Even though I liked the production, including the acting, I'm not really sure the story works in live-action with human actors. The dialogue includes lines like "who wants to meet meat?" and "flapping meat" which makes sense if aliens are communicating somewhere-not-Earth using non-vocal communication, but not if they're sitting in an Earth cafe in (presumably) disguised forms (thus presuming a much greater familiarity with humans than the dialogue implies).
A few years ago my friend vito_excalibur made a computer animation adaptation of the story, featuring cartoonish robots and nifty stylized digitally rendered backgrounds. (Don't think it was ever finished, though.) I liked that one better because the story worked within its own framework.
My question with any adaptation is "what does the adaptation add to the original work?"
In my opinion, the thing that THIS adds is the shots of the humans. As you point out, this is clearly NOT how Bissom imagined his story, and your friend's version is probably a much more faithful adaptation.
But I think that makes it less useful as an adaptation. It adds less, because it's more faithful.
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Date: 2006-05-06 01:47 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-05-06 11:28 pm (UTC)Even though I liked the production, including the acting, I'm not really sure the story works in live-action with human actors. The dialogue includes lines like "who wants to meet meat?" and "flapping meat" which makes sense if aliens are communicating somewhere-not-Earth using non-vocal communication, but not if they're sitting in an Earth cafe in (presumably) disguised forms (thus presuming a much greater familiarity with humans than the dialogue implies).
A few years ago my friend
(no subject)
Date: 2006-05-07 12:35 am (UTC)My question with any adaptation is "what does the adaptation add to the original work?"
In my opinion, the thing that THIS adds is the shots of the humans. As you point out, this is clearly NOT how Bissom imagined his story, and your friend's version is probably a much more faithful adaptation.
But I think that makes it less useful as an adaptation. It adds less, because it's more faithful.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-05-07 02:51 am (UTC)