minutia press.

One of my favorite books growing up was A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'engle. Last night, I happened upon the Disney movie---I think the first to be made of the book. I was on the couch in a rare moment of repose when I saw it scroll by on the TV Guide Channel. I didn't believe it so I waited for the next pass, and then tuned in at 7 (until 10) to watch it.

Initially, I thought the script was pretty good, and not a bad adaptation to a movie format. I missed the 2-dimensional planet though -- somehow they skipped over that. Calvin was an undeveloped character in the movie. In the book, he had problems at home, nobody understood him, but the character in the movie came across as the popular jock. I thought the actors were very good, but I had lots of problems with the script, especially later in the movie. The scenes inside CENTRAL Central Intelligence were just too bizarre, and the takeover of Charles Wallace by IT was strange. I wanted to see the pulsing brain of IT on a dias, but instead we got a huge bunch of cerebellum underneath the floor. The man with the red eyes was not as cold as I thought he should have been.

Did you notice the movies playing at the movie theater on Camazotz? There were a bunch of movies, each with IT in its title. I thought that was a nice touch.

In summary, I'm glad somebody made a movie out of the book, but I expected much, much better than what I saw last night.

I think that this day and age we've been spoiled by fantastic adaptations of great novels -- Fight Club, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, etc. And these are all very good books. However, with "The Cat in the Hat" and "A Wrinkle in Time," 2 well-loved children's books with very very bad movies, it seems like we've taken a step back. It's hit or miss, I suppose. We can't expect Hollywood to raise the standards of their literary adaptations for all of the novels that are written.

I just feel so angry that they decided to make Mrs. Which act like a "witch" in the movie -- she may be authoritative and standoffish but she was compassionate and the most important of the 3 ladies.

Heidi and I were out at garage sales when we saw "A Wrinkle in Time" and "A Wind in the Door" for $0.50 each. That same night we saw the ad for "A Wrinkle in Time" on television. Unfortunately both of us forgot to turn it on. I was busy working on a short story, ahd Heidi was busy networking for her new job. Anyone happen to record it? I'd be happy to pay round trip postage if you wanted to share it with me.