Saturday, March 26, 2005

Dumbo novelization, anyone?

I seem to be rambling mostly about novelizations and tie-ins here. I wonder why... The Nibelungen Lied book I mentioned buying was, by the way, a novelization of the Fritz Lang film. It wasn't the first edition, as I presumed earlier. It was only the second...

But here's something that has been fairly odd to me for quite a some time. I was writing about Guy N. Smith and found out (actually again, because I knew it before, but forgotten) that he started out in the mid-seventies writing new novelizations of the old Disney movies, such as Snow White. It's an odd idea and yet somehow intriguing. I dug into this and found that there were several British novelizations (note: not American) of the old Disney animated cartoons. Here's a rough list:

DUMBO
Derry Moffatt Book Description: NEL, 1975. Poor. (Film/TV tie-in). Paperback. (Walt Disney Production] (Junior text with l/d's)

THE FOX AND THE HOUND
Heather Simon Book Description: NEL, 1981. Poor. (Film/TV tie-in). Paperback. (Walt Disney Production) (Junior edition with colour stills insert)

PINOCCHIO
Derry Moffatt Book Description: NEL, 1975. Good -. (Film/TV tie-in). Paperback. (Walt Disney Production) (Junior novelisation with l/d's)T

The Lady and the Tramp
Moffatt, Derry
Book Description: New English Library (NEL), 1975. paperback / softback. Lady and the Tramp 1st film edition paperback,

THE SWORD IN THE STONE
Moffatt, Derry (adapts) Book Description: p/b: NEL 1976 (Illus.).

Sleeping Beauty
Smith, Guy N Book Description: New English Library (NEL).

SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS
Guy N. Smith Book Description: New English Library [NEL], 1975. (Film/TV tie-in). Paperback. ISBN: 0450026841. (novelisation of the Disney film by noted horror writer) (contains many b&w line drawings)

Robin Hood
Adaptation By Derry Moffatt Book Description: Uk: New English Library, 1975.

Disney's the Aristocats
Derry Moffatt Book Description: UK: New English Library, 1976.

Cinderella
Derry Moffatt; NEL 1976

WINNIE-THE-POOH AND TIGGER TOO
Janet Sacks Book Description: NEL, 1979. (Film/TV tie-in). Paperback. (Children's novelisation)

These also caught my eye:

Herbie Goes To Monte Carlo
Harvey, John Book Description: New English Library (NEL), 1978.

HERBIE RIDES AGAIN
John Harvey Book Description: NEL, 1977. Very Good -. (Film/TV tie-in). Paperback. [Walt Disney production]

ONE OF OUR DINOSAURS IS MISSING
John Harvey Book Description: NEL, 1976. Very Good. (Film/TV tie-in). Paperback. [Walt Disney Production] (Junior text with colour stills inset).

..because John Harvey has become known as the writer of the Resnick books, very good police procedurals set in the UK. Harvey wrote tons of hardboiled and ultraviolent Westerns in the seventies, the most famous being a series about Herne the Hunter with Laurence James under the shared pseudonym of John J. McLaglen. I can't imagine him writing a Herbie book... but an author must make a living.

Derry Moffatt seems to have the most prolific of the British Disney novelizers. I don't know who he is, but he also wrote this tie-in of a non-animated film:

TREASURE OF MATECUMBE
Derry Moffatt Book Description: New English Library [NEL], 1977. Good. (Film/TV tie-in). Paperback. [Walt Disney Production] (two colour photo-inserts)

Have to go - my daughter Ottilia calls me! (She doesn't want to watch telly by herself. Which is understandable.) I'll write more about Smith and sleaze and other stuff later on.

Happy Easter to everyone! We'll have some relatives here and we will eat an Arab cuisine called "tagine" with lamb and pears! Later on we will eat pasha and mämmi (to the foreigners I'll later explain what mämmi is).

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