Theory of Adaptation Forum

Adaptations are not new to our time, even Shakespeare transferred the stories of his culture to plays (Hutcheon, 2013, p.2).  It has been argued numerous times that adaptions take away from the original intent of the story or can even change the plot. There are some that argue the written word is sacred, and placing that on film denotes the value of it (Hutcheon, 2013).

With Hutcheon’s theory of adaption, she believes there is a certain appeal about adaptations. “Part of this pleasure, I want to argue, comes simply with repetition from variation, from the comfort of ritual combined with the piquancy of surprise” (Hutcheon, 2013, p.4). When there already is a film, or story that has great success and already has a following, it would seem to draw more people in to view another version of that story, whether it be a play, or spin-off or any other form of entertainment. If people are familiar with the plot, changing the way the story is seen visually would make sense.

I particularly like the example of The Lion King. As a child, it was one of my favorite movies. Now that has been turned into musicals and plays, I really want to go see the play. To me, it helps knowing the originally story so I can follow what is happening in the play as well. According to Hutcheon, adapters are aiming simply to reproduce the adapted text. Hutcheon always brings up the definition of adapt, which means to adjust a work and make it suitable for the different types of audiences.

To Hutcheon, there are three processes of an adaption. First, an adaption can be shift in medium, as in the example I gave above with The Lion King movie made into a musical play. Second, there is a process of creation, or recreation of the work based on a person’s particular interpretation of the work. Third, an adaptation can be interchangeable with other works we have at the time. “Most theories of adaption assume, however, that the story is the common denominator, the core of what is transposed across different media and different ways” (Hutcheon, 2013, p. 10).

The book The Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl and the movie written and directed by Wes Anderson have some very different features. With the book by Dahl, the family of foxes live in a hole and survive completely off Mr. Fox’s hunting, or “stealing” capabilities every night. The movie has all of the animals taking on more human attributes, especially with the different jobs they hold. They seem more like a regular human family. At the urgings of Mrs. Fox, Mr. Fox stops stealing and holds a regular job. He moves his wife and son out of a hole and buys prime real estate in a tree. It isn’t until he realizes he wants to do more with his life that he decides to return to his stealing ways, but he must be very sneaky so his wife doesn’t find out.

While the plot line in the movie primarily follows the book, there are some other noticeable differences. The characters in the movie are more brash towards each other than the book. Also, in the book, Mr. Fox’s tail that was shot off will grow back, however in the movie it is mentioned that it won’t. Instead of having several little foxes that are brothers as in the book, there is only one son and a nephew that is just staying for a short period with the foxes.

Based on Hutcheon’s theory of adaption, I think the move The Fantastic Mr. Fox is a great adaption of the book. It’s is based off the book, but in order to make it into an animated film up to todays standards, key elements are added in. I loved the personification of the animals in the film, it seemed much like a traditional human family, especially with the different jobs each animal has and with their ability to buy houses, etc. 

Director Wes Carpenter took the book by Dahl, used the based story line and acknowledging the work, was creating and transformed it to movie and added specific elements that would appeal to today’s audience, and while he changed the content and the order of events from the book, he still followed the basic storyline. I feel it is a successful adaption of the book, but as always, I like to read the book first before I watch it to make sure I fully understand the plotline of the movie.

Anderson, W. (Director) (2009). The fantastic mr. fox [DVD].

Dahl, Roald, and Donald Chaffin. Fantastic Mr. Fox. New York: Knopf, 1970. Print.

Hutcheon, L. (2013). A theory of adaptation. (2nd ed.). New York, New York: Routledge.