Think of the Children and YA Adaptations

There is a prevailing attitude in Hollywood, as well as in other media content producers, that children are precious little angels. That they are delicate little flowers that you can't harm slightly or they will be broken for the rest of their lives.

So when a book series is made for Young Adults (YA) and is popular, a movie/tv show is made. But while the YA audience clearly loves the source material and isn't some broken wreck, once YA books go up for adaptation they tend be toned down because "think of the children" type attitude.

Here are two brief examples:

Yes, I'm complaining about the awful tv adaptation of Animorphs yet again. The books were full of complex characters and situations. Each member of the group had strengths and weaknesses. The peacekeeper of the group (Cassie) made some of the harshest decisions in the series. The kid that seemed to live for the battle (Rachel) also questioned how far she was changing constantly.

And what the situations involve? Cannibalism, genocide, and matricide among others. The Animorphs all get PTSD and none of them make it out unscathed in some way, shape, or form. One of the Animorphs even dies. Even funny situations, like the oatmeal book that is like a drug to Yeerks, give thought to serious implications. In the oatmeal case it was about biowarfare.

So what does the tv show get wrong?

Everything but a few pieces here and there. Though they might've gotten those things wrong and I just thought they were done right because of all the things the show didn't get right.

For those that don't know: because Animorphs became popular, Nickelodeon decided on making a tv series.

Luckily it only lasted two seasons and all the complexity and darkness of the books was gone.

Besides Tobias' character being royally screwed over, he didn't struggle with being trapped as a hawk. In the books he tries to commit suicide in #3 The Encounter because he had accidentally let the hawk mind take over.

Show Tobias also reacted extremely well to being suddenly transformed back into a human with the arrival of the Ellimist. In #7 The Stranger, the book that episode was loosely based on, Tobias starts trying to fly away when Rachel (his girlfriend) attempts to hug him and he also seems to not remember how to make human facial expressions.

A lot of the changes took place because "think of the children"!

I want to start off this part with the fact that I enjoy The Hunger Games movies so far. While they aren't perfect adaptations, hardly any adaptation is perfect, they do manage to get the heart of the books out.

The book trilogy, narrated by Katniss Everdeen, is about a girl getting her life turned around when she accidentally becomes the symbol of a revolution. Unlike many heroes, and I am hesitant to call her that, she doesn't care about the larger picture. She just cares about keeping her mother and sister safe.

As for love interests?

There is a love triangle, but it is highly downplayed and allows the plot of the trilogy to take center stage.

So what do the movies get wrong?

They upped the age of Katniss and other characters. The thing that made the horrors of the books was that they were children much too young to die. Much too young to become murderers for some sick games.

The movies also tone down Katniss' character so that she's nicer.

There are some characters that have disabilities due to events in the first book that are perfectly fine in the second book (aka Catching Fire).

I am sort of afraid that in Mockingjay (Part 1 or 2, whichever part they put this event in) the makers of the films will have one character live instead of die. The character's death surprised me as I thought they were safe and couldn't die, due to The Hunger Games being a YA trilogy. This character's death helped Katniss make the only decision I consider fully her own in the entire trilogy. But the filmmakers might think that because it's such a sad death that the children will be scarred for life.

The Hunger Games movies isn't one of the worst adaptations by a long shot, but they still suffer from the "think of the children" mindset.