When a the movie is better than a book

“This grew out of a conversation I had yesterday with a student over lunch. He was talking about why the books are nearly always better than the movies that are made based on them. I said that this is true, but there are some cases in which the movie is actually better than the book.

The example I gave was “Peter Pan.” The book, by J. M. Barrie, has all of the Victorian vices of sentimentalism and child-worshipping, and I find it unreadable. (As Chesterton said, Barrie’s central conceit of a boy who doesn’t want to grow up is the fantasy of an adult, not a child. Actual children can’t wait to grow up!)”

 (HT: Gene Edward Veith)