“Unless Someone Like You” Buys a Ticket to this Movie: Dual Audience and Aetonormativity in Picturebook to Film Adaptations

As critical study of adapted texts moves away from a focus on fidelity to explore questions of adaptive practice, picturebook to film adaptation offers unique opportunities to redirect discourse related to the value of adaptive changes. Because feature-length films made from children’s picturebooks...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Children's literature in education 2018-12, Vol.49 (4), p.485-498
Main Author:	Meeusen, Meghann
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	1900-1999 adult-child relations Adults American literature audience Audiences Balda, Kyle Behavior Standards Childrens Literature Didacticism dramatic arts Education fiction film adaptation Geisel, Theodor Seuss Interpersonal Relationship Johnston, Joe Jumanji Language and Literature Language Education Linguistics Media Adaptation novel Original Paper Picture Books Role Social Behavior Social Sciences Sociology The Lorax Van Allsburg, Chris Vertical Organization
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Summary:	As critical study of adapted texts moves away from a focus on fidelity to explore questions of adaptive practice, picturebook to film adaptation offers unique opportunities to redirect discourse related to the value of adaptive changes. Because feature-length films made from children’s picturebooks require filmmakers to add substantial content, they open discussion of how adaptive changes engage key ideas related to children’s literature more broadly, including dual audience, didacticism, and aetonormativity. This essay explores how these concepts transform in picturebook to movie adaptation, drawing on two family films made from iconic picturebook source texts—Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax ( 1971 ) and Chris Van Allsburg’s Jumanji ( 1981 )—to posit that added content foregrounds adult presence within the story and participation in viewership far more than in the films’ picturebook counterparts, positioning adults as learners while at the same time reinforcing adult/child hierarchies.
ISSN:	0045-6713 1573-1693 1573-1693