Media Adaptation: An Analysis

By Red Centeno

Fall 2020

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INTRODUCTION
   Adapting media into a different form is a fascinating subject, and is quite common in the modern age, although retelling stories has been a part of human culture since the beginning of art itself. It seems like every popular young adult novel is getting its own film, and every movie is getting its own novelization. Adaptation can seem simple –as easy as copying and pasting a script– but in reality, it is a complex and delicate process which can quite easily turn sour if it is in the wrong hands.

WHAT IS ADAPTATION?
Adaptation has many meanings ranging from biology to engineering, but in the context of media, the definition lies in one of the more popular forms of adaptation: film adaptation. In A Dictionary of Film Studies, the resource states that film adaptation is ‘A pre-existing work, often literary or theatrical, that has been made into a film. More commercial properties such as musical theatre, best-selling fiction and non-fiction, comic books, and so on, are also regularly adapted for cinema’ (“A Definition”). 

A great definition of film adaptation, but it does not cover all of the different medias as a whole; which is similar to Mark Brokenshire of The Chicago School of Media Theory’s argument in regards to Oxford Dictionary’s definition of adaptation for media in 2014: ‘An altered or amended version of a text, musical composition, etc., (now esp.) one adapted for filming, broadcasting, or production on the stage from a novel or similar literary source’. Brokenshire argues that the biological definition for adaptation seems more accurate to the modern concept of media adaptations, as it describes (metaphorically speaking) that the piece of media is changed to become better suited to its new medium, rather than a piece of media being altered or amended for such transformation to occur (Brokenshire). 

Gathering all this information, a new and more accurate definition may be acquired. Adaptation (or at least the definition of adaptation that will be used in this paper,) is the process of change or modification by which a form of media is altered to be better suited for another form of media; it can preserve as much as the original as possible or be explored and reimagined by its adapter(s). 

The earliest known piece of storytelling was found in a cave in Indonesia, which features several figures hunting wild animals, and was made around 43,900 years ago (Aubert). Since then, countless works featuring creatures, gods, scenes of life, and eventually stories, were adapted from word of mouth into song, sculpture, dance, painting, and especially for our case, the written word. Fast forward a few thousand years (and thousands of ancient adaptations in every combination possible,) and historically one of the first notable contemporary pieces of media to be adapted was actually Frankenstein, written in 1818, was adapted into a three-part play in 1823 (Playbill). From here, it is difficult to track any adaptations other than the most popular form: film adaptation. Since 1895, cinematic adaptations have been the controversial stars of the show. Even before the creation of film, people criticized the existence of photography and how it seemed to trespass onto traditional visual arts, because why hire a painter when you can just take a photo? During this time, filmmakers used well-known stories to attract viewers to the theatre, some of the earliest being Cinderella at the start of the 20th century (Corrigan). From then to present, thousands of adaptations from historical recreations, autobiographical works, loosely inspired experimental films, and any other genre you could imagine all somehow found their way to the big screen. As for the rest of the forms of media, it does not stick out as much as film adaptations, up until recently. Theme Park rides, such as Pirates of the Caribbean, are being turned into multi-million dollar film franchises (Pirates), and popular DnD (Dungeons and Dragons) podcasts Critical Role and The Adventure Zone have both had comic adaptations released and are confirmed to be getting animated shows in the future (Critical Role, Critical Role, Peacock, The Adventure Zone). Even music has its place within the adaptation sphere, with composers creating scores based off characters, motifs, and themes of a film (Corrigan). 

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FORTUNES OF ADAPTATION
An adaptation can do wonders to a franchise’s success, as can be seen with one of the highest grossing film adaptations of all time, Harry Potter, with almost 7.7 billion made in just the movies alone (Harry Potter). This did not solely spur success in the box office, for there are people who wanted to read the books the movie was based off, which in turn resulted in a percentage of moviegoers picking the book before or after their cinematic experience. This often results in a spike in sales when a movie is about to release and afterwards (See fig 1).
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fig 1. Harry Potter Book Sales during the Lead-Up to The Deathly Hallows, Part 1 movie release. Nielsen, 17 November 2010  https://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/article/2010/deathly-hallows-film-breathes-life-into-harry-potter-book-sales/ 

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It can also be seen that initial release sales for each book almost exponentially increase, due to the rise in popularity and readership (see fig 2).
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fig 2. Harry Potter UK Sales (First Week/Year). Nielsen [2005?] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4679553.stm

With its success, the Harry Potter series has evolved into a multimedia franchise, including theme park attractions and video games under its powerful umbrella (Hagrid’s, Harry). 

Now that an example of a financially successful adaptation has been discussed, let’s see an example of good adaptation. Harry Potter is a great series but being able to put thousands of pages onto the screen isn’t that easy (even with 8 main films,) and to many fans of the books, it misses some of the charm and more important details. The movies themselves are great but feel lacking when compared to the original source material. Another example of controversial adaptations that are still good films is The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and its prequel, The Hobbit. Ringling College professor Lance Ford Jones, referencing a 2012 interview with Christopher Tolkien (J.R.R Tolkien’s son and owner of his literary estate,) in regard to the Peter Jackson films expresses that they transform the classic fantasy books into a children’s fantasy adventure, but not while retaining its vitally important anti-war messaging (Jones).

Diverting from the ever-expansive topic of the film adaptation (although there are plenty of good examples,) a great example of adaptation is The Adventure Zone Graphic Novels by Griffin, Travis, Justin and Clint McElroy, and Illustrated by Carey Pietsch. Based on an actual play podcast of the same name, there have already been 3 books released (as of December 2020,) since the first one made its debut in 2017, and all three have been on the New York Times Best Seller list (The Adventure Zone). Although these books could be easily counted as a great example of a successful adaptation, the real magic comes from the process of translating this unique piece of media into such an interesting format. In the first book, Here there be Gerblins, names of certain popular characters and locales needed to be changed, as the first chapter relied heavily on an actual Wizards of the Coast Module; they had used trademarked names. For example, the beloved Bugbear Klarg, had to have his name turned to an equally ferocious sounding name, albeit delicious, G’Nash (The Adventure Zone). 

In Petals to the Metal, (the third book,) the story had some larger tweaks revolved around plot. Mentioned in their live online release party, they discussed that because of how the style of the podcast was often improvised, they had a more difficult time ensuring that certain scenes would go as gracefully and accurately to the characters when considering a more story-driven analysis, rather than just comedy. They had the opportunity to work with the editor and illustrator and found solutions that would fit better to the stories and plots. One example near the beginning is when the main cast is asking a character about her relationship to another, they use a spell in the podcast to make her speak the truth. Sure, the spell is a running gag, but when adapting to comic form, they found the situation seemed more forceful and much less funny. In their revision, one of the main characters instead employs trust and honesty and asks for the information without magic. They were still able to make the joke later in the scene, but without there being potential forcefulness or tension. (The Adventure Zone) 
In all three books, thanks to the podcast’s story being completed, they were able to do more foreshadowing and references to potential moments of the plot, and in general make the story feel more complete and connected; the source material was being made while being played, and with the nature of DnD, could potentially be unpredictable, making it difficult to accomplish such things. Although certain small events and minor or separate stories as a whole from the podcast have been taken out of the books, the team ensured all character development and themes were taken into consideration and ensured that none would not be left out of the final product. The Adventure Zone is a great example of adaptation, due to its strong preservation of the original story and characters, while also being able to make changes necessary to ensure the graphic novels will not only shine, but in some ways be even better than the original.  

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FAILURES OF ADAPTATION
For every good adaptation, there seems to be hundreds of poor examples of adaptation. Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan has sold over 69 million copies and has been on the New York Times bestseller list for 245 weeks, and has a comic book adaptation, though we won’t be talking about that (Best, Percy). The first movie, however, was released in 2010 (Percy). Since this was during the time where many successful young adult novels were being adapted into less than stellar movies, fans feared the worst, but still headed to theatres to see what Hollywood had done to their precious series. 
In the box office it made $428.7 million, which was fortunately a lot more than its $185 million budget. It’s rating however wasn’t so lucky, getting a nasty 47 on Metacritic (Percy). The movie deserves the score, as the film practically departs from the books in so many aspects. It feels almost like the movie was made using a very short synopsis of the book, as many characters, details, and plots seem to be altered trying to be almost “cooler”. There are certain things changed, like the characters being 16 instead of 12, which made no sense, nor did it have any impact on the story itself and seems to have been done for commercial gain like many other things in the story. 

One thing that really hurt the hearts of fans and the story itself is the relationship between Percy and Annabeth. Their relationship in the books were vastly different, as they had to learn to work together as they were constantly in danger and had to rely on each other to survive. In the movies, the two are more like fun rivals, but by the end of the movie, they are literally making out. This course of action cheapens any actual growth between the two characters as it is so cliche. One thing I would say is that the third main character, Grover, has crutches in the film. Even though it is part of a human disguise and isn’t totally genuine, it is still awesome to see that form of representation, even in such a terrible film. 
The greatest problem with the movie is that it claims to be a faithful rendition of its source material, calling itself by the full name of the book, even though the only thing they have in common is the most basic plot points, as even the theme isn’t kept intact. On top of that, it adds scenes and details from later books and puts them in way too soon. If they were planning to make a sequel (which they did, to even worse results,) they did not make it easy to continue the story. Another issue is pacing. Three hundred and seventy-seven pages put into two hours is not very easily possible, especially when jam packed with so much travel. It feels almost like whiplash as the trio literally travels across America, from New York to Hollywood and back. 

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief had no respect for its source material and was definitely a cash grab, filled to the brim with product placement and broken hearts of fans, and failed to overcome the challenges of adaptation and instead emerged as this fermented cesspool of disappointment. This work not only displays a great example of the challenges that come with adaptation, but also how certain things should not be changed during a transition between media, also making this piece a great example of an adaptive failure.

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CONCLUSION
Umberto Eco, Italian medievalist and novelist, observes that “[i]n order to transform a work into a cult object one must be able to break, dislocate, and unhinge it so that one can only remember parts of it, irrespective of their original relationship to it as a whole” (Le Fanu 148). Although I do not necessarily agree with separating the adaptation process from the personal connection to a piece of work, I do agree that in order to retell a story, it is necessary to be able to alter it. In Andre the Giant: Life and Legend, a graphic novel describing the larger the life wrestler’s biography, the author Box Brown prefaces the book saying he had to take some artistic liberties adapting Andre’s biography into the comic format, because there were blanks in the transition to visual media he had to fill-such as where Andre was going to sit on the bus, or decide which resources to trust (Brown 7). Of course, there are some adaptations that strongly differ from its source material on purpose, but that is an essay for another day.  

Within this essay there were many examples of this concept from every piece we saw. The question is not whether a piece should or should not be distorted for adaptations, rather, how it should be distorted. If the McElroys decided to instead keep a majority of the story the same between renditions, or they approached scenes in a way that did not align with the original material, The Adventure Zone 1-3 would not be as celebrated. The same could be said with Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, if they had stayed truer to the original story, and split the book into two films, the creators may have had a much more successful film on their hands.

Adaptations are a part of culture that has been around for centuries, and does not have a chance of disappearing, if there is art being made. Adaptation may seem shallow, but it is intricately deep, and has many ways to approach, succeed, and ruin. It is exciting to see what next will be retold or recreated, and I have much hope that the longer adaptations are being created, the more artists will learn to expand and successfully transform one story into another form.

 

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