Movie is Good-but is no match to the book
I recently read the book by William R. Shelton. The disparity between book and movie is so great that the movie just doesn't do it justice. I know that books are different than books-they had 1 hour 35 minutes W/O commercials.
Whenever you adapt a book into a movie-changes are necessary. You have to cut characters, you got to telescope time. What follows now are differences between book and movie and will contain spoilers-so if you haven't seen the movie or never read the book-skip the rest of this post.
MR. Avril(Played in movie by John Caradine)in the movie-he has short hair-but in the book he has long grey hair. He is a bee keeper and lives in small trailer house in the movie-but in the book he lives in a shack. The story that involves Mr. Avril is covered mostly in the first two chapters in the book-while in the movie-it all get condensed in to a 5 minute flash back scene. He also convinces NASA to allow Joey to tell his side of how they planned E.J stowaway to the moon. Finally-in the movie-he is still alive while in the book-he dies from cancer.
E.J. has a friend named Joey in the movie-but in the book he had a second friend named Addison.
Planning & preparation How they planned and prepared for it was only touched on in the movie-but in the book it is so much more detailed-and much more suspenseful. My biggest criticism of the movie-is that they made it look so easy for E.J to sneak aboard the space craft-in the book it was not easy at all.
The toolboxWhile in the book, he did take the toolbox so he could look like a pad worker, in the book he took it for another reason-it was not for good luck as in the movie-but he took along with him a six inch little reptile which are common in Florida-it was his biomedical experiment in science class and he named it Draco. He also had a Kennedy Half dollar and a couple more items. He kept all this in the tool box.
There are other things too. I do like the movie-but it does not even capture the magic and wonder of the book-nor does it try to. On the plus side, the actor chosen for the roles pretty much accurately portrayed in the movie-such as Mr. Engelherht, E.J parents and Joey. Mr. Avril was a little different.
Also, the movie captures the innocence of childhood and wonder.
Yes see the movie-but remember as with most adaptations, It can never compare to the book.
I don't feed trolls--I eat them(for breakfast!!)
Jay