Once more it’s Monday, and time for Fantasy with Friends! The prompts are hosted at Pages Unbound, and this time we’re talking about movie adaptations:

Are there any fantasy books that you think had a movie adaptation that was even better than the book? If not, what are some of your favorite and least screen favorite adaptations?

I don’t really watch movies (or TV), so I am poorly equipped to answer this one! I did watch more when I was younger, but nowadays I’m lucky if I watch a single movie in a whole year (and I’ve watched one for 2026: Rian Johnson’s Wake Up Dead Man, which is great but not fantasy). Sooo this will be a short post.

We’ve discussed The Lord of the Rings before, and I think that’s a broadly good adaptation that made a couple of choices I didn’t love (e.g. regarding Faramir’s character, but also the omission of Glorfindel in order to give Arwen a bigger part to play). There were reasons those choices were made, often really good reasons, and I’m not a purist about it: adaptations are adaptations, and can change things without that being a bad thing.

Another example, though not a movie, is the BBC radioplay adaptation of The Dark is Rising — the one that aired when I was a kid, not the more recent one — which cut out most of Will’s brothers and simplified his family significantly, but managed to nonetheless capture the sense of threat, struggle and wonder of that book beautifully. The casting was amazing, especially Merriman and the Rider. I love Will’s family, but I accept the need to adapt and the ways that was good for the story.

On the other hand, we don’t speak of The Seeker, which I never even tried to watch because it was apparent even from trailers that it completely mangled the story.

Studio Ghibli have mixed examples for me: their adaptation of Ursula Le Guin’s Earthsea books just isn’t worth watching to me, as it didn’t stay remotely true to the spirit of the story. Buuut though their adaptation of Diana Wynne Jones’ Howl’s Moving Castle is completely different from the book, losing aspects that are deeply important to me (Howl’s Welshness, for instance), I love that one — even though it adds in themes that I don’t think are there in the original. Maybe it’s because Howl and Sophie are true to their book-selves, despite all the changes, as is their relationship.

I had more to say than I thought, though not about any recent movies! I’m kinda curious to see what other people think and what adaptations they think have been worth the time.