Spoiler Warning: For those of you haven't watched the movie or read the book but want to do so, please be aware that there are spoilers in this blog post. Do not read if you do not want spoilers. Thank you.And with that lovely comparison picture I'm just going to jump right into the first, but hopefully not last, post of the category "Book Vs. Movie!" When you read that, you should hear a deep announcer voice in your head that then echoes off into the distance after the last syllable. Please tell me I'm not the only one who hears that every time I type out "Book Vs. Movie!"
Internal experiences of my psyche aside, I tend to have a love-hate relationship with books that are turned into movies or TV shows, mainly because I'm also a fandom girl, which means that I tend to get bogged down by the little details that "just aren't right" in the movie and angry at the gigantic changes that often happen (moral of the story, you probably don't want to ask me what I thought of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians movies). Moving on. I think that modern society, most especially in the Western capitalist world, has done a great disservice to men and women when it comes to conceptions of beauty. I'm sure you all probably have thoughts of your own on that topic, and a quick Google search will show you a plethora of other opinions too, but the point of this post isn't to debate the consequences and origins of body-shaming. Today, I'm going to be giving my take on the Young Adult novel turned Netflix film book celebrating fat-positivity and the rise of a teen beauty pageant contestant. Three Big Differences: It's been a few weeks since I read the book, and because of Netflix it is super popular right now and therefore I had to return it to the library and do not have it in front of me to remind myself of small details, so I'll just discuss three big ones. #1 Where's the love triangle? For those of you who haven't read the book, I'm sure that's a major spoiler, sorry but I did warn you at the top there would be spoilers. One of the huge differences between the book and the movie was the lack of Willowdean's love life, and El's as well to some extent. There was a definite love triangle going on, and it started during the summer when Bo and Willowdean started going out (the timeline of the movie is completely different from the book, though I give the movie some leeway because they do have to condense things a lot), then Willowdean found out Bo didn't tell her he was going to be attending her school (another huge difference that I'm giving some leeway for, see above) and they sort of broke up, and Willowdean went to the dance with a different boy from the football team who is super sweet but the spark isn't there, and she still likes Bo and Bo still likes her, and this new boy likes her too, and it's like every other teen love triangle: a mess. But this was missing from the movie. Potentially because of time constraints. Potentially because of how confusing it was. Potentially a bit of both. I'm both glad the movie didn't try to fit it all into the movie, but sad as well. Because the movie shares and overall uplifting message, but the book is able to add greater depth to what fat girls and boys go through, especially in high school. Now as for El's love life with her boyfriend, who we see at the very beginning of the movie and then hear is puking in the bathroom at the end of the movie but otherwise know nothing about, is also more detailed in the book. And it actually causes some added tension between Willowdean and El which increases the intensity of their "break" during the pageant. And that's a perfect segue into the next gigantic difference. #2 Willowdean and El break up I fully acknowledge that time cannot truly be compared in movies and books, because while both tend to skip days/weeks/months as the plot needs, books can add it tons of little details to the days whereas movies...can't. There is no way a movie is going to be able to do what a book can do because people start leaving at 2 hours. Most of the time, anyway. So I understand why the movie may have chosen to have El and Willowdean's fight work out the way it did. But in the book? El wasn't even supposed to sign up. That's when the fight started. And cracks were already showing before that when Callie (El's friend from where she worked) dropped a line to Willowdean that El might have confided more about her first time to Cali than she did to Willowdean. That, coupled with a lot of the other stuff, pushed the breaking point much earlier in the book, which means it lasted longer too. The main basis for the fight was the same, however, so I accept the slight changes the film made for time. #3 Missing characters!!!! So, there are at least two relatively main characters from the book that never made it into the movie. And unfortunately I can't remember their names (which is really bad and I'm sorry) and since they aren't in the movie, they aren't mentioned anywhere but in the book! And I don't have the book right in front of me. However, these two characters were relatively important to the plot of the novel. One, is Millie's very good friend who enters the pageant with Millie, Hannah, and Willowdean. The second, is the third leg of the love triangle mentioned above. Obviously, the movie was still able to tell the story without these characters, but it's difficult for me as a reader to fully love a film that cuts characters, even if it is for a good reason. Conclusion: Read the book. And watch the film. As far as book-to-movie films go, Dumplin' did pretty well. There were some large differences, and probably a whole lot more small ones than I caught, but the overall message was the same. Conventional forms of pretty? They should mean less than we think they do; and while it can be incredibly difficult to do so, ignore those conventions and just be yourself. Also, Dolly Parton is queen. ;) This has been another long post, so I'll leave it at that for now. Definitely reach out or leave a comment if you want more detail though. I'm always willing to talk books. Happy Reading!
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AuthorThe author is a librarian who reads "too much" (is there such a thing?) and talks just as much. As an aspiring author she gets bogged down by grammar rules when she just wants to forget them to make a sentence flow, but never seems to be able to. She appreciates thoughtful comments and constructive criticism, but internet trolls beware, she's read enough fantasy novels to know how to defeat the monsters. Archives
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