and I don't know if it's because of nostalgia or a regression from high minded literary snobbishness, but I don't get it. I mean there were at least 4 articles here about constructing a Berenstein Bears multiverse. WHY

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      ScrawlerJesus Christ Why
      10/12/15 9:25am

      I certainly can't disagree that there is a heavy preference toward childhood and teen nostalgia today when it comes to entertainment products. But I sure as shit think that a goddamned literary classic like A Wrinkle in Time is more deserving of a big screen adaptation than another Transformers, or Battleship, or Smurfs movie.

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      Jesus Christ WhyScrawler
      10/12/15 9:31am

      I can't deny that a wrinkle in time is the type of complex, high concept science fiction I would like to see advertised for children and teens

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    TyrannorabbitCaroline Siede
    10/12/15 12:08am

    I was just gonna say, "Let's get some Prydain up in this bitch!" Then I thought, like, maybe Eilonwy's role would need to be beefed up a bit for an adaptation. Then I thought, Eilonwy is a fucking awesome name. Why isn't everybody naming their daughters Eilonwy?

    I'm getting the Prydain boxed set for my nephew for christmas. Kid got bit by the fiction bug earlier than I did.

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      AVCMigrationAnon0089Tyrannorabbit
      10/12/15 1:20am

      GIMME PRYDAIN AND GIMME IT NOW

      If I have kids, I'm force feeding them that series. Forget LOTR.

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      Great RandomTyrannorabbit
      10/12/15 5:03am

      Rather than adapting the whole series, I'd have a Japanese anime-style series based on _Taran Wanderer_. The book has episodic scene-changes, and the adapter could add more. It has female figures who are stronger than Elonwy (though there could also be flashbacks). And it has intense human interest.

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    UselessbeautyCaroline Siede
    10/12/15 12:01am

    Fuck yeah Animorphs. Great mid-late 90s memories. I always thought the first 25 or so books were the best but I gave up probably in the mid-30s.

    The TV show was ok but I felt didn't quite capture the epic nature of the books, but then again, I suspect budget played a role in that.

    Sadly, no mention of the Hardy Boys? All their books are about smugglers! The kids love smugglers, especially if they're in Pirate Cove!

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      ScrawlyUselessbeauty
      10/12/15 12:11am

      If I remember correctly, the last half-dozen represented a significant uptick in quality, wrapping up the series in an interesting way and without pandering to the audience's expectations.
      An Animorphs RPG would be totally metal, esp. a more old school one that focussed on roleplaying rather than miniatures and combat systems.

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      UselessbeautyScrawly
      10/12/15 12:13am

      Yeah I've heard that. I gather the original author returned and took a more active role than the ghost-writers who did much of the mid-late period ones.

      Still, the Andalite Chronicles were awesome and surreal, especially when Elfangor went back in time and became Steve Jobs or Bill Gates.

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    sketches by bozeCaroline Siede
    10/12/15 12:11am

    a movie series marketed to children was really the wrong choice for His Dark Materials. those books deserved so much better.

    does anyone remember Bruce Coville's My Teacher is an Alien! series from the mid-90s? (My Teacher Fried My Brains!, My Teacher Flunked the Planet! etc.). Those books had some surprisingly powerful lessons about protecting the earth and the dangers of contemporary Western society.

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      gf120581sketches by boze
      10/12/15 12:16am

      Very much so. Still have that quartet in storage. For a kid, it was a very impressive switch Coville did by (SPOILERS!!!) having the at first threatning aliens actually be peaceful and terrified of us, because they fear we'll fuck up the entire galaxy if we take our warlike and violent ways into outer space.

      I've always like Coville, however. A big favorite of mine is the one he did with Jane Yolen, "Armageddon Summer." Highly recommend it.

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      Spaghetti Leesketches by boze
      10/12/15 12:17am

      I think people assumed "Kids, talking animals, magic, eh, it's basically Narnia, right?" When…no.

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    Meth Lab ShenanigansCaroline Siede
    10/12/15 12:06am

    Harry Potter's pretty great the way it is.

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      sketches by bozeMeth Lab Shenanigans
      10/12/15 12:12am

      I would personally love to see it as a BBC series. one season for each novel. same with Lord of the Rings. we need to get Middle-Earth away from Peter Jackson.

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      Spaghetti LeeMeth Lab Shenanigans
      10/12/15 12:13am

      Its (and Hunger Games') inclusion reminded me of this: http://www.theonion.com/art…

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    Spaghetti LeeCaroline Siede
    10/12/15 12:19am

    There should have been a good, high-rent adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time by now. The book itself is amazingly timeless, like with a few edits it could have come out last week. And Meg > 90% of YA heroines all damn day.

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      gf120581Spaghetti Lee
      10/12/15 12:23am

      There was like a TV adaptation or something years ago, right?

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      Spaghetti Leegf120581
      10/12/15 12:26am

      They talked about in the main article. Never seen it, but everything I've heard says it's not good. L'Engle hated it. Apparently they made it too mushy, and it's not like it was Lovecraft-style cynical and despairing to begin with.

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    SimonCaroline Siede
    10/12/15 1:25am

    The only acceptable answer to the Harry Potter series is an 8th book. We all know it's happening one day. Screw the role playing game.

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      BattybrainSimon
      10/12/15 5:26am

      I know you're right, but I hope you're not.

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      Kit Jackson 67Simon
      10/12/15 9:20am

      I would rather have a series about the marauders time at Hogwarts.

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    NebulyCaroline Siede
    10/12/15 12:19am

    Please, someone, do a modern TV series about Robert Arthur's Three Investigators. Arthur's originals were written in the late1960s/early 1970s, and yes, I'm old enough that I read them then; but when I re-read them to my now 18-year-old son some 12 years ago I was amazed by how well they stood up, largely because the three leads are great, they used a lot of (for the time) fairly high-tech gadgets that wouldn't need much tweaking for a 21st century setting, the mysteries are ingenious, and the fact that their HQ is in a junkyard with multiple secret entrances is just too cool for words. Start with number one, The Secret of Terror Castle, which is incredibly creepy and has a wonderful part for a veteran character horror actor, as well as a brilliant setting, and go from there.

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      trevorjNebuly
      10/12/15 1:55am

      I endorse this idea, sort of - I'd love to see it, but only if it was handled by a production company that understood the source material, and knew what the hell they were doing. The likelihood that it would instead be screwed up beyond all recognition is extremely high.

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      Yuhaddabia "Big Shot" DinjaNebuly
      10/12/15 2:28am

      I read quite a few of those books as a young lad & I admit I don't remember a lot about them, but that HQ was amazing. IIRC, they even had it outfitted with periscopes.

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    pamelabeeslyCaroline Siede
    10/12/15 12:14am

    After seeing the cover of Poppy I thought it was apart of another series about mice but no, that's different.

    Redwall and Mattimeo are books I read several times as a child and I even watched the Canadian TV show. I hardly remember what it was about but my memory tells me it was a fantastic fantasy series (or so I had thought then). Now I really need to find those books cause they're definitely in storage…

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      destructive recoverypamelabeesly
      10/12/15 3:45am

      I don't know what Poppy's doing here. If you're going to name an Avi-penned YA classic, it's got to be The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle. Terror aboard the high seas? Fourteen-year-old lady sailors? Come on.

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      Persiapamelabeesly
      10/12/15 7:32am

      Redwall apparently gets super-repetitive. Curse of so many children's series.

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    GACCaroline Siede
    10/12/15 12:42am

    I have to say, that Wrinkle in Time cover art is exceptionally nice.

    For a suggestion, maybe something from the works of Roald Dahl. James and the Giant Peach has already been done as a musical, so maybe some kind of crazy game? Or maybe the Willy Wonka saga as a TV show. Fantasy, candy, Loompaland.

    Also, it seems far out of fashion these days, but the Wheel of Time *could* make an incredible epic fantasy series with some (easy to do) editing.

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      Spaghetti LeeGAC
      10/12/15 12:46am

      Would that 'easy to do' editing involve reducing books 4-10 to a single episode?

      I also wonder if the recent Jordan hate is just the generation that read him as teenagers getting into the biz and doing the whole kill-your-idols thing, because a lot of epic fantasy is still heavily indebted to him prose/story/concept-wise, as far as I can tell.

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      Spaghetti LeeGAC
      10/12/15 12:51am

      It seems like pretty much every Dahl book, even the relatively minor ones, got a movie sometime in the 80's and 90's. I think The BFG is being remade at the moment.

      I am not sure there's ever been an adaptation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory's completely demented sequel, though, in which the President of the United States lives in fear of his 89-year-old nanny and if you eat too much de-aging candy you get sent to Minus-Land. Someone should get on that.

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