Neil Gaiman is considered one of the gifted writers. His novel “Stardust” is instantaneously readers’ favorite. The writing style and plot development of the book is full of excitement and attraction that every reader loves in a good story. The excitement that the author raises in the readers of this book has great impact on the current and potential readers. Actually, the book leaves one’s palms sweaty in anticipation of movie version of the book. However, there are quite a number of alterations in the movie affected by Hollywood. Hollywood altered some parts of the book and somewhat changed the level of fantasy that Neil created in the novel.
Stardust the movie is classically an exciting as portrayed by Hollywood. However, there are alterations in the movie. To start with, the use of superstars in the movie such as Robert De Niro, Sienna Miller and Charlie Cox results in the lose of the character played by these superstars as compared to the actual names in the book. For example, Charlie Cox in the movie takes the position of Tristan in the book. The two cannot actually match the character roles and plot development as is the case in the book or the author’s intention.
Although Hollywood manages to maintain the plot of the book as written by Neil Gaiman, the movie still fails to capture all the elements that are in the book. For example, Tristan’s special ability to locate any place within the kingdom of Stormhold has been conspicuously left out in the movie of Stardust by Hollywood. Richards in his reviews laments that this is very disappointing not only to the readers and fans of the book but also very demeaning of the talents and skills of the author of the book. Besides, this is one of the central pieces that really presents and depicts Tristan as an intriguing character right from the beginning to the end of his story.
It is interesting to undertake a comparison between the print and the movie of on ‘Stardust’. Just to help illustrate another difference, De Niro’s character is broadly different from the captain that is depicted in the print version of the story. However, this alteration creates a lighthearted feel to the movie that actually misses in the book. In the book, this part is very dramatic. Hollywood thus aimed at creating this feeling through alterations of this scene and section of the plot.
Stardust movie is created through omission of several characters that exist in the original print version of the story. This move is perhaps aimed at building more scenes of excitement through use of few superstar characters. Besides, the scene that plots the witch and the ending has been altered. The movie avoids the details of Tristan’s journey. In the novel, this journey is somewhat lengthy. Hollywood shortened this and also left out the details about the world of Faerie. This makes the movie more captivating to the viewers than readers of the same story. In the book, the witch lives while Tristan dies as King after some years. Yvaine then rules eternally after Tristan. Hollywood’s alteration of this part and the adaption ending is better than the book. It makes the entire episode more positive and exhilarating.
There are character alterations in the movie Stardust. Consequently, certain characters in the movie are not in the book. Captain Shakespeare and Ferdy the Fence are nowhere in the book. Further in the movie, Michelle Pfeiffer’s character is altered to be Lamina in the movie. The mother and sister to Tristan in the book are also left out in the movie. The movie only shows the father. Besides, in the movie, only one man guards the wall. In the book there are two men that guard both sides of the wall and are replaced so often by two other men. These alterations by Hollywood served the purpose of captivating the senses and attracting the attention of the movie audience in a theatre.