Fight Club and Calvin and Hobbes

Rating: Null/10 (2 October 2003)

WARNING! SPOILERS FOLLOW.
I saw Fight Club a month or two back, and was kind of unimpressed with it. It was a decently made film, with good acting and good directing... but something about it just didn't quite work for me. That is until I began to examine it more closely. Then I realized what it really is: It's not a life-altering drama or a vicious black comedy, as it is proclaimed to be... rather, it is a cleverly disguised attempt to bring one of the greatest comic strips of all time to the big screen.
That's right, Fight Club is really an adaptation of Calvin and Hobbes. Just take a look at the similarities...
Fight Club: The Narrator (hereinafter "Jack") feels depressed and alone, which leads to his fabricating Tyler Durden, a friend and companion who is everything Jack wishes he could be.
Calvin and Hobbes: Calvin has no friends, which leads to his projecting everything he wishes he could be into his stuffed tiger, who becomes his friend and companion Hobbes.
Fight Club: When Jack looks at Tyler, he sees Tyler. When anyone else looks at Tyler, they see Jack.
Calvin and Hobbes: When Calvin looks at Hobbes, he sees a tiger. When anyone else looks at Hobbes, they see a stuffed toy.
Fight Club: Jack simultaneously detests Marla and desires her. He projects his desire through Tyler, though in several scenes we see this desire in Jack himself.
Calvin and Hobbes: Calvin simultaneously detests Susie and desires her. Throughout the course of the strip, we see this desire manifested in Hobbes. But in the very early episodes, Calvin expresses the same desire himself, if only to himself.
Fight Club: Jack expresses his dissatisfaction with his father, and the job he did as a parent.
Calvin and Hobbes: Calvin frequently speaks of his father doing poorly in the "polls".
Fight Club: While at work, Jack is under the thumb of a demanding boss, whom he does not like.
Calvin and Hobbes: While at school, Calvin is under the thumb of Miss Wormwood, a demanding teacher whom he does not like.
Fight Club: When frustrated with the world around him, Jack goes to a place in his imagination (that place with the penguin) where all around him things are serene.
Calvin and Hobbes: When frustrated with the world around him, Calvin goes to places in his imagination, where he is Spaceman Spiff, Tracer Bullet, Stupendous Man, etc.
So, thus we see that, though Bill Waterson himself forbad the filming of his strip, a few brave men had the courage to go behind his back and do what they felt was right. Never has there been such a courageous act by filmmakers since the days of Nosferatu, which was another thinly-disguised attempt to bring a beloved character to the screen... Count Chocula.