1. Anything By Dr. Seuss
The Books: If you dont know them, youre probably not old enough to be using a computer. People the world over have grown up listening his practically insane stories and staring at the vivid illustrations. From challenges limiting him to using only fifty different words in a book (for Green Eggs And Ham) to simple lists of fish, Theodor Geisel managed to make entertainingly bonkers kids books on just about anything. Even the ones with plots are so zany they have parents chuckling as much as the kids.
Why They Shouldn't Be Adapted: Quickly getting it out of the way now, a film based on a list of fish or challenges limiting Seuss to fifty words are clearly not going to work. What were really looking at are the books with a (very thin) narrative. The stories are so light, interested more in the rhyming style than any discernible plot that they could only ever work as (very) short films. Thats the be all and end all of it. So why anyone thought a feature length Grinch or Cat In The Hat (both of which oddly went for a reduced gothic-Burton style) would work, I've no idea. Recent animated attempts (Horton Hears A Who and The Lorax) managed to get the visuals right, but sadly failed to capture the whimsy of the source. Instead of trying to make more, we can hope Hollywood will figure out their folly and quit. There has admittedly been one successful adaptation of a Dr Seuss story; the original TV special of How The Grinch Stole Christmas is nothing short of awesome.
So there you have it - ten books that should never have been made into films. Are there any more you'd like to add? Or do you think there is a good way to do one of the above? Let us know in the comments below.