Today I took Mahalia to see this movie, and having loved the book as a child, and just finished reading it to her last week. Honestly I was disappointed by this film.
The visual quality was great (except for Calcifer looked draw by a five year old) but the plot must have been lost in translation.
It wasn’t like the major gist of the book was kept, it was more akin to the 1996 remake of Remeo and Juliet, maybe with the some of the cast swapping roles to spice it up more. I’m just not sure what to complain about first. Compared to Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy where you just know it had to be heavily abridged, thus some rewriting in the middle was required, and a happy ending slapped on the end, but here… oh I’m still lost for words.
I guess what I trying to say is the movie was good, but not faithful to the book, and the book is an enchanting story. So if you go see the film, please also read the book, or just read the book.