Winners and Special Treats

Well, the competition was stiff. Between the blogs, we had nearly a hundred entries in the Great Rampant ARC giveaway these past few days. Thank you guys so much for entering, and I hope that we can do another one in the future. Perhaps with the hardcover.

And for those of you who didn’t win, never fear! Everyone signed up for my newsletter gets a prize today, one that I shall be sending out forthwith. (What a lovely word, forthwith. It should be utilized more often.)

So this weekend I indulged in a lot of R&R (and a little Rx) with Sailor Boy and Rio. (Everyone in my family has a water-themed name but me. ::Pout::) I feel much better. Thank you so much for all the well wishes!

[[Wait, says the savvy reader. She hasn’t posted the winner yet!]]

I watched the remake of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which had the unintended effect of putting all the songs from the far-superior Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory in my head all weekend. (“I want a party with rooms full of lawf-ter! Ten thousand tonnes of ice crrrream! And if I don’t get the things I am awf-ter, I’m… going…to…scream!”)

Things I liked about the new version:

• The fact that the Oompa-Loompa songs were based on the actual songs Roald Dahl wrote in the book, which I now unfortunately realize I have memorized (this is why I have no room in my brain to remember to, say, take the trash out on Thursdays).
• The scene where Wonka finds the Oompa Loompas
• The casting of the children and their parents
• The more faithful rendition of the great glass elevator and the great glass elevator sequence

What I Didn’t Like: (hint: pretty much everything else)

• The pacing was way off — slow in places it should be quick and vice versa, there was much less time/indulgence for “magic” and mystery/horror
• Johnny Depp’s Michael Jackson act got so tiring after five minutes –I’ll watch him in anything, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.
• None of the parents seemed overly concerned with the fate of their children. It was all so staid.
• Helena “Bellatrix Lestrange” Bonham-Carter should never be cast in a role without edge
• What the hell was up with that whole bizarre dentistry subplot? I mean, three cheers for Christopher Lee and all that, but Whaaaa? (Disclaimer: I only read The Great Glass Elevator once, and disliked intensely the character assassinations of the other Bucket grandparents, so this plot may exist in that book and I just don’t remember it.)

I wonder if I would have liked the movie more if I didn’t grow up with the wonderful (if less faithful) Gene Wilder version. Interesting. I guess that goes to show you that “faithful” in movies-from-books does not always equal “good.” I far prefer the less “faithful” latter-day Harry Potter films to the slavishly faithful Chris Columbus ones. I prefer the Lord of the Rings movies to the books, because I think they did a great job of cutting out all the crap (and turned Arwen into a character I could actually imagine Aragorn picking over the kickass Eowyn). Then again, though I would have no idea how they could possibly have filmed Prince Caspian the way it was written (which is almost entirely in flashback, as Trumpkin explains the situation to the Pevensies), I was not as big a fan of that adaptation, mostly because the idea of a romance (however chaste) between Susan and Prince Caspian is just gross.

Edmund kicked ass, though. Ah, Edmund, how do I love thee? You are in my triumvirate of adoration for characters whose names start with E: Edmund Pevensie, Elizabeth Bennet, and Eowyn of Rohan. Love love love…

And let us not even get started on the changed ending of The Golden Compass. There’s really only two reasons to watch that movie: Nicole Kidman’s letter-perfect rendition of Mrs. Coulter, and armored polar bears fighting in the tundra.

[[Wait! cries the savvy reader. She still hasn’t picked a winner!]]

Also, back to Wonka: the book and the old movie always made me crave candy. This one did not. That’s a point against it, as far as I’m concerned (actually, since the old movie was in part sponsored by a candy company, it makes sense that they would design the movie to make you hungry).

[[And still no winner!]]

Well, I’m off to run errands.

[[Hey!]]

Be back later!

[[Come on!]]

Okay, fine. the winner of the RAMPANT ARC GIVEAWAY is: Jocelyn!

(Jocelyn, please email me to discuss details.)