Inkheart

SATURDAY, JANUARY 24th - 2009

Today was a busy day.  Brian and Joe had a merit badge round up for scouts today.  They were there from about 6:45 until noon.  Then Joe had a friend over to play some rock band (of course).  

Also, Brian, Joe and I went to see this with Sheri's family:

Joe and I were A LOT skeptical to say the least.  Inkheart is one of my all time favorite books ever.  Joe likes it too.  And anytime a good book is made into a movie, they pretty much butcher it.  They change story lines, add things that aren't supposed to be there etc.  It's very frustrating for me.  It's ruined a lot of movies for me that I think I would have otherwise liked had I not read the book first.  

We could tell from the commercials that they took A LOT of liberties with it and added a whole bunch and changed a lot.  However, my favorite character in the book - Dustfinger -  is also played by one of my favorite actors - Paul Bettany.  I don't think they could have cast that any better.  

So, I told Joe, just pretend you haven't read the book and don't go in there expecting anything.  So we went.  I look over him after the first 5 minutes and he is already shaking his head because it's not following the book very closely.   It turns out that when I ended up liking the movie.  Of course, it was no where near as good as the book, but if you haven't read it, then you won't know what you are missing.  And, Paul Bettany as Dustfinger made the whole show.  He was fantastic.  I didn't like the casting for Basta.  He is another of my favorite characters and they really chose poorly for him.  Oh well.  

I wasn't really keen on Brendan Fraser as Mo either.  I thought it was weird that the story takes place in Europe and all of the characters had European accents except for Mo - even though his daughter DID have an accent.  But, apparently the author Cornelia Funke really likes Brendan Fraser.  She even has a dedication to him in the second book of the series, Inkspell.  "To Brendan Fraser, whose voice is the heart of this book.  Thanks for inspiration and enchantment.  Mo wouldn't have stepped into my writing room without you, and this story would never have been told."  He also voiced 2 of her books on tape: Inkspell and Dragon Rider.

Anyway, It was fun to get out of the house for a while.