Why Artemis Fowl Failed as a Movie Adaptation
A Story Cone Analysis
By Emily Pearce
Spoiler warning: the whole film and first Artemis Fowl book are discussed in this post and spoilers are present.
Artemis Fowl was a book series that I grew up hearing only good things about and has become a classic for many readers. However, the movie adaptation has joined the infamous adaptation club that includes films such as The Last Airbender and Eragon—films that the fandoms they were made for refuse to acknowledge exist. While Artemis Fowl the book has almost four out of five stars on Goodreads and over 400,000 ratings, Artemis Fowl the movie has only 9 percent on Rotten Tomatoes (with a 20 percent audience score of less than 2,000 ratings). This is a huge disparity in the success of the story from book to movie. Granted, the movie hasn’t had the time to gather the reviews the book has, but it had a wider potential audience as a movie accessing the Disney+ subscribers and the already large fanbase. The question is: How can adaptations such as these do so poorly when the material on which they were based was so successful?
It turns out that there are a lot of things that can go wrong when adapting a work into a film. And Artemis Fowl manages to make almost every mistake possible. For the purpose of this post, we will be focusing on the Role Functions of the two main characters in the book, Artemis Fowl and Holly Short, and how those Role Functions (as revealed from a Story Cone analysis) are changed in the movie.
Artemis Fowl’s Character
The biggest and most obvious change from the book to the movie adaptation for anyone who has even heard of the Artemis Fowl book series is the change in Artemis Fowl’s character. Specifically, in the books, Artemis is a “criminal mastermind.” He’s an Antihero who really only cares about himself and achieving his goals, and will put anyone else in peril in order to achieve his goals. For example, in the book, we find out that he has an invalid mother. In the epilogue, it states:
“There is a tendency to romanticize Artemis. To attribute to him qualities that he does not possess. The fact that he used his wish to heal his mother is not a sign of affection. He did it simply because the Social Services were already investigating his case, and it was only a matter of time before he was put into care.”
Eoin Colfer, Artemis Fowl, 2009, Disney Hyperion, page 269.
This is a great way of proving to the reader, after the whole book has shown us Artemis’s intelligence and Antihero nature that he is indeed a “criminal mastermind.” This section reveals his motives for something that might otherwise appear to be benevolent. He is so smart that he knew that Social Services would be coming for him soon, and he found a solution to it—not because he cared about his mother, but because he wanted to continue on in his life as he previously had.
However, in the movies, we are told (not shown) that he is an extremely smart kid. We are told all of his accomplishments, but are never once shown an instance of Artemis doing something extremely smart. Additionally, the only hint at what should be his Antihero nature is that Artemis is rude to one person (the counselor at his school). In the end of the film, Artemis says that he is a criminal mastermind, but the audience has never once seen him do something criminal. Removing the Antihero nature from Artemis Fowl’s character not only changes his characterization but changes the entire feel of the story.
To further expound upon this, Artemis’s relationship with his parents is completely changed from book to movie. In the book, his father is missing and not much is mentioned about him. But his mother is very present, and Juliet’s job is to take care of her (Note: in the books, Juliet is Butler’s sister, whereas in the movie, she is his niece). Artemis is good at handling his mother, but mostly has his own concerns at heart. However, in the movie, this situation is flipped. There is no mention of Artemis’s mother, and Artemis has a loving relationship with his father. In fact, he cares so much about his father that he is pulled into the main story line because of it. It’s unclear what his true motivation in searching for his father is—whether it’s to clear his name or to rescue him—since Artemis learns that his father is missing and that his father is being called a criminal at the same time. While this change could have been made to make the story more “family friendly,” this new relationship with his father changes Artemis’s character. It takes away a lot of the power of Artemis’s character—it takes away his cunning and his penchant for danger and gives it to his father. His father is the one who has been stealing magical artifacts for years, as opposed to Artemis, who spends a good part of the beginning of the film denying that magic even exists. In the book, Artemis has always believed in magic and always has some sort of devious plan to get what he wants.
Because of the changes in the movie, Artemis is a reactionary character, instead of the proactive character he is in the book. This makes him a weak Primary Actor in the movie. The movie tells us that he is a Primary Actor, but we are never actually shown Artemis being proactive, only his reactions to things as they happen. This includes the ending of the film. In the ending of the film, it seems like it is Artemis’s father who sets up breaking Mulch out from the interrogation cell, and Artemis is merely tagging along. This further takes away Artemis’s role as a Primary Actor in the story.
Additionally, while Artemis is clearly a Primary Norm Breaker in the book, constantly breaking rules in order to challenge the Fairy System, it’s unclear how Artemis is a Primary Norm Breaker in the movie. This is mainly because it’s unclear which System is the main System of the story. If it’s the Fairy System, it’s unclear who represents that System and even more unclear what the rules are. And if Opal is the main System, the goals and rules of Opal as a System character are even foggier. Either way, it doesn’t work for the story.
Artemis does not start the action of the story in the movie. It’s his father’s disappearance and the reveal that his father is a criminal mastermind that causes Artemis to begin to seek the magical world out. However, in the book, Artemis is the one who starts his story by actively deciding to seek out magical creatures in order to steal their gold. This changes the whole dynamic of Artemis’s character and makes it a weaker story in general because that change is not compensated for in the movie. This is another example of Artemis’s motivations changing from a selfish motivation (as seen in the book) to a selfless motivation in the movie.
The relationship between Artemis and Holly is very different from book to movie. In the book, the two do not get along and only end up helping each other in order to help themselves. In the end of the book, it even states, “[Artemis’s] one mistake was leaving Captain Short alive. Holly became the LEP’s foremost expert in the Artemis Fowl cases, and was invaluable in the fight against the People’s most feared enemy. This fight was to continue across several decades.” This sets up an incredibly fun and complicated dynamic between the two characters as they become each other’s archenemies. Contrast that from the line in the movie where Artemis says that he and Holly are “forever friends,” and this brings an entirely different dynamic. Now, becoming good friends with another character isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it is when it dismantles an entire story thread throughout a series and when it causes one or more role functions within the story to become problematic.
Artemis’s Hero Moment is taken away in the movie. In the book, Artemis is able to outsmart the fairies by finding a loophole in the time freezes (which function differently in the book). He and his allies, as well as his mother, are able to survive the time freeze, and he gets Holly to give him a wish, which he uses to cure his mother (for his own benefit, as discussed earlier). However, in the movie, because of the introduction of the Aculos and the rule that the Aculos must be used by a magical creature, the Hero Moment is given to Holly, who uses the Aculos to bring Artemis’s father back. This weakens Artemis’s story significantly and makes the ending feel as if it was too easy—it’s not as fulfilling as it could have been.
In the books, Artemis Fowl is a unique character who clearly holds roles as Primary Actor and Primary Norm Breaker and is very much an Antihero. However, in the film, Artemis Fowl is weak in the roles of PA and PNB and is a weird hodgepodge of a Traditional Hero who says he’s an Antihero but doesn’t actually save the day. His power in the story is diminished because of the way his character roles have changed.
Holly Short’s Character
Holly’s character and story line are also changed significantly in the movie. To start, the movie changed Holly’s reason for going to Ireland. In the book, she’s ordered to go to Ireland by Commander Root in order to complete the ritual to restore her magic. Holly’s magic is depleted because she doesn’t like doing the ritual and has put it off as long as she can, which is a great example of Holly as a Norm Breaker—she’s breaking a rule that all fairies have to follow, as opposed to just one rule that she alone is asked to follow. This causes a lot of conflict between Holly and Commander Root. However, in the movie, Holly chooses to go to Ireland in order to try to solve her father’s case. This could be a new interpretation of Holly as a Norm Breaker, which could work. Commander Root is furious and says, “I’ll have her badge for this.” However, more than making Holly a Norm Breaker in her story, this action starts her story line and makes Holly her own inciting incident (or Initial Equilibrium Disrupter—IED). Just as it was flipped with Artemis’s character, Holly’s story changes, and starting her own action puts her more at risk against the Fairy System.
However, as a viewer, you don’t really feel that risk because rather than being the stern System Character that Commander Root is in the book, Commander Root in the movie is more of a Safe Character for Holly. While this could have been done successfully, it actually decreased the stakes of Holly’s Norm Breaking. Aside from Commander Root saying that she’ll have Holly’s badge for going to Ireland, Root is shown as being a benevolent mentor toward Holly, and there is very little actual conflict between them. Commander Root tells Holly in the movie, “You’re young. You’ve got your whole life ahead of you . . . Let them take care of the Aculos.” In the end, Commander Root rewards Holly by giving her the position she has wanted all along, and Holly then enters a room full of people who clap for her. However, this moment doesn’t feel earned, because there wasn’t enough conflict built up to get Holly to that position.
On the other hand, in the book, Holly had a solid Safe Character—the character Foaly. In the book, Foaly is the one giving Holly advice and counsel as she works toward her goals. However, in the movie, Foaly’s role is very reduced, as he mainly serves as an ally to Commander Root and to give exposition for the audience. Foaly hardly interacts with Holly, and his role doesn’t feel nearly as important in the movie as it is in the book.
Holly does get more allies in the movie; however, the way she gets allies feels unrealistic. Holly becomes Artemis’s ally after some brief conversations, and it feels more like a plot convenience than Holly actually switching sides. In the book, Artemis and Holly work together when they have to, but the epilogue states that Holly leads the fight against Artemis Fowl, who is the “People’s most feared enemy.” Instead, Holly and Artemis become “forever friends.” This change in the relationship completely changes what was a fun and tension-filled relationship between Artemis and Holly in the book and removes the power dynamics that made it so strong.
As mentioned earlier, Holly is the one who is given the Hero Moment in the end when she brings back Artemis’s father. Additionally, Holly is given all of the rewards in the end—a new position in the LEP and even her father’s list of Opal accomplices. While giving Holly a solid Hero Moment and rewarding her in the end is something that does strengthen her story, because she is still supposed to be a secondary story, with Artemis’s story taking primacy, the split between the two characters with the Hero Moment makes the story feel disjointed. While we applaud the effort to create a strong female role, a Story Cone analysis reveals that the changes made weakened Holly’s story as a whole because those changes created flaws in her story arc.
Conclusion
By changing the deep structural elements of Artemis Fowl, the movie lost so many of the things that made the books so successful. Artemis’s strong Antihero character is diluted into a vague and unclear character who doesn’t stand out as a Primary Actor or Primary Norm Breaker. By splitting Artemis’s roles between his father and Holly’s character, it fractures each of the characters and creates a story unable to stand on its own.
At Writer Therapy, our Story Analysts review stories to help authors, screenwriters, and playwrights. If you have a specific story you’d like us to look at, feel free to contact us.
