In March, the Disney Channel will release Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars starring Jennifer Stone (one of the leads in the Disney Channel’s Wizards of Waverly Place).
It will, for better or for worse, give the beloved children’s book a 21st Century makeover. Watch the trailer above for more details, but here are the basics: Harriet is now a blogger competing with a popular girl at school in “blog war,” armed with a laptop and high-tech surveillance devices.
One YouTube commenter was pretty excited by the trailer: “OMG love the book the 90s movie and will love this!” Another commenter skipped the book altogether: “They should leave Harriet the Spy alone and keep it as an awesome memory that belongs to Nickelodeon.” Finally, one reader added an expletive-laden comment with this bit of criticism: “Harriet the Spy is not about popularity or getting the hot guy. It’s about a girl who wants to become a writer one day so she observes people and writes in her notebook.”
This will undoubtedly spawn The Big Literary Debate of the Week. What do you think? Is this an imaginative improvement or abusive adaptation?