10 terrific films that have been adapted from children's books

Alice in Wonderland

Author: Lewis Carroll
Book: 1865
Film: 1951
A young girl follows a tardy rabbit down a rabbit hole where she discovers a magical land of nonsense. Alice eats and drinks her way bigger and smaller as she befriends various crazy characters and meets The Queen of Hearts who is intent on beheading anyone who disagrees with her. It focuses on the more fun side of the story and removes any of the darker, more scary parts of the book such as the evil Jabberwocky.

Harry Potter
Author: J.K. Rolwing
Book: 1997-2007
Film: 2001-2011
J.K. Rowling was hugely involved in the creation of the films, but there are a few differences that upset hard-core Potter fans. Harry’s eyes in the book are green like his mother’s, whereas in the film, his mother’s are brown and Harry’s are blue. All fine, except it comes up… a lot. That detail aside, the films bring the magic of the books alive.

Matilda

Author: Roald Dahl
Book: 1988
Film: 1996
Matilda is a classic by Roald Dahl which has several film iterations. The most famous movie adaptation was created in 1996 by Danny DeVito. Initially, the film was not a hit when it premiered. However, Matilda has endured as a popular children’s franchise up to date.

Mary Poppins

Author: P.L. Travers.
Book: 1934
Film: 1964
Two children make a wish for a nanny who is kind, witty, very sweet and fairly pretty – they get the magical Mary Poppins who sings her way through various mundane tasks while taking care of Jane and Michael. P.L. Travers famously made the production of the film difficult by trying to keep it true to the story; this meant having a stern nanny, no romantic links between Mary and her chimneysweep friend Bert, and no made-up words. Did Disney listen? Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious says they did not.

THE BFG
Author: Roald Dahl
Book: 1982
Film: 1989

A big friendly giant rescues (or should that be snatches?) a young girl called Sophie from an orphanage while he is out on his nightly rounds blowing dreams into kid’s heads. They become the best of friends and ultimately take on the other, more stereotypically nasty, giants. The 1989 cartoon (not the film that was released later in 2016, though this is also a family-favourite) was one of the few to get any praise from the incredible author Roald Dahl, who was famously unhappy with many of his book adaptions. There are very few differences between the film and the original story, and we love it.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Author: C.S. Lewis
Book: 1950
Film: 2005
Four siblings venture through a wardrobe and end up in the mysterious world of Narnia where they must fight an evil snow queen and save King Aslan the lion and his subjects. The book is wonderful and is a lot to live up to, but the film does the book justice and really brings the characters and magic to life.

The Tale of Peter Rabbit
Author: Beatrix Potter
Book: 1902
Film: 2018

Peter Rabbit is always breaking into Old Mr McGregor’s garden and stealing his vegetables. And it’s always getting him into trouble. But everything is about to change. The kids are sure to love every second of this classic story about a troublesome bunny rabbit, voiced by James Cordon.

The Wizard of Oz

Author: L. Frank Baum

Book: 1900 Film: 1939

A tornado hits and Dorothy finds herself a long way from Kansas. Waking up in a magical land called Oz, which is inhabited by munchkins, she makes friends with a brainless Scarecrow, a heartless Tin Man and a cowardly Lion. The friends then go off to see the wizard to request the things they are missing, for Dorothy, that’s home.

Where the Wild Things are
Author: Maurice Sendak
Book: 1963
Film: 2009
Max is sent to his room with no dinner after being naughty – standard. He then travels to a world where the big cuddly monsters who live there, proclaim him king. The journey and subsequent story may be in his imagination, but the tears are real. What amazes us most, is how they managed to make a feature length 101-minute film from a 40-page book with just 338 words – very impressive.

101 Dalmatians
Author: Dodie Smith
Book: 1956
Film: 1961
This is a classic Disney film with a fabulous music score. Two Dalmatians, Pongo and Perdita, have a litter of puppies, which get stolen when a very evil lady covets their skins to make herself a coat. But this litter isn’t the only one to have been snatched. It’s up to Pongo and Perdita to find their puppies and bring them home – and all the others too, making… Yep… 101 Dalmations in total.