Stayed home today feeling sick, so there’s not much to say about the day - I stayed in my pajamas all day, played with the cats, did a bit of work for my job and a bit more for a freelance client, and watched a bunch of stuff off the TiVo. Nothing to write home about.

In absence of interesting things about today, I will note that the more I think about the previews I saw at The Golden Compass, the more confused I get about the state of children’s movies. On the one hand, I think it’s awesome that so many beloved childhood favorites are getting movie adaptations. There’s Golden Compass itself, obviously, and I’m all for another Narnia movie. I’ve never read Spiderwick Chronicles , but the movie looks nice and Brian-Froud-esque. I loved Five Children and It although as far as I can tell it never got American release, so I’m not sure anyone else ever saw it. I’ve written previously about how violently opposed I am to the “adaptation” of the Dark is Rising, but I’m just choosing to think of that as entirely separate from the books.

So yeah, good stuff overall, and I’m glad kids are growing up with a lot of great movies aimed at them right now. It feels like it was a long dry spell for good children’s movies apart from Pixar and Harry Potter for many years there. But at the same time, isn’t there something original someone could be doing? Sooner or later we’re going to run out of good children’s books to plunder. And then either someone’s going to have to do something new, or it’s going to be Sweet Valley University: The Movie.

Although actually, as I’m typing this I realize I’m shocked no one’s ever made a Sweet Valley movie. IMDB tells me there was a TV show, which thankfully I didn’t know about until this very moment, but seemingly no movie. Wasn’t this what the Olsen twins were born for? Surely the world did not require two of them just so that one of them could grow up to amuse me on Weeds.

I’ve lost the plot here, I think. Basic point: I’m finding most of these adaptations delightful, but I miss good original children’s/YA fantasy movies too.