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Not surprising, alas, on the heels of a Little-Mermaidizing of Anastasia, which, for all I know, has an animated Busby Berkeley- style production number featuring Anna Black's DNA sample jigging with those of the Russian and German exiled royals who proved no match for the lady's lifelong fantasy--Candice At 10:29 AM 1/17/01 +1100, you wrote: >All of which reminds me that I must comment on the butchery done to one >of Australia's real classics, The Magic Pudding. Not only have Lindsay's >charming illustrations been uncharmingly Hollywoodised (though they bear >some resemblance to the characters) but the particular anarchic comedy of >the book has been completely repressed. And there's a new plot line to >"please the American market" because Americans are apparently too dumb to >understand it. > >All this would be bad enough (if predictable) - but in bookshops they are >selling "the book of the film", which I had a look at in a moment of >masochism. I can't understand the point of it at all: you take a durable >classic, presumably because it has proved popular for more than half a >century, and then surgically remove everything which makes it unique. > >What has this to do with poetry? Well, Bunyip Bluegum is a man of the >world and able to discourse charmingly about everything, "having read all >the best Australian poets". > >Not in the film, though. > >Alison > >