Stellaluna

I own both the book and the audio-book and was once at Blockbuster with my parents when I found a copy of a Stellaluna movie. I was, of course, intrigued. I rented the movie and found myself hooked. Sure, it's not identical to the book but the book is about 30 pages long and needed to be extended for movie format. There are three new characters: Askari, a Tarzan-esque spider, and Horatio and Kazuku, two fashion-conscious birds. But none of these characters play a huge role and the focus is mostly on Stellaluna and her bird family: mother and siblings Pip, Flitter, and Flap. Flitter has the yellow chest, Pip has the blue chest, and Flap has the purple chest. The animation is spectacular, making one want to reach out and pet Stellaluna and the birds. But the best thing about the film has got to be the music. One song "Best In You" is nice but not especially memorable. The other song "Upside Down" is simply adorable and the background music during the intro and credits is just beautiful. All in all, may be disappointing for die-hard fans of the book (although I loved both) but a must for anyone who's ever felt different.

Even speaking as someone who does not remember the book that well, this movie was not an enjoyable experience.

There is very little focus on the lovable Stellaluna adapting to life as a bird, and more focus on her antagonistic adopted siblings. Flap in particular is especially unlikable, while Pip is at least tolerable. Three completely unnecessary characters were added as well: Askari the spider is difficult to like thanks to his inflated sense of self, and a voice that reminds me of Snips from "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic", but not in a good way. Horatio and Kazuku, a pair of fashion obsessed birds don't take up as much screen time as Askari, but were equally pointless.

The only really good things I can say about this were Stellaluna herself, plus her song "My Whole World's Turned Upside Down." which can be found on Youtube.

Stick with the book.

I grew up with this movie on VHS, so I admittedly may be biased with the amount of good memories I have attached to it. However, I really do still enjoy this movie and the message that it brings about accepting your differences, as well as the struggles of being in an adoptive family. I remember relating as a French girl in an all American school, seeing myself in Stellaluna and her struggles to fit into a new context that she's unfamiliar to. I believe many other children would relate to this struggle, being a common one that is surprisingly rarely addressed in modern children's media.

With cute and nicely drawn traditional animation, catchy and fun songs, and nice voice acting, Stellaluna is a movie I definitely recommend, nostalgic or not.

Horrible, Horrible, Horrible. An abysmal corruption of a wonderful book. Don't bother with this piece of junk. I have two children and have seen my share of stinkers, but this one might take the cake! The story differs from the book and the writers have added additional characters (not necessarily bad, but in this case they are). The most egregious change, however, is the wholesale rewrite of the main characters' personalities. For those who are familiar with the story, the birds have been re-written to be antagonistic rather than accommodating to Stellaluna. Stellaluna is a cast as an unwanted outsider. The firm mother bird from the story, is now a overly sweet, loving character. The animation is comparable to Saturday morning cartoons circa 1990. I'd rather watch static than this rotten film...better yet, read the book!

Stellaluna is a 2003 adaptation of the 1993 book with the same name, roughly ten years apart. It focuses on the titular Stellaluna, a fruit bat that accidentally gets seperated from her mother and ends up adopted by birds.

The moral is pretty sound, that adopted families are just as loving as biological ones, but I find the bird family a tad too strict, a sentiment I also share with the book version. Here the bird siblings are even rude and initially hostile to Stellaluna, which is an interesting addition.

By far the biggest deviation is creating an actual villain for the story, upping the stakes. I'm not sure how I feel about that, especially since this is a rather short film regardless.

A tepid reccomendation.