Klara's Top 5 Children's Movies Better Than the Book

#5. Coraline

Coraline was written by Neil Gaiman, winner of the Newbery Medal for The Graveyard Book. The movie takes all the darkness from the written tale and transforms it into these magically creepy claymation scenes that move and glow in eerie, fantastic ways. Coraline is touching and exciting, two of my top priorities for a well-made movie.

 

The Harry Potter movies had so many directors and David Yates is my favorite among them! It was cringe-inducing enough to just read about the incredible unfairness of authority-crazed Professor Umbridge's horrid policies so when Yates brought her brilliantly frustrating character to life on-screen it was incredibly satisfying and maddening at the same time. 

 

This is one of those movies where when they announced it I thought "Why the heck would they want to turn THAT short of a book into a movie?" But the creators really took the book and ran with it, transforming it into a hilarious story about the need for people to celebrate intelligence. Science is wild! Thinking differently can change the world! This movie says doing stuff with your smarts is EXTREMELY AWESOME!

 

Studio Ghibli (Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, etc.) did a not-so-by-the-book adaptation of  Howl's Moving Castle that really changed the story and they did the same thing with The Borrowers but kept things more grounded in reality this time. This is one of those stories where I really enjoy the changes, taking the concept of Tiny People Who Live In Your House and turning it into its own thing.

 

 

Before Brad Bird directed