This year has already seen a number of kids literature classics that was made into winning films. Coraline was a 3D animated hit, and the slick retelling of Escape to Witch Mountain reintroduced young viewers to a franchise which found success in the 1970’s. The autumn will see this trend continue with a number of high-profile releases based on children’s classics. The films might be for kids, but the industry is big business and capable of attracting astral talent.
The season starts next week with Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs . A classic picture book by Judi and Ron Barrett, tells the story of an inventor who, in his attempt to solve the issue of global hunger, creates an unprecedented meteorological condition.
Although best known as a TV series, Astro Boy started life as a manga in Japan in 1952 by Osamu Tezuka, and to call this anything less than a classic is a disservice. Tezuka is known in his native Japan as “the god of manga” and the original Astro Boy TV series laid the stylistic groundwork for anime in general.
It will be Jim Carrey as Ebenezer Scrooge in the latest version of Charles Dicken’s A Christmas Carol. While not exclusively a children’s story, Dickens’ morality tale of redemption and second changes almost single-handedly set the standard for Christmas perceptions, from turkey dinners to silver bells. Rated a wholesome G and available in 3D.
Fantastic Mr. Fox, based on the novel by Roald Dahl, uses stop-motion animation and it tells the story of how one wily fox and his family manage to keep away from the machinations of an angry group of chicken farmers. It is directed by Wes Anderson and features songs by Jarvis Cocker.
Finally The Princess and the Frog, after a season of CGI adaptations, this Disney film sees a return to traditional 2D animation. The story is based on the fairy tale The Frog Princess, versions of which can be found in various European traditions, in which an charmed frog aids royalty.