My son and I are reading "Stardust" (by Neil Gaiman) now and although we're only halfway through we wanted to see the movie before it left theaters. So we hit a matinee Saturday (only three other people in the theater - I love early shows).
It's a light-hearted fairy tale for young adults. The movie actually contains fewer mature themes than the book (the book, if filmed exactly, would probably be stuck with a sadly ridiculous "R" rating). I've been able to self-censor the book well enough to read it to an eight-year old (a few clever curses and some non-explicit but still clearly described sex) and he's loving it. The movie was pretty damn good - not great, not award winning, not "an achievement for the ages" but pretty damn good. As you'd expect it altered the book pretty dramatically, but not in any way that changed the story much. More time savers, really (for example the whole concept of the market every nine-years was eliminated as was Tristran's mother and most of the beginning of the book). Of course we're only half-way through the book but in general it seemed like some of the more complex emotional aspects were eliminated and other things simplified for a happier ending. (Since Gaiman was involved directly with the screenplay I'm not going to complain I suppose.) This isn't a deep, epic tale (it's no "Lord of the Rings") and at the same time it's no fairy-tale farce (don't think "Shrek"). Rather it's a somewhat mature folklorish tale: love, desire and growth in a magical realm. The overall themes are archetypical: not knowing what we really want, appearance vs. reality and so forth. There's definitely humor (much of it that wry, quick, sometimes-base English humor Gaiman does so well) and definitely action but in the end this is a fairy tale in the tradition of Grimm or even Miyazaki. Little kids may be scared (these aren't Disney villains) and there's more death and violence than some people might expect but like any fairy tale there's never a real question of anything but a happy ending. The people you're supposed to like are likable, and the people you're supposed to loath are loathsome. The things you want to have happen (eventually) happen. My son (either year's old) really enjoyed thoroughly it as well. I like to think that he's pretty mature for his age tho' Jim Davis ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Download the latest ColdFusion 8 utilities including Report Builder, plug-ins for Eclipse and Dreamweaver updates. http;//www.adobe.com/cfusion/entitlement/index.cfm?e=labs%5adobecf8%5Fbeta Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:240725 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
