Inkheart

This month the kids have been listening to Inkheart by Cornelia Funke. I read this book 5 years ago and LOVED it. I loved the darkness of the villains, it seemed like someone finally got it right with how dark and evil villains should be. The idea was amazing and I was hooked. I got my book club to read it and they also liked it. This year I thought my kids were old enough to handle the book, so we opened it up and started to read. They were instantly hooked when Dustfinger appeared at Meggie and Mo's doorstep. We listened to most of the book and the characters came to life for us, the narrator did such an amazing job reading it.

Much to our delight the movie Inkheart came out last month and we couldn't wait to watch it. We were worried it would be scary and dark, maybe too much for some of us. But we put on our brave heart and went as a family so excited for the adventure.

I had high hopes for this movie, Andy Serkis has been a long time favorite villain of mine, and I couldn't wait to see what Basta and Flat Nose looked like. But much to our disappointment the villains were more comical and nonsensy than scary and dark. Basta was a short, greasy, man with a small mustache. He was shorter than everyone which took the fright right out of him. Flat Nose, well, he was silly more than scary. Hayden said, "Flat Nose was an idiot, he was not scary at all, he looked like a dork. In the book his nose was missing not gigantic." Capricorn, played by Andy Serkis, just didn't capture the pure ink dark heart of Capricorn, I expected him to start mumbling about his "precious" at any moment (I could not help giggling when he was angry..."stupid fat hobbit"). Even my kids were disappointed in the characters. They really wanted to see what Basta looked like because they were afraid of him. Dustfinger was exactly as we pictured him, Paul Bettany did a great job, he was believable and we were sad for him just like in the book. And Farid was as I pictured him, but the kids thought he would be younger and shorter. Farid was Hunter's favorite character so he was a bit disappointed, but the rest of us were happy with him.

In the end, the movie was a great family film. It was not scary in the least bit, or intense really. If you want the full emotion and feeling of a great story I recommend you read the book, the movie felt like such a let down...to bad 'cause we LOVED the book! I would wait until it comes out on DVD and then only rent it from Red Box ($1) I am glad we went, I am glad the kids watched it, but the consensus was we would not watch it again. However, on the way home the kids asked when we can start reading Inkspell (the sequel). I love books and I love when my kids love books too! Long live the written word!