# Turning books into animation **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 25, 2013, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turning-books-into-animation/674760 "2013-11-25T16:27:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2013, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turning-books-into-animation/674760/1 "2013-11-25T16:27:06Z")
What books would you like to see transformed into either an animated movie or maybe an animated television series? I could see Robert Asprin’s _Myth_ series as an Adult Swim project, and Sapir and Murphy’s _Destroyer_ as an anime-style series. I think a lot of Heinlein’s works would work best as animated movies, but Dicksons _Dorsai/Childe Cycle_ might take both an animated series _and_ a movie or three. What say you? ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2013, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turning-books-into-animation/674760/2 "2013-11-25T16:38:40Z")
I still want a Dante’s Inferno film. There’s a horrible version with a totally bullshit add-on with Dante as a warrior battling demons to rescue Beatrice who’s been captured by Lucifer because Dante cheated on her. It’s totally bogus and I want someone to give it another go. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2013, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turning-books-into-animation/674760/3 "2013-11-25T16:56:54Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > I still want a Dante’s Inferno film. There’s a horrible version with a totally bullshit add-on with Dante as a warrior battling demons to rescue Beatrice who’s been captured by Lucifer because Dante cheated on her. It’s totally bogus and I want someone to give it another go. Definitely. For that matter, I’d like to see Niven and Pournelle’s _Inferno_ turned into an animated movie, and their _Dream Park books_ turned into a four season animated series, one for each book. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2013, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turning-books-into-animation/674760/4 "2013-11-25T17:50:25Z")
Jack Vance’s _Eyes of the Overworld_, done by Studio Ghibli. I’d prefer a tv mini series with a couple of chapters per episode but I think compressing it into a film length version could work if the script was right. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2013, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turning-books-into-animation/674760/5 "2013-11-25T19:54:17Z")
The _Pern_ books would make great anime. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turning-books-into-animation/674760/6 "2013-11-26T00:10:55Z")
For a long time I have thought that anime would be the best way to visualize Dune would be as an epic multi part anime. ---
**Author:** ![RearEchelon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b4bc9f/32.png) [@RearEchelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RearEchelon)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turning-books-into-animation/674760/7 "2013-11-26T03:45:03Z")
I would love to see Robert Jordan’s _Wheel of Time_ saga. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turning-books-into-animation/674760/8 "2013-11-26T03:53:57Z")
_The Tale of Despereaux_, a profoundly excellent children’s book (I read it most years to my class and never fail to choke up at the end), was turned into a steaming turd of a movie. I would love to see Studio Ghibli give it the treatment it deserves. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turning-books-into-animation/674760/9 "2013-11-26T04:03:18Z")
> [@RearEchelon](#): > > I would love to see Robert Jordan’s _Wheel of Time_ saga. I believe that would require an entire Robert Jordan Cartoon Network. ---
**Author:** ![shijinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turning-books-into-animation/674760/10 "2013-11-26T04:14:02Z")
in view of this being a hypothetical and not constrained by costs - why animation? with CGI being what it is now, the only reasons i can think of are stylistic ones, especially with regards to people. the typical anime look, for example, doesn"t really work in 3D. what other reasons would there be? would the Lord of the Rings in animation be better than the one we have now? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turning-books-into-animation/674760/11 "2013-11-26T04:31:35Z")
> [@shijinn](#): > > in view of this being a hypothetical and not constrained by costs - why animation? Because this is the “Turning books into animation” thread? ---
**Author:** ![shijinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turning-books-into-animation/674760/12 "2013-11-26T04:36:37Z")
okay, i was just wondering if there was a deeper reason for the choice. carry on. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turning-books-into-animation/674760/13 "2013-11-26T13:18:30Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > What books would you like to see transformed into either an animated movie or maybe an animated television series? I could see Robert Asprin’s _Myth_ series as an Adult Swim project, and Sapir and Murphy’s _Destroyer_ as an anime-style series. I think a lot of Heinlein’s works would work best as animated movies, but Dicksons _Dorsai/Childe Cycle_ might take both an animated series _and_ a movie or three. > > What say you? They actually DID try an animated version of Heinlein’s **Red Planet** almost 20 years ago for Fox Kids. Like most other Heinlein adaptations, they changed it severely: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/i_GHFeXrRFY/hqdefault.jpg "Red Planet (1994) part 1/10") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_GHFeXrRFY) > **[Red Planet (miniseries)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Planet_(miniseries))** > > Red Planet is a 1994 animated miniseries created by Gunther-Wahl Productions. It was adapted from the 1949 Robert A. Heinlein novel of the same name, with the teleplay written by Julia Lewald. The miniseries had three half-hour episodes. > Ownership of the series passed to Disney in 2001 when Disney acquired Fox Kids Worldwide. > Jim Marlowe (voiced by Benny Grant), Jr., and his little sister, Phillis Jane "P.J." Marlowe (voiced by Haven Hartman), are teens growing up on the distant mining world of... ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turning-books-into-animation/674760/14 "2013-11-26T13:27:32Z")
Others? I thinmk a lot of mythology would look great in animation. The circa 1980 effort **Metamorphosis** , AKA **Winds of Change** had a great concept – an updated **Fantasia** , with the Greek myths as subject matter and modern rock music by top-of-the-line groups. They even lined up a bunch of classic Disney animators for it. But it fell through. The rock acts dropped out, the animation was sub-par, and they defaulted on their hope to do it in pantomime by getting Peter Ustinov as narrator. But I’d like to see **the Epic of Gilgamesh** , or some of the lesser-known stories from **The 1001 Nights** (there’s tons of stuff, beyond genies and magic lamps). I could see some weird, artistic version of **The Rime of the Ancient Mariner** with voiceover reading of the poem by some big-league actor, like Ian McKellan. Now that good CGI is around, I’d like to see science fiction done as live action, with good CGI effects. I’ve filmed Fredric Brown’s _Arena_ in my head numerous times. (If you’ve only seen the Star Trek TOS version, you owe it to yourself to read the original story, which is infinitely better – and has a an altogether different ending) ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turning-books-into-animation/674760/15 "2013-11-26T13:39:18Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > I still want a Dante’s Inferno film. Really? I haven’t read it since HS, but isn’t it just Dante and Virgil wandering around Hell and seeing a bunch of classical and 14th century political figures Dante didn’t like getting their innards chewed on by demons? I don’t remember it having much in the way of plot, and without a lot of awkward exposition (on the plus side, if I watched it I’d finally learn to pronounce “Guelph”), I doubt even a fairly educated audience would know who most of the people depicted were, or why they were having their innards chewed on by demons. Maybe it could work as a sort of trippy art-project, but as a story I think it’d leave a lot to be desired. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turning-books-into-animation/674760/16 "2013-11-26T13:53:36Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > Really? I haven’t read it since HS, but isn’t it just Dante and Virgil wandering around Hell and seeing a bunch of classical and 14th century political figures Dante didn’t like getting their innards chewed on by demons? I don’t remember it having much in the way of plot, and without a lot of awkward exposition (on the plus side, if I watched it I’d finally learn to pronounce “Guelph”), I doubt even a fairly educated audience would know who most of the people depicted were, or why they were having their innards chewed on by demons. > > Maybe it could work as a sort of trippy art-project, but as a story I think it’d leave a lot to be desired. It didn’t have a whole lotta plot, but the visuals could be stunning. Have a look at the Gustave Dore illustrations for the Inferno: [http://www.worldofdante.org/gallery\_dore.html](http://www.worldofdante.org/gallery_dore.html) If you want plot, maybe you could animate Larry Niven/Jerry Pournelle’s novel _Inferno_, which places a modern-day SF author in Dante’s Hell, and has him try to escape. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turning-books-into-animation/674760/17 "2013-11-26T13:57:51Z")
I wouldn’t mind seeing Robert E. Howard’s stories done in animation. Lord knows, nobody’s ebven _tried_ to do a faithful adaptation of Conan for the screen – they cut out all the stuff that makes it interesting. For the immense monsters and exotic sorcerors, the Mighty-Thewed Cimmerian Giant, and the gtravity-defying voluptuous leading ladies, animation might be the best way to go. It’s be like the Frazetta/Bakshi effort **Fire and Ice** from thirty years ago. Onloy better, because you’;d have a real Robert E. Howard plot. > **[Fire and Ice (1983 film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_and_Ice_(1983_film))** > > Fire and Ice is a 1983 American animated epic dark fantasy adventure film directed by Ralph Bakshi. The film, a collaboration between Bakshi and Frank Frazetta, was distributed by 20th Century-Fox. The animated feature, based on characters co-created by Bakshi and Frazetta, was made using the process of rotoscoping, in which scenes were shot in live-action and then traced onto animation cels. > The screenplay was written by Gerry Conway and Roy Thomas, both of whom had written Conan stories for ... For that matter, animation might be the best way to do H.P. Lovecraft’s stories. Imagine _The Dunwich Horror_ done with complex, computer-aided imagery. Or _The Shadow over Innsmouth_, culminating in hordes of stampeding Innsmouth denizens, and a view of the undersea city. ---
**Author:** ![Cyros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a698b9/32.png) [@Cyros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyros)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turning-books-into-animation/674760/18 "2013-11-26T13:59:37Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > I believe that would require an entire Robert Jordan Cartoon Network. Well, no descriptions of dresses and such are necessary so that should cut down the number of episodes needed by about 75%. ---
**Author:** ![ricksummon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ricksummon/32/3333_2.png) [@ricksummon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ricksummon)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turning-books-into-animation/674760/19 "2013-11-26T14:53:56Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > For that matter, animation might be the best way to do H.P. Lovecraft’s stories. Imagine _The Dunwich Horror_ done with complex, computer-aided imagery. Or _The Shadow over Innsmouth_, culminating in hordes of stampeding Innsmouth denizens, and a view of the undersea city. Lovecraft’s short story **From Beyond** has been animated in claymation [here.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQZyYvb-GD8) While the protagonist of **The Shadow out of Time** is live-action, the Great Race and their civilization are done with stop-motion in [this film.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7jp1CT1h6c) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turning-books-into-animation/674760/20 "2013-11-26T15:25:07Z")
> [@ricksummon](#): > > Lovecraft’s short story **From Beyond** has been animated in claymation [here.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQZyYvb-GD8) > > While the protagonist of **The Shadow out of Time** is live-action, the Great Race and their civilization are done with stop-motion in [this film.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7jp1CT1h6c) The **H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society** has made excellent adaptations of _The Cal of Cthulhu_ and _The Whisperer in Darkness_, both as period pieces with stop-motion effects. But I was thinking more along the lines of computer-aided color animation adaptations of everything in the story. It could truly _rock_. See the CGI animations of Lovecraftian elements in **Hellboy** , for instance, to get an idea. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turning-books-into-animation/674760.md?page=2)