My Favorite TV to Movie Adapations

I’ve been thinking about this alot, especially since I’ve been watching quite a bit of TV lately. We all know that Hollywood is constantly looking for new ideas for movies.. and TV happens to be a good source of ideas for a (potentially) good feature film.

Why is this? Plenty of reasons, of course:

• Existing Fan Base
• Developed Storyline and Characters
• Actors/Actresses are potentially already cast
• You get to watch your favorite TV show on the Big Screen!

And there are plenty more. Not all TV show to feature film adaptations are successful.. S.W.A.T comes to mind, but there are a surprising amount that have been quite good. Here are my Top 3:

Serenity - To be honest, I didn’t really get into Firefly until well after the series was off the air… and I totally missed out. The epic stories, extremely likable characters and great acting are an example of why the networks don’t do it right sometimes. When I first got my hands on the DVDs, I watched them for 4 days nonstop (minus eating and other stuff, like work) until I had made my way through the whole series. It was absolutely incredible. I found myself wanting more, and being upset that something this good wasn’t still airing. Doing more research into what happened, I found out that Joss Whedon (the creator) still wants to make the show, but will never work with FOX on it. We all know that FOX has made mistakes when it comes to cancelling TV shows early… like Family Guy.

What Made the movie awesome: It was more of the same that the series brought you. I was so enthralled by the series, and the movie just added to it. Picking up at some point where the series left off, Whedon kind of used the movie as a way to finish off the series. He did a very good job, and with the same elements that made the series so great, made the movie great as well. He further developed the backstory behind River Tam more, which was awesome, and brought in a lot of elements that left the story open to more, if Whedon ever decides to pick up this project again.

One thing’s for sure, the Serenity gave Firefly fans a little hope… but with the movie not performing that well, who knows what will happen with it. I know that I look forward to the days when the quick wit of Captain Mal and his crew will find their way to TV sets… and maybe even the Big Screen again.

Transformers - Who didn’t grow up watching the Autobots and Decepticons wage war against each other. One was trying to gather as much Energon as they could, and the other was trying to prevent them from sapping the Earth’s resources. Transformers has to be one of my all time favorite cartoons. I looked forward to getting a new set of transformers minis every single christmas! I had hoped one day to gather a whole collection of them, but that didn’t happen…. I lost them all instead. But, as you can probably imagine, I was pretty darn excited when the Transformers movie finally came out (the non-cartoon version)!

What Made the movie awesome - Wow.. that line made me really think of Michael Bay and those Verizon commercials. Anyway, Transformers was exactly that…awesome. First, there was the smokin Megan Fox. Then, you add in giant robots battling, amazing special effects… and more Megan Fox. Ok, Megan Fox was not in the TV series, but that was a welcome addition to the movie. I’ve watched Transformers on my movie channels so many times it’s crazy! Needless to say, this movie did the original TV series justice, and thus makes it onto this list.

The Simpsons Movie - How can you have a TV to movie adaptation and not include The Simpsons? TV’s longest running cartoon has been ever changing with the times, keeping up with culture changes, current events, and has managed to stay cool through all the years. Yes, just about everyone has watched The Simpsons at some point, and I actually just tuned to it myself. Homer giving a sermon about the first christmas… classic. lol.

“A Pregnant Woman?!? That’s every man’s worst nightmare!!!”

What Made the movie awesome - The Simpsons Movie definitely drew upon the existing fan base element, and all of the pre-existing stories. They brought back so many characters, and had such a cool story! It was sad that they killed off one of my favs, but hey, it’s part of the hype and what made the movie so awesome. What else worked for me in The Simpsons? Oh.. the pig. That was classic. Harry Plopper? Had me rolling in my seat the entire time. Oh yeah! This was a great crowd pleaser, and one that I was happy to see with a large crowd… it really made the experience!

So there ya have it… my top 3 TV show to Movie Adapatations! Let me hear it… what were yours?

While you’re at it… check out Firefly, Transformers, and The Simpsons (aff)

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