Would Calvin & Hobbes make a good movie?

BopNiblets

I know, I know, "don't ruin my childhood" or whatever, but if they can make Tintin, Garfield (awful I believe, haven't seen it) and other comic strips into movies, C&H would be kinda cool.
I was reading my Complete collection last night (you're jealous!) thinking there's a lot of fun stuff in the material, dinosaurs, space aliens, fun in the snow, could be a fun kids movie... that only adults would get!

Could be live action mixed with CGI, or possibly all CGI like Pixar or Disney animation.

Mockup I found

I think Pixar are the only studio that could tackle a story like Calvin & Hobbes and be guaranteed to do it justice. It's just such a gorgeous story with amazing characters.

bnt

I never thought C&H was a comic for children at all - Calvin may be a child, but he's always taking a warped look at grown-up themes, bouncing ideas off of Hobbes. What do kids know about Post-Modernism, for example, or Relativism? More than we grown-ups suspect they do ...





Then there's the Snow Art: we're a long way from Dennis The Menace's territory ... :eek:

aidan_walsh

Could be live action mixed with CGI

No no no no no no no no.

No.

No.

BopNiblets

I'm sensing a little bit of apprehension towards live action here

I read a bit online of how Bill Watterson thought about doing a normal animated series which would be cool also, but is generally opposed to the idea of a Hollywood movie, and is a private person who doesn't even sign C&H books because people were selling them on eBay for profit, so it's unlikely he'll give up the rights to make a movie.

There's a lot of weird C&H stuff on Youtube, but I thought this was the best:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2jQ_7Vjnb0

Fysh

I've loved Calvin & Hobbes for probably going on 20 years at this point, and I'm filled with horror at the idea of any version of the material other than the original comic strip.

Having read about the miserable time Watterson had in trying to convince his syndicate not to licence out the branding to any and all merchandise they thought would sell, I can't imagine a film version (or a cartoon series or anything else) being something that would either have Watterson's approval or maintaining the unique sensibility that made the comic strip so wonderful.

That being said, tell me you can look at the first image from this blogpost without having a "D'AAAAAW"-type reaction and I'll probably have to add you to my List Of Robots Badly Masquerading As Humans.

Bog

Absolutely not. Bill Watterson has always been against any form of licensing, merchandising, anything which would take away from the purity of the strips. Besides, a Hollywood version would probably end up being a sub-Garfield mess and miss every single nuance of the strips.

BopNiblets

Yeah but aside from the fact that it will never be made, I think there's plenty of cool stuff in the strips to come up with a few adventures for even a short film.

Off the top of my head: Calvin goes on a school trip to the museum (Hobbes in tow of course), he and Susie get lost after Calvin wanders off in a Dinosaur filled fantasy, cue epic action sequences and hilarity!

Bog

BopNiblets wrote: »

Yeah but aside from the fact that it will never be made, I think there's plenty of cool stuff in the strips to come up with a few adventures for even a short film.

Off the top of my head: Calvin goes on a school trip to the museum (Hobbes in tow of course), he and Susie get lost after Calvin wanders off in a Dinosaur filled fantasy, cue epic action sequences and hilarity!

I would like to have the Complete Collection

I can see where you're coming from but any film would distill it down to boy v girl antics or the issue of Hobbes' authenticty. Watterson himself felt that it wasn't an issue, Hobbes was real for Calvin and unreal for others (his parents, Susie etc.). Any film version would have to address that and would probably tack on some schmaltzy explanation.

Fysh

BopNiblets wrote: »

Yeah but aside from the fact that it will never be made, I think there's plenty of cool stuff in the strips to come up with a few adventures for even a short film.

Off the top of my head: Calvin goes on a school trip to the museum (Hobbes in tow of course), he and Susie get lost after Calvin wanders off in a Dinosaur filled fantasy, cue epic action sequences and hilarity!

I understand what you're getting at, but I don't think that any form of animation (especially not the 3d-oriented flavour of CGI that seems to be popular at the minute) would work succesfully for Calvin & Hobbes. Like the oft-mentioned Noodle Incident, an awful lot of what makes the comic strip work so well is down to how much is left to the reader's imagination, and a live action/animated feature will necessarily lose that.

And that's before we get to the biggest issue of how to handle Hobbes. Aside from "what sort of voice does Hobbes have?" (a question that should never be answered), how would a cartoon or live-action feature work around the unexplained mystery of Hobbes' dual nature? Watterson himself has been famously unwilling to explain his perspective, and has cited this as one of the main issues he was so vehemently against an animated series back when the strip was being published and his syndicate were keen to heavily merchandise/exploit the comic.

How would a hand-drawn animation the likes of Studio Ghibli work, I wonder? It would definitely be better suited than the current style of CGI.

ValJester

I think it's a terrible idea, especially considering how subtle the character of Calvin is.A film would doubtless adress why his life is so miserable and lonely on the surfact by making him out to have Asberger's or ADHD,and the childlike logic of the fantasy sequences wouldn't make sense in a film.

BopNiblets

^ See opening of Toy Story 3.

Fysh wrote: »

And that's before we get to the biggest issue of how to handle Hobbes. Aside from "what sort of voice does Hobbes have?" (a question that should never be answered), how would a cartoon or live-action feature work around the unexplained mystery of Hobbes' dual nature?.

I imagine him as a sort of Tyler Durden character but with cartoon violence instead of real!
There are some similarities: he's imaginary, he influences the person who imagines him.

boneyarsebogman: Yeah could work, just spruced up 2D animation like they did for The Simpsons and other classic shows, Watterson himself said he liked the Hanna - Barbera style of animation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUTBpK-Jcks

(voice is wrong)

I would love to see Studio Ghibli do their take on Calvin and Hobbes. As ValJester has pointed out, Calvin would be described as someone with Asperges syndrome or ADHD, but I think Studio Ghibli would keep it beautiful and heart-felt.

Fysh

But Calvin isn't on the autistic spectrum - he's just an introverted little boy with an over-exuberant imagination and a friend whose nature is unclear.

Studio Ghibli would likely do a less bad job than most in terms of turning the source material into an animated feature, but I still don't think there's going to be any way of adapting material originally presented in short newspaper comic strips into a feature-length animation without losing something of the humour and tone that was integral to the comic.