Today is the two-year anniversary of The Adaptation Station.com! I wanted to do something special to commemorate it. My first idea was a post about my top ten adaptations about which I’ve blogged. My second was a post that was like an Oscars ceremony where I gave awards for best actors, best costumes, best director, etc. I polled my readers and the second, more creative idea was declared the best.[1]I’m still going to do the Top Ten List later this month though because I feel like doing it.
However, instead of doing awards for all kinds of things, the Adaptees ended up just being actors.
Actually, they ended up being for the best characterizations. What exactly do I mean by that?
Well, every one of these award winners and honorable mentions is a character I consider great or at least good[2]Some of the categories with which I came up had more candidates than others, making a win for them less impressive. but I also am giving it for which actor’s portrayal I enjoyed the most. I’m not including any actors who I believe did great work on a badly written character. Nor am I including really well written versions of characters who were miscast. Basically, these are for whomever I enjoyed watching the most. Some of the winners are from things that aren’t necessarily my favorite adaptations of their source material, but I don’t consider any of them badly written. Having the awards be for the best characters also enabled me to include little “acceptance speeches” by these particular versions of them, making this post a tad more interesting than just a bunch of images.
I should say something about some exclusions. I consider the characters from the Underrated Peanuts specials about which I blogged to be just as memorable as any on this list, but they each fulfill different roles in different specials. In one of them, Charlie Brown takes the lead. In another, Linus does. In another, Lucy and in another, Snoopy. Whom should I categorize as a hero and whom as a sidekick? There were already so many candidates that excluding them was the easiest thing to do. I also didn’t include any of the characters from Jim Henson’s The Storyteller, well written and well-acted as they were, since their stories are all so short that it seemed strange to have them compete against the more fully developed figures from the other things I’ve reviewed on this site. Again, I should stress that doesn’t mean I consider them less great, just that they’re great in a different way. To me, it just doesn’t make sense to compare them.[3]I thought of giving the storyteller himself (John Hurt) an award for best narrator, but he had so little competition, even less than for best antihero or antiheroine, that it didn’t seem right. The same went for the characters from the Fantasia movies, memorable though some of them were.
As with my first-year anniversary post, keep in mind that these are only my favorites about which I’ve blogged. There are plenty of movies, shows, etc. that I love but haven’t blogged about. Some of them I will blog about in the future, others not. In some cases, that’s because they’re not adaptations of anything. In other cases, they are adaptations, but I don’t think I have anything interesting to write about them.
Now without further ado, the first ever Adaptees Awards Ceremony!
Best Purely Heroic Hero: Andrew Simpson’s Nick Nickleby
Runners Up: David Oyelowo’s Orlando de Boys, Jeremy Northam’s Mr. Knightley
Best Anti-Hero: Jeremy Sumpter’s Peter Pan[4]Part of me feels like I should honor Cathy Rigby’s portrayal of this character from the 2000 filmed version of the musical since that adaptation is less well known and less flawed. But the … Continue reading
Runner Up: Brad Pitt’s Sinbad
Best Hero That’s Hard to Classify: Hugh Jackman’s Jean Valjean
Runner Up: Val Kilmer’s Moses
Best Purely Heroic Heroine: Claire Foy’s Amy Dorrit
Runners Up: Lily James’s Cinderella, Bryce Dallas Howard’s Rosalind
Best Anti-Heroine: Gwyneth Paltrow’s Emma Woodhouse
Runner Up: Elizabeth Taylor’s Katharina Minola
Best Heroine That’s Hard to Classify: Sarah Davenport’s Jo March
Runners Up: Jodie Foster/Barbara Harris’s Annabel Andrews, Jamie Lee Curtis/Lindsey Lohan’s Dr. Tess Coleman
Best Villain You Love to Hate: Jim Broadbent’s Wackford Squeers
Runner Up: Charles Dance’s Mr. Tulkinghorn
Best Tragic Villain: David Oyelowo’s Javert
Runner Up: Ralph Fiennes’s Rameses II, Russell Crowe’s Javert[5]Part of me wants to give him the award since Crowe’s casting as the character has been criticized a lot and it’s nice to root for the underdog and there are some aspects of Javert’s … Continue reading
Best Villainess You Love to Hate: Kate Beckinsale’s Lady Susan Vernon
Runners Up: Juliet Stevenson’s Mrs. Squeers[6]Part of me really wants to let her have this award, but characters from Dickens and Les Misérables adaptations are dominating this list enough as it is and I’ve regretted that when doing lists … Continue reading, Michelle Pfieffer’s Eris
Best Tragic Villainess: Judy Parfitt’s Mrs. Clennam
Runner Up: Cate Blanchett’s Cinderella’s Stepmother[7]That sounds confusing, but “Cate Blanchett’s Stepmother” would have been even more so.
Best Woobie (Male): David Threlfall’s Smike
Runner Up: Jamie Bell’s Smike
Best Woobie (Female): Anne Hathaway’s Fantine
Runners Up: Isabelle Allen’s Cosette[8]Part of me really wants to give her the award since Hathaway has had a fairly successful career and Allen hasn’t been in any movies besides Les Misérables. (Given the fates of many child … Continue reading, Lily Collins’s Fantine
Best Mentor Figure (Male or Female): Emily Blunt’s Mary Poppins[9]I know it’s weird to have only one category be for both male and female, but there were very few memorable mentor figures in anything the Adaptation Station has covered. The closest I could … Continue reading
Runners Up: Susan Sarandon’s Marmee, Colm Wilkinson’s Bishop of Digne
Best Comedic Supporting Character (Male): Eddie Marsan‘s Pancks
Runners Up: Nathan Lane’s Vincent Crummles, Will Smith’s Genie
Best Comedic Supporting Character (Female): Sophie Thompson’s Miss Bates
Runners Up: Nasim Pedrad’s Dalia, Annette Crosbie’s Mr. F’s Aunt
So that’s it for the first ever Adaptees. Did you enjoy it? Should I ever do another one?
References
| ↑1 | I’m still going to do the Top Ten List later this month though because I feel like doing it. |
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| ↑2 | Some of the categories with which I came up had more candidates than others, making a win for them less impressive. |
| ↑3 | I thought of giving the storyteller himself (John Hurt) an award for best narrator, but he had so little competition, even less than for best antihero or antiheroine, that it didn’t seem right. |
| ↑4 | Part of me feels like I should honor Cathy Rigby’s portrayal of this character from the 2000 filmed version of the musical since that adaptation is less well known and less flawed. But the reason I’m “gendering” the categories is to include as many characters as possible and it feels weird to include a cross-cast role. |
| ↑5 | Part of me wants to give him the award since Crowe’s casting as the character has been criticized a lot and it’s nice to root for the underdog and there are some aspects of Javert’s characterization in the musical that I prefer to the miniseries. (His genuinely believing he was mistaken in suspecting the mayor and asking to be dismissed, for one thing, rather than it being a ploy to catch Jean Valjean.) But I also feel bad that the 2012 movie is beating the 2018 adaptation in so many categories when it really does have some great casting and David Oyelowo’s fiery Javert is closer to the one in my imagination than Russell Crowe’s stoic Javert. Plus, I felt bad that Oyelowo didn’t win Best Purely Heroic Hero. |
| ↑6 | Part of me really wants to let her have this award, but characters from Dickens and Les Misérables adaptations are dominating this list enough as it is and I’ve regretted that when doing lists of best adapted screenplays, I’ve never been able to give the one for Lady Susan’s movie more than an honorable mention. These award shows really are all about the politics, aren’t they? |
| ↑7 | That sounds confusing, but “Cate Blanchett’s Stepmother” would have been even more so. |
| ↑8 | Part of me really wants to give her the award since Hathaway has had a fairly successful career and Allen hasn’t been in any movies besides Les Misérables. (Given the fates of many child actors, maybe that’s for the best.) But none of her lines sound like an acceptance speech and anyway, her character only really needs a hug during the first half of the story. Fantine’s whole life story is depressing. |
| ↑9 | I know it’s weird to have only one category be for both male and female, but there were very few memorable mentor figures in anything the Adaptation Station has covered. The closest I could think of to another great male one was Denis Lawson’s Mr. Jarndyce of Bleak House and I’m not sure that’s really his role in the story. Actually, it’s not a great description of Mary Poppins’s role either but she’s such a great character I had to include her somehow. So basically, this whole category is a sham. |
Love these! and that you included Sophie Thompson as Miss Bates–brilliant!