They were forbidden right at the beginning, when they were given the original tour of the Count’s house. It’s only at the very end of the movie Klaus climbs up the outside of the tower to rescue Sunny and finds . . . significant stuff.
And I know that they were cruelly overworked and watched, but they were very resourseful children and I suspect that they did not try to gain access to the tower just because it would have been impolite. I’m definitely going to have to read those books.
Stephin Merritt, my favorite songwriter (of The Magnetic Fields, The Gothic Archies, The Future Bible Heroes and The 6ths) has written songs for each of the books-on-tape that will be collected as a Gothic Archies album once the thirteenth book is completed. I was hoping that some of his songs would be used in the movie, but nope. Perhaps it’s for the best - I can keep the world of the books and the world of the movie separate.
I had mixed reactions to the film. For everything the filmmakers got right (the art direction, the costumes, the prettiness of the orphans, Jim Carrey’s performance :eek: ), there was something else that was completely wrong (SUNNY!, the change in tone of the books to a cross between goofiness and sentimentality, revealing too much too soon, the pointlessness shuffling of the plot).
The completely wrong stuff overwhelmed it for me. Especially the oversentimentality. The end of the movie was just too, too, too much and I walked out thinking that it was awful and wishing I had seen the movie about “The Littlest Elf” because maybe that would have been less saccharine.
It was the script. Afterwards, I can think that it did look good. And the acting was not bad. But the words and the plot were not good.
I was disappointed, too. I don’t usually like seeing books turned into movies anyway, and these books seemed particularly difficult to translate correctly. My kids seemed happy enough, but I doubt anyone’s going to see that movie and then decide to read the books. 
I don’t think it’s been conclusively said in the books that Olaf started the fire in the Baudelaire mansion himself. It definitely wasn’t said in the early books! Also…spyglasses? I don’t think so.
Trying to say something nice: The sets, costumes, etc. looked just right. Casting was fine, although Jim Carrey’s part rightfully belonged to Tim Curry. We also enjoyed the fall of Aunt Josephine’s house (the high point of the whole movie if you ask me.)
I WAS WONDERING!!!
I haven’t yet read the books, but I saw the movie & was in hysterics all through. Totally fun! And stay through the animated final credits. There’s no big punch line but still it’s still quite clever. I now want to read the books.
Also, I got to see the interesting trailer to the Spielberg-Cruise WAR OF THE WORLDS. Coooooool.
Alas, I also saw the trailer to the Burton-Depp (a combo I’ve always loved) CHARLIE & THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY… WTF?!?
I felt like the sentimentality was sort of in keeping with the books. It always seems to me that at some point in every book, either Violet or Klaus starts to really despair and one sibling gives the other one a speech about how they have each other.
On the other hand I thought Violet was a bit too pretty. “Reasonably attractive” to me isn’t “Angelina Jolie Jr.” I don’t know why but I think of Violet as being more like a junior spinster-librarian type, the way Brett Helquest draws her.
Sunny’s translations annoyed me because in the books, especially the later books, Sunny’s words are related to what she’s trying to say. In the movie she just gurgles with a lame joke. It really isn’t Sunny’s style to say something like “she is the mayor of crazytown.” That bothered me! In the book, Sunny’s language has a logic. As the books go by you understand her more and more. I don’t think it would have added to the movie to get into that, but it didn’t add anything to have her be a wisecracking sidekick.
Meryl Streep bothered me because of her wig. I think her face was all taped back under the wig because when she was talking to the kids in the Curdled Cave, she had weird wrinkles on the side of her face where the tape was pulling. She really gets on my nerves.
I really liked Jim Carey when he did Captain Sham, though. “he’s just wee b’ye just out of his osh kosh b’gosh.” Also, when he played Hot Potato with Sunny and kept thinking she was their monkey. One thing about Count Olaf is that both Tim Curry and Lemony Snicket give him a really weird voice in the audiobooks. At least Jim Carey makes him sound like a person might actually sound. I really liked the way he did Stephano too.
I’m perplexed about the spoilers
[spoiler]It took at least 7 books to figure out a lot of the stuff that’s right out there in the movie about fires. Right at the start of the movie, Olaf practically says he burned down the Baudelaire mansion with refracted light. On the other hand, maybe I can look at it as just more clues to enjoy. I think the spyglass stuff is weird, because in the book you at least have the idea that all the people with eye tattoos are involved, so it’s sinister when the orphans meet someone with an eye tattoo, and it isn’t til later that they understand more about the schism and that all is not as it appears. It seems like Olaf’s eye symbols are glossed over in the movie. I didn’t notice the acting troupe to be wearing eye symbols. Then it’s clear that the people on the other side of the schism have spyglasses instead or eye tattoos.
I want the DVD so I can pause and examine the photo that Aunt Josephine was trying to hide.
I can’t even believe I didn’t try to read the address on their envelope! After trying to imagine where the book takes place for so long. [/spoiler]