Secondly, reading skills are valued and the book will always help with a child's use of words and improve reading. Finally, the two and a half-hour movie is like watching two and a half-hours of television" (Brookvale Public school, 1).
Compared to the opinion of an 8 year old.
"I think that the movie Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone was better and will always be better than the book. Firstly, the movie is better than the book because you can hear and see all the characters and action. For instance I didn't understand how the game of Quidditch worked until it was shown so clearly in the movie. Secondly, the movie has graphics and the book does not, for example I did not know what Wizards chess was till I saw the movie. The computers they use can make anything you could imagine. Thirdly, I did not know what Hermione, Ron, Hagrid, and Harry Potter looked like, somebody read the book to me and I could not picture what Harry Potter looked like. However, I saw the movie and I actually saw his face in my mind" (Brookvale Public school, 4).
As you can tell from the above exerts above, age and maturity do play a role in determining a persons opinion. On July 28, 2001 an online survey was conducted. 4,870 people responded (see diagram 1.1). The results show that the opinion regarding the books vs. the movies was about fifty - fifty, which is no surprise considering that there is about an equal amount of young and old aged fans of Harry potter. The reaction of most people to the "Harry Potter Movie" (Diagram 1.2) reflects the typical reaction of a Harry Potter Fan to the Movie.
For a director, adapting a book is almost always a losing proposition. Stubbornly ignoring the problems of making a movie from a book, loyal fans of the book always demand complete faithfulness to the source. But at the same time the movie must stand on its own for people who have never read the book. A strong director, like Stanley Kubrick, will often ignore the demands of the fans and make a movie that captures some of the essence of the book, but is a work of art in its own right (Gilman, Jiminy Critic).