This book is simply and deceptively beautiful. Simple because it is written for young readers (age seven years and over) but at the same time, I did not give it enough credit when I first bought it. I seriously underestimated what is expected of a young reader because of my harsh cynicism that I use to face the fanfiction I read at Fanfiction.net.
This book was a delicious read. I dare to even say that the book is more interesting than the movie, especially if you are an older fan and do not want to be caught watching the Fly (Segui il tuo cuore) music sequence or just do not have time to fast forward through scenes.
Of all the important scenes cut from the movie in the book, the most notable is the journey to retrieve the key to enter Obsidian and I am quite happy that the author cut it out because it feels like you are walking in syrup and waiting for the movie to get on to important stuff by the time you get there. Now, as an individual scene, the flying sequence was beautiful but I felt that Rainbow was just waving their recently surgically endowed giant penis in our face to make us understand how powerful they are in the Italian animation industry. I think I got the point when they first announced that they were releasing a CGI movie. I could have done without Flora creating that storm of flower petals in flight. (Why in the world did she do that in the first place?) The movie was just overkill and I am glad that the author took it out.
At the same time, by omitting this scene, the author takes out that omnipresent bubbly feeling inside of us all when we watch the movie for its purtiness and throw our hearts for a ride on La Ronde's Goliath.
Another scene that I felt was important but cut from the book was when Sky proposed to Bloom. Personally, I could probably guess why the author did not do that and I do not blame her: marriage does not sell to pre-teens in books. It just does not. Maybe in movies, but not books. I also thought that marriage was a topic that parents did not want to tackle when they read this to their kids just yet. So, I am not terribly disappointed that I would fly to France, track Mme Marvaud and shake my fist at her.
I also think that I was agreeable on some of the subtle additions of scenes (and changes) by the author. The most memorable at the moment is when Bloom goes to talk to Daphne. To me, Bloom had dreamed the encounter and then woken up to her birthday party. The books says she heard her voice and then asked everyone to accompany her to the lake of Light Rock. Personally, I feel that the latter just flows better.
The book is also definitely darker and intenser than the movie because provides a type of thrill that you do not get when you watch a movie. When you read, you hang on word for word and the author is very frank but her bluntness is almost terrifying (even more when you're the one translating it). The book is borderline more violent than the movie with all the battles.
In the movie, it's 'kid'-friendly violence. Most of the fighting is done by throwing balls of energy at each other, or as Wizgiz did it, sitting on the enemy. There are swords but techniques used by the specialists are not real combat techniques. It is not as if the production team strapped a couple of motion censors to a some fighting swordsmen (or at the very least study the art form) and then used the data obtained to program the specialists movement's like they did in Advent Children or even video games like King of Fighters and Dead or Alive.
And this is the beauty of books, your imagination flies and paints the details of what is going on. In a movie, we just follow with our eyes not taking a moment to think. "Mandragora tries to strangle Bloom. Bloom resists." What do you imagine? Mandragora is astride Bloom's chest, cackling and enjoying squeezing the life out of the fairy as she fights the witch's grasp gasping and pale.
The dialogue definitely satisfying because it did not go on forever trying to explain things or trying to get everyone's line in from the book. It was always to the point. One thing to point out about the author's style is how she describes what the characters are feeling. She does not beat around the bush when you read something like "Bloom is saddened." This is something that I think some fanfiction writers need to take note (even me) because they take forever trying to describe with dialogue how a character is feeling. Sometimes it felt a little too straightforward but I did not mind.
The book is bland when you just look at as just a book, and not a movie tie-in. The descriptions could be better but one must remember that this is intended to help children develop their reading skills.
Translating this book was definitely challenging because so many English words felt inadequate to describe what was happening in the book and sometimes, it was the reverse. I feel that a French child's vocabulary is infinitely larger than an English child's because of this book. One particularly difficult verb was surgir and agir because they both have twenty-something different meanings.
To conclude, because I really need to, most of the review has been the comparison between the book and the movie. So the question is: which is better? The movie will always be the canon, the original. I cannot argue its godly 'canonness.' The book is just a French adaptation just that closely mirrors the movie. If you don't have time to just sit and watch the movie, I think it's better to have the book but if you really want to just the dazzle the pants off of you for the purty fairies, then by all means watch the movie.
I just prefer the book because its on hand and it has its own pause button. It's called a bookmark. I also own the movie but...I'm not thrilled about sitting around staring at the boob tube and its not as exciting because you see the same thing over and over again.
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