The Adventures of Huck Finn

Whenever a book is adapted into a movie, there are sacrifices and interpretations that must be made because the totality of the written work cannot possibly be translated to the screen. These choices can become exceptionally difficult when the work is one as widely-read and well-beloved as Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. For this latest filmed version, Stephen Sommers' script is faithful in spirit -- if not in all the details -- to the original. Much of Twain's keen insight into human nature, as well as his finely-tuned sense-of-humor, is kept intact in Disney's 1993 The Adventures of Huck Finn. It should be noted, however, that significant chunks of the novel are missing, including the bulk of the ending, and the character of Tom Sawyer doesn't make an appearance. While it's easy to debate the merits of what was cut, the final result manages to convey a good sense of the book's scope.

This film, "The Adventures of Huck Finn," comes from the novel with the same name. It stars Elijah Wood as Huck, and Courtney B. Vance as Jim. Whether it's on a raft or in town running from trouble, there is always adventure happening in this movie.

Huck was a boy in the 40's who ran away. He meets Jim (a runaway slave) and goes down the Mississippi River with him. Along the way, they run into the King & Duke. They change the direction of the story, but leads Huck to realize right from wrong. He's faced with a moral dilemma between what is seen as right and what is truly right.

Elijah Wood was a great role for Huck. Or rather, vice versa. He was very good at mimicking us Missourian's, for that is just how everyone sounds here. Joking aside, he captured the character similar to what I would have imagined. He could have done his accent better, that the only criticism I have.

The King and Duke weren't very believable characters. They both seemed overly dramatic in every scene they appeared in. Always getting clearly scared trying to hold a poker face. Words cannot explain the awful things I saw from them.

That being said, it wasn't a horrible movie, I suppose. I would give the movie 3 out of 5 stars. It was good, not great.

Say what you will about Mark Twain, but the story of Huckleberry Finn and Jim was truly his best. Forget Tom Sawyer and his fence - the tale of a mischievous child from an abusive home escaping with a runaway slave capable of enlightening said-child's perspectives on freedom gets my vote. At the height of the popularity of Bart Simpson, Disney released another adaptation of the classic starring a new up-and-coming child actor named Elijah Wood as Huck and a Yale graduate named Courtney B. Vance as Jim. But wait! The stars just keep on coming; Back-to-back Oscar-winner Jason Robards as the King, pre-Harry Potterized Robbie Coltrane as the Duke, Ron "Hellboy" Perlman (I could've sworn it was Tom Waits!) as Huck's drunk pappy, and Anne Heche (still hiding her cuckoo) as Mary Jane Wilks. There are also cameos by "Six Feet Under's" Frances Conroy, Curtis "Booger" Armstrong, and Pete's younger brother Pete Danny Tamberelli. There are quite a few dark moments for this PG-rated film, but maybe that's a big part of why I support it; Huck's gun-wielding confrontation with his father happens to be my favorite scene, though it's certainly not the darkest (That would be Billy's big scene.). The end of the movie is quite different from the end of the book - of course, they took the happily-ever-after approach - which sucks and ultimately makes a film filled with beautiful scenery and an unbelievably terrific score by Bill Conti seem like just another piece of Disnefluff. I know a bad ending can slay an entire movie, but one can't deny there's some good stuff in this one.

I have read the popular novel "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain and I found it to be an instant classic and a book definitely worth my time. When it comes to movie adaptations, I've seen very few. The 1993 version titled "The Adventures of Huck Finn" stars a young Elijah Wood as Huckleberry and Courtney B. Vance as Jim and also featured in the cast are some other well-known faces such as Ron Perlman, Jason Robards, Robbie Coltrane, and James Gammon. Overall, with this star-laden cast, the movie is quite entertaining in its own way. Like other films I can think of, it's beginning made little sense and happened a little too suddenly with no room for proper pacing or development. But once this had gone by, I did find myself enjoying the movie quite a bit.

Wood was, and still is a fine young actor and his performance as Huckleberry was noteworthy. I did like Courney B. Vance's performance as Jim and I think he rendered and portrayed the character with absolute perfection. After him, I did like Jason Robards and Robbie Coltrane as the bumbling con artists who call themselves the king and the duke. Ron Perlman was also a good choice to play Huckleberry's deranged father, unfortunately he wasn't given enough screen time to show his quintessential talents for the role and he wasn't quite involved in the story enough as he was in the book.

One thing that did disappoint me was that the screenwriters wrote out the character of Tom Sawyer, probably due to concern of containing too many characters for a 108-minute film. So I can understand the filmmakers' decision and accept it. Maybe the inclusion would have slowed the movie down, maybe not. But all and all, I did very much enjoy "The Adventures of Huck Finn" and although it is not a perfect adaptation of Mark Twain's excellent book, I still enjoyed it.

If you haven't read Mark Twain's book already, I highly recommend you read it, for it is a truly great and compelling read. While not 100% perfect, this is a worthy film adaptation. As people have pointed out, the film is true in spirit if not in the details to the book, but it is really not bad on its own merits. For one thing, it's beautifully filmed, with crisp cinematography and beautiful scenery. Then there is a wonderful score, very fitting with what was going on on screen. Also a decent script, good direction and even better performances. Elijah Wood does a good enough job in what I consider one of his best performances in the title role, while Courtney B.Vance plays Jim with such feeling and finesse he was perfect. Ron Perlman is suitably brutish, while Jason Robards and Robbie Coltrane come close to stealing the film as the roguish King and Duke. Plus the ending was heart-rending. My only problems were some parts that were too overly-modernised, its length and how Tom Sawyer was written but other than that this is a worthy film and adaptation. 7/10 Bethany Cox