Maniac Magee: Differences Between Book And Movie

When I got done reading the book Maniac Magee, I was excited to watch the movie, however the movie was a total letdown. There are so many differences between the book and movie. In the movie, Maniac Magee has a different personality, the plot events are different, the minor characters are different, and the event that unites the blacks and whites together is changed.
Overall Maniac Magee is the same character in the book as he is in the movie. However, in the book, the author made Maniac Magee sound quiet and he kind of kept to himself, but in the movie Maniac was outgoing, he stood up for himself, and talked a lot. For instance, it says in the book “He didn’t do much talking, but he didn’t have to. Hands down did it for him.” (55, Magee) Maniac Magee was playing football with the high schoolers and was juking them so Hands Down was trash talking the other team who Magee was juking. I like how the book illustrated Magee’s personality better because in the movie, Maniac Magee’s personality was cheesy.

The plot events in the book are different from the movie.

First of all in the beginning of the movie it has Maniac Magee at his parent’s funeral and he runs away straight to Two Mills. In the book Maniac is with his relatives and he can’t stand the fighting between his aunt and his uncle so he runs to Two-Mills. I like this part of the book better because I think the situation of why he runs away is more interesting. Another set of plot events in the book that are different are the three plot events that Maniac goes through when he first comes to Two-Mills. In the movie the same three plot events that are at the beginning of the book are distributed all throughout the movie. I like this about the book better because when the movie puts the three plot events in there are terrible

transitions.
Another big difference are some of the minor characters in the story. The book and the movie both mention Amanda Beale, but the movie makes Maniac and Amanda in a love relationship and at the end of the movie they end up as husband and wife. At one point of the movie Amanda and Maniac actually hold hands. The book just makes them friends. The book says, “The way he said it she believed, ‘Want to come to my house?’ she said.” This is an example of their friendship and this is where Maniac and Amanda’s friendship all started. I like what the book did because I like that they are just friends. Another minor character in the book is Grayson. This character is not even in the movie he is just in the book. Maniac goes with Grayson when he runs away from the Beales. I like that the movie that the does not add him because he is not a necessary character and just makes the story longer.
An event that unites the blacks and the whites together is told differently in the book than it is in the movie. In the book Russell gets stuck on the trestle and Mars Bars saves him but in the movie Russell falls from a window and Mars Bars saves him. Those two events unite the blacks and the whites but are told different. I like what the movie does and has Russell fall out the window because it happens faster and isn’t as confusing as it is in the book.
The book is longer than the movie. It's good that the movie didn’t include all of the events that the book had or the movie would have be long and boring. I like how the movie tied all of the events together to make it more precise but I didn’t think the events were as interesting.