Hey guys! How's it going? I'm doing pretty well. Today I'm going to be taking a look at the 2017 TV movie, The Wizzle War based on the book, The War with Mr. Wizzle (renamed The Wizzle War in 2003) by Gordon Korman. This was an interesting experience so let's get right into it.
I watched this movie the way it was originally intended: On TV, complete with commercials. I also came upon it by accident. I knew this movie existed, because I'd seen the other two TV movie adaptations of Bruno & Boots books, Go Jump in the Pool! (2016) and This Can't Be Happening at Macdonald Hall (2017) before. But I was on the YTV website, looking through the schedule for this weekend, just to see if the premiere of The Hardy Boys was on it yet. It wasn't unfortunately, but then I noticed that this movie was going to be on last night and since I hadn't seen it yet I decided to watch it.
So, Bruno & Boots: The Wizzle War is actually based on the 2003 revised version, The Wizzle War, rather than the original 1982 version of the book, The War with Mr. Wizzle. So instead of the Magnetronic 515, which was Wizzle's large computer in the original book, the movie has WizzleWare, which is the software that is featured in the 2003 revised version. As I said in my first Animorphs book review I personally don't have a problem with changes like that in reprints of my favourite books. After all, sometimes you have to update books for modern audiences. And the same goes with movies. I'm sure if this movie had been made anytime between when the book was published in 1982 and when it was revised in 2003, then it would've been based more on the original version of the book rather than the revised version.
One of the changes made in adapting the book into this movie is the dress code. In the book a suit and tie dress code is implemented by Wizzle. But here, because that dress code is already in effect, Wizzle makes them wear jumpsuits that look more like pajamas than actual clothing. Which is kind of hilarious that Wizzle implemented jumpsuits due to the change in his educational philosophy, which I will get to talking about shortly. Before I do so, I would like to talk about the cast of this movie.
The cast in this movie is excellent. First let's talk about Bruno and Boots. Bruno is played by Jonny Gray and Boots is played by Callan Potter and their portrayals of those characters are dead on target. When I watched the movies I can imagine these two being those characters in the books. Same with Hannah Vandenbygaart and Kiana Madeira as Cathy Burton and Diane Grant. The only one I've seen in anything else is Kiana Madeira as she played Spencer Young, a tech based villain in the fifth season of The Flash who faced off against Nora West-Allen. But other than that these actors are in alot of indie films, TV movies and TV shows that I've never heard of or wouldn't be interested in. Hannah Vandenbygaart is in alot of Horror and/or thriller films that I wouldn't be interest in since those aren't my genres. The adults are likewise mostly unknowns to me.
I can't find the name of the actress who plays Miss Peabody. Nobody is listed for that role on IMDB. Mr. Sturgeon is played by Peter Keleghan and that's pretty much how I imagined Mr. Sturgeon looking. Miss Scrimmage is a genius piece of casting though because they got Caroline Rhea to play her. I mean I didn't even dream of her playing that role, but seeing her in three movies, not to mention seven seasons of Sabrina the Teenage Witch and the Tom Bergeron/Whoopi Goldberg era of Hollywood Squares, I can totally see why they cast her as Miss Scrimmage. Before I talk about Mr. Wizzle though, I wanna talk about the difference between Miss Scrimmage in the books and Miss Scrimmage in the movies.
In the books Miss Scrimmage was this oblivious, insane, and over-protective woman who had no idea of the behaviour shown by Cathy, Diane and other girls at the school, often blaming Mr. Sturgeon and the Macdonald Hall boys for things that the girls actually did. She also carries a shotgun and is the bane of Mr. Sturgeon's existence. In the movies however, Miss Scrimmage is a goofy, Zen, peaceful woman who is fully aware of what Cathy and Diane are doing, which she often encourages. Her relationship with Mr. Sturgeon is much more civilized in the movies too. And apparently the writers decided to give her the first name, Eugenia, since Gordon Korman never gave her a first name in the books. Onto Mr. Wizzle.
Walter C. Wizzle is played by Matt Baram, who was in Suicide Squad in 2016 as Dr. Van Criss, the creator of the nano bombs that were implanted into the members of Task Force X at the beginning of the movie, and was in two episodes of the Canadian series, Murdoch Mysteries. He plays the character pretty well. However, there's a huge difference in the way Wizzle is in the book and the way he is in this movie. In the book he's simply a young, idealistic man who is excited to test his ideas for updating the way education is at Macdonald Hall. He's uptight and a little awkward around other people, but he's relatively harmless. In the movie however his methods are more extreme and actually harmful to the students at Macdonald Hall. I mean his teaching methods in the book are actually updated as computers were integrated into our education systems sometime around the late 80s or early 90s. Here though it doesn't seem like Wizzle likes people at all and wants to turn the students into mindless automatons which doesn't do anyone any good. He doesn't even make them write lines after a certain number of demerits. Instead he has them write a computer code containing whatever he'd have them write if he assigned them lines.
There are so many other things they changed from the book. But none of those things are important because regardless of the changes made in the adaptation process, this was a great movie! I've wanted to see a movie or TV show about Bruno & Boots since I first read The War with Mr. Wizzle in grade 5. So to see this TV movie, and the other two was like a dream come true.
One of the things I like about these three movies, including this one, is that, while the books mostly stayed away from romantic storylines between the guys and the girls, the movies, including this one, leans into it a little bit more. Particularly between Boots and Diane. A romantic angle was never really necessary in the books, and even here it isn't all that necessary either, but romance and crushes are part of a teenager's life, so seeing that it's probably part of the lives of Bruno, Boots, and their friends is weirdly satisfying. Even if we don't actually see them going on dates.
I loved this movie. Is it a perfect adaptation? No, but no adaptation can be perfect. Is it a good movie? Definitely. The only thing that I thought was unnecessary was the addition of George Wexford-Smyth III. He's not in the original book, in fact he was written out of the series after Beware the Fish!, after having been in This Can't Be Happening at Macdonald Hall and Go Jump in the Pool!. So I thought he was incredibly unnecessary in this movie. I also would've enjoyed seeing Sidney Rampulsky's disasterous ballet lesson at Scrimmage's as more of a reason for Wizzle to go to see Ms. Peabody. The Wizzle War isn't streaming anywhere. It used to be on Netflix but it doesn't look like it's there anymore and neither are the other two Bruno & Boots movies, so I was lucky enough that the movie happened to be on TV so I could finally see it. It's worth watching though if you're lucky enough to catch it on TV or if it ever ends up back on Netflix (it used to be on there, but it doesn't seem to be anymore).
Alright guys that's it for me for today. I'm probably going to take tomorrow off, but I might be back tomorrow for a chat about early 2000s teen dramas that populated the airwaves, like Degrassi: The Next Generation, The O.C., One Tree Hill, and Smallville. I might wait until Tuesday though. Regardless I have another comic book review coming your way, another movie review, and possibly a review of the second book in the Animorphs series, The Visitor at some point during the week too. It's a Rachel book and I am really excited to review that one. So until then have a wonderful evening and a good day tomorrow if I do decide to take tomorrow off and I will talk to you all later. Take care!
Check out my last movie review Here and the first Animorphs book review Here
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