7801oa+IBD+Letter

Dear Producer of Universal Studios,

My sixth grade class read the novel Island of the Blue Dolphins and we also watched the movie. Although this movie was made in 1964, today, with the help of The Universal movie making company, this movie could be amazing. First off, survival movies are very popular, this movie can be improved with action and graphic scenes, which people love, and you can cast outstanding actors that everybody loves for the roles.

Do you like survival movies? You probably do, considering that your movie, Lone Survivor, came out and is in theaters now. The main reason why this movie should be remade is that Island of the Blue Dolphins is a survival tale that is a true story. Many movies like Hunger Games and Gravity have been released this year and the public will want to see more of that genre. Also, hundreds of TV shows that people watch everyday are based on the theme surviving. Think about it, off the top of my head I can name three shows, Survivor, The Walking Dead, and Man vs. Wild ; people love the idea of competition and of surviving a challenge. While some might claim this story is just for kids, it’s clear that people all ages would definitely enjoy this movie.

Beside the popularity of the survival genre, crowds also like action scenes. When my class read the Island of the Blue Dolphins, we loved imagining the action scenes like when the sea elephants fought and when Karana was trying to catch the octopus. When we read Chapter 3, the Aleut hunters and Karana’s tribe were fighting, so I pictured a bloody battle for that too. However, while watching the movie, we saw that there was not a sea elephant fight or an octopus hunt, which I thought were important facts of the book. During the Aleut battle, there was no blood either and as the people were getting shot, they fell over as if nobody had caught them during a trust fall. In the book Karana says,“They drew knives from their belts and as our warriors rushed upon them the two lines surged back and forth along the beach.” Again, in the movie, nothing like Karana says happens.I am not asking for a horror movie, but just a little more reality.

In addition to the actual movie problems, what about the actors? The actors of the Island of the Blue Dolphins weren’t that great. If it were up to me, I would’ve chosen better actors because every time they said something, it sounded very cheesy almost as if they were being sarcastic. And now, if you remake Island of the Blue Dolphins, then you can cast better actors that people like and would come see the movie for. Also, the wild dogs in the book were said to look like wolves or maybe huskies. However, in the movie, Rontu looked like a normal dog you see being walked everyday and he did not stand out from the pack as much as he sounded like he did in the book.

As I have said before, you should remake Island of the Blue Dolphins. Remember, it is your 50th anniversary! If I were looking to get lots of great reviews for a new movie, I would definitely choose to remake Island of the Blue Dolphins. While some might claim this story is just for kids, it’s clear that people all ages would definitely enjoy this movie.