What's wrong with the original story?

Rating: 7/10 (15 May 2010)

I enjoyed this film, having read the book several times with my children I was obviously looking forward to seeing it on the big screen. I liked Clooney's voice and the style of animation but I can never work out why the film makers feel the need to change anything in a straight forward classic tale (no pun intended). For example making his home a tree house made the whole point of the farmers stakeout, waiting for him to leave his hole pointless! Why didn't the story stick to the tunnel digging and final feast for the animals? I can understand cutting things out when there is just too much to include in a film but changing bits and ignoring a perfect end to the story was a big let down. Maybe you just have to accept that books are always better than the film adaptation but this is a relatively short and concise story, probably one of the best children's stories and I just can't see why anyone would see the need to rewrite it?