"Inspired by..." the Original

When our children were young some of our bedtime readings were the delightful “My Father’s Dragon” trilogy. Netflix recently aired a movie version of the story, so we thought we’d watch it. My wife made it through the first twenty minutes. After about forty minutes, my son and I opted to switch to “listen mode” for the remainder while doing other activities. On the whole, it was disappointing.

The plot didn’t actually follow the story. At the end of the film, the credits said, “Story by…” “Inspired by ‘My Father’s Dragon” by Ruth Stiles Gannett. The film used the name and key elements of the original story (like…the dragon), but completely rewrote the plot. In other words, it was NOT “My Father’s Dragon.” The feedback on the Internet is generally positive and given much of the material (even cartoons) being produced today, it was a welcome breath of fresh air. But…it was not the same story as the books. I don’t know how the showrunners made their adaptive choices, and it may be that the original just wouldn’t have worked as a movie. After all, I’m not a media expert. I’ve seen this happen before (I’m looking at you Disney and your terrible adaptation of John Carter).

I’m not sure about our arguments for “adapting” something. Sometimes, it feels like we choose to “update” or “adapt” something just because we want a change. Perhaps it is some misguided thought that old ideas aren’t interesting, or maybe we’ve assumed that complicated or “edgy” or intense is better than simple, charming, or whimsical. Whatever it may be, sometimes the adaptation isn’t faithful to the original. It may “capture its spirit” or it may just be plain off-the-mark. But in either case, it’s not the original.

In the life of faith, its okay to be inspired by Jesus as long as we also recognize that we are to be “imitators of God” (Ephesians 5:1). Before anyone objects, I know we can’t be perfect imitators of God and that is not what Paul is calling us to. But our aim is to reflect Him as accurately as we can in attitude and action (and words!). In another famous passage, Paul calls us to be transformed so that we may delight in God’s will. For Christians, there is no update or adapt, there is only imitate – the original is perfect.

Sometimes originals should simply not be tampered with.

Pursue Christ – He is enough,

            Pastor Jeff