Essentials for an effective translation of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

To be completely honest, the best way to translate this book would be a direct, literal translation. The book is short enough to put everything in and is very slim as far as detail goes.
The only way to make this film appealing to both children and adults is to keep the mundane fantasy aspect but also add in complex themes and a riveting storyline. Action and fantasy do make an award winning combo here in America.

Reactions to the radical translation

My initial reaction to the film is positive. I liked the movie more than any other movie we have watched in class. It stayed true to the integrity of the original text and gets the same point across. The changes that the director and/or screenwriter have made make the story much more interesting and entertaining. The original text didn't have quite enough substance to complete a movie.

Transition

I believe, that for a page to screen transition to be successful, the screenplay must follow the book very closely. Whats the point of making a movie about a book if the movie is totally different? Three evaluative features of a page to screen transition are keeping the dialogue, keeping events in order and not adding any scenes unless completely necessary.
Dialogue must be kept true to the book because that is the way the author wrote the book and that is the way it should be presented on the big screen. Keeping the events in order is important because the order of scenes greatly impacts the feeling that the movie induces. Last but not least, adding and subtracting scenes would only change the movie and therefore would just be "based on" the book.

Reactions to Adaptation

My reactions to Adaptation are most likely typical. I am suprised at the ending and how it was completely random. But I was also suprised at how much work went into writing a screenplay. The writer completely imersed himself into the topic of the book that he was adapting, in order to completely understand it and write a better screenplay. He is constantly struggling to make up some sort of intersting story that will captivate audiences but there is nothing there. Also he is silently battling his brother, a novice screen-writer, who is ignoring all of his advice. His brother ends up writing a great screenplay while he is stuck with a plot-less, theme-less flop.