On June 6, 2012 the literary and movie world lost a great mind, Ray Bradbury passed away after fighting illness for two years since suffering a stroke. I was introduced to his work at a very young age, via a children’s cartoon adaptation of his 1972 novel, The Halloween Tree. This was a vital part of my childhood, and I watched it for the entire month of October every year for as long as I can remember. I’ve had trouble with people not ever having heard of this movie, and that is an absolute shame. I’ve also had to explain who Ray Bradbury is to a few people, which saddens me, because he was truly an amazing author.
The Halloween Tree is about a group of friends who must save their friend Pipkin, and along the way get transported to different places in time that Halloween was being celebrated. They go through and learn about different cultures, and come to understand the origins of their favorite holiday. Bradbury narrates this great Cartoon Network animated movie, and if that isn’t a seal of approval for a movie adaptation of a book, I don’t know what is.
Fahrenheit 451 is another novel by Bradbury that was later turned into a film, this one is about a dystopic society that burns books and cherishes television over literary works. As time goes on, his novel becomes truer and truer, with the invention of e-readers and the incline of disinterest in reading with the younger generations. While this title may not seem familiar in the movie realm, Equilibrium (Christian Bale and Taye Diggs) was heavily based off this novel and 1984 by George Orwell.
I urge you all to, if you haven’t already, check out this man’s work. He changed the way that I live, and from a very young age he affected me. I’ll leave you with a famous quote by him, “If you don’t like what you’re doing, then don’t do it.”
Loading ...