10 Great Books That Made Utterly Terrible Movies

8. Gulliver's Travels

This entry is a perfect demonstration of what happens when you loosely translate a book so much that only one plot element is intact for the movie. In this case, "Gulliver's Travels." Written by Jonathan Swift in the 1700s, this satirical classic follows Gulliver as he finds himself in predicaments on four different supernatural locales: an island of tiny people, an island of giants, a floating island of intellectuals, and an island where horses are the intelligent beings. The movie has one thing in common with the book: a guy named Gulliver finds himself stranded on an island of tiny people... and that's it. Yes, this comedy led by Jack Black was only loosely adapted from the novel and is instead about a depressed mail room employee who helps the tiny people save their community. Oh, and did I mention that Jack Black is dressed up as a baby for part of the movie when he is kidnapped? Yeah, that actually happened. This movie might have appealed to children, but the juvenile humor that it relied on ended up being its downfall. Here's the thing: if you're going to make a movie based a book using the book's original title, at least make it resemble the source.