I read Remarkably Bright Creatures in a rush last week so I could catch up on the cute fishy book everyone’s talking about, and so it’d be fresh in my mind when I watched the movie on Netflix, which came out on May 8th.
I love comparing books to movie adaptations. Most of the time the book is superior to the movie. Starring Sally Field as Tova, Lewis Pullman as Cameron, and Alfred Molina as Marcellus, director Olivia Newman’s Remarkably Bright Creatures is a cozy, wholesome watch. The movie actually gave a twist to some of the more mundane moments, sometimes by cutting scenes, sometimes by rewriting them. But it also made certain changes to the characters that really bothered me. And yes, as I predicted, I cried.
Read every difference we’ve caught between the book and movie below. This post contains spoilers!
Remarkably Bright Creatures
Description
For fans of A Man Called Ove, a charming, witty and compulsively readable exploration of friendship, reckoning, and hope that traces a widow’s unlikely connection with a giant Pacific octopus
After Tova Sullivan’s husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she’s been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago.
Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but wouldn’t dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors—until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova.
Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova’s son disappeared. And now Marcellus must use every trick his old invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it’s too late.
Shelby Van Pelt’s debut novel is a gentle reminder that sometimes taking a hard look at the past can help uncover a future that once felt impossible.
All the Changes From the Book in the Remarkably Bright Creatures Movie
It’s safe to say the movie took the general concept of the book Remarkably Bright Creatures and, uh, ran with it. Whether that’s good or bad, I’ll let you decide!
What did you think of Remarkably Bright Creatures Book Vs Movie?
What did you think of Remarkably Bright Creatures Book Vs Movie?
All The Changes from the Book in Remarkably Bright Creatures the Movie
I read Remarkably Bright Creatures in a rush last week so I could catch up on the cute fishy book everyone’s talking about, and so it’d be fresh in my mind when I watched the movie on Netflix, which came out on May 8th.
I love comparing books to movie adaptations. Most of the time the book is superior to the movie. Starring Sally Field as Tova, Lewis Pullman as Cameron, and Alfred Molina as Marcellus, director Olivia Newman’s Remarkably Bright Creatures is a cozy, wholesome watch. The movie actually pulled some of the slower moments out of the mud, sometimes by cutting scenes, sometimes by rewriting them. But it also made certain changes to the characters that really bothered me. And yes, as I predicted, I cried.
Read every difference we’ve caught between the book and movie below. This post contains spoilers!
It’s safe to say the movie took the general concept of the book Remarkably Bright Creatures and, uh, ran with it. Whether that’s good or bad, I’ll let you decide!
1. The Movie Added a Lot of Filler Scenes
The book was literally them cleaning the whole time, which made the narrative occasionally stall. So the movie clearly knew it had to add stuff to make it watchable. That’s where most of the changes on this list come from. Buddy comedy car trips, bar serenades, dramatic blow-ups that didn’t exist in the book, scenes where Tova and Cameron bond outside the aquarium. Some of it works. Some of it really doesn’t. Read on.
2. Cameron’s Camper Comes from Aunt Jeanne’s Alaskan Cruise Fund
Cameron comes to Sowell Bay with a duffel bag and a redeye flight, and he has to call his Aunt Jeanne to get a loan so that he can buy a dirty camper so he can drive around. He also has some uncomfortable conversations with a chatty guy at the airport about vegan sandwiches.
3. There’s No Cameron Backstory in the Movie
In the book we get tons of Cameron POV at the beginning of the book about his life back in California, the jobs he couldn’t keep, his life with his friends Brad and Elizabeth (those are the people on Zoom, in case you’re curious). He even has a girlfriend back at home who throws him out after he gets fired one last time and he has to go stay with Brad. Except in the movie he drives into town with a camper. I think it takes away from Cameron’s depth. We could see how gifted and smart he is, and with the right nurture he didn’t have to struggle the way he did.
4. Where Is Aunt Jeanne???
Speaking of Aunt Jeanne, well, in the movie there is no Aunt Jeanne. In the book Cameron is raised by his Aunt Jeanne who lives her best life in a trailer park and has been taking care of Cameron pretty much his whole life after his mom took off at age 9 due to addiction issues. In the movie there is no Aunt Jeanne. She was Cameron’s mother figure and it takes away from the sacrifice she made. She chose Cameron when she didn’t need to, and that’s important to highlight.
5. Cameron’s Mother Never Dies, Except Not Affirmatively
In the movie Cameron lives in a camper his mom died in. In the book, his mom took off at age 9, and was never seen again. Simon Brinks mentions seeing her a few years ago, and seemed like she was struggling but we never get confirmation. Avery mentions one time about how she talked someone off jumping from the pier to Tova which is heavily implied to be Daphne Cassmore. I liked the ambiguity of her life in the book. I’d like to think she is working on it out there. Especially because of how it paid off with Avery and the Erik reveal later.
6. Cameron Is So Much Cooler About Marco in the Book
Who’s Marco you ask? Great question, he’s Avery’s son. After finding out Avery is a mom who had him as a 17 year old, Cameron immediately is okay with her being a mom and even proud of her immediately. There’s no panic bolting like an immature manchild (not to say Cameron is not a manchild), but he is very supportive of Marco from the get go. This is a huge disservice to Cameron’s character IMO.
7. Avery and Cameron “Break Up” Never Happens in the Book
Cameron and Avery never take a break in the book, instead when Simon Brinks calls Cameron has to stand up a date but even then he goes to the paddle shop and tells Marco. Marco never tells Avery that Cameron stopped by but they basically get back on the right track as soon as Cameron comes back into town.
8. Simon Brinks Is a Whole Different Character in the Book
Simon Brinks in the book was Daphne’s best friend. He had a daughter and was running a speakeasy and was kind of disheveled based on what Cameron perceives.
9. Tova Never Helps with the Date with Avery
Tova and Cameron never take that car trip to Simon Brinks’ house, or who they thought he was. So he never texts back to Avery on his phone. In fact, Tova doesn’t have a phone most of the book, and she never helps him talk to someone in the car. Speaking of which, that guy with the gun also never happens. That’s a little buddy comedy moment that probably doesn’t need to happen. I was annoyed, it kind of turned it into a buddy comedy.
10. Tova’s Husband Will Never Decides That They Should Go to Charter Village
In the movie, Will signed Tova and himself up for Charter Village before he died, and Tova has been on the waitlist for three years. In the book? Tova’s brother Lars dies at Charter Village, whom Tova was estranged with, and eventually Tova decides she should move out there on her own. Without any of Will’s commitment. I think it makes a much bigger impact in the book because Tova chooses to go to Charter Village because she doesn’t think she has anyone left. It’s like a last choice for her.
11. Marcellus Reveals Cameron’s a Direct Descendant Earlier in the Book
In the movie, Tova just tells Cameron on the pier after seeing EELS in the ring Marcellus has given him. In the book Marcellus reveals that Cameron’s a direct descendant of Tova pretty early on. In fact, most of the book is Marcellus trying to do a bunch of stuff, including hiding Cameron’s driver’s license and jamming a printer so he can’t make a copy of it and has to leave the thing around on his own so that Tova can find out about his last name. They go for a while knowing Daphne was Erik’s girlfriend and Cameron and Daphne have the same last name, but until they find the ring, they don’t assume he’s her grandson.
12. Adam Wright’s Wife’s Name Is Sandy
No idea why they would change that. In the movie she’s Eliza.
13. Mary Ann’s Goodbye Lunch Is Actually Huge in the Book
Mary Ann’s goodbye lunch is actually huge. There’s like 40 to 50 people. There are a lot of random people there, Tova is sat next to Adam Wright, whom she met at a park earlier on in the year, who said something about his son, and there Adam gets drunk and spills the fact that Erik actually did have a girlfriend. In the movie, the lunch is just four people, and Adam isn’t even there. He just runs into Tova in passing and tells her about the girlfriend straight up.
14. Erik Was Never Mad at Tova in the Book
Erik was never mad at Tova. They never had a fight. In fact, Erik just left for the day and never came back. That’s an unnecessary dramatic information they’ve added.
15. Tova Never Finds Out the Truth About Erik in the Movie
Tova eventually learns from Avery when she tells her about how she talked someone off a pier and they talked about a boating accident that Erik actually didn’t take his life and it was actually, in fact, an accident. The movie cuts this entirely. Tova never finds out what really happened to Erik.
16. Tova and Ethan’s Date Is Never a Tea Date in the Book
Tova and Ethan’s date is never a tea date. In fact, Ethan asks Tova to go out to tea, and Tova kind of goes along with it because she doesn’t want to go on a date. But then later on, she goes to dinner at Ethan’s house and there, while Ethan steps away to talk to Cameron about his mom and what his mom’s role was at Erik’s death potentially. Well, it’s kind of ambiguous. Tova cleans the kitchen with one of Ethan’s concert t-shirts and she stains it with wine, and Ethan is kind of devastated. He never gets to tell Tova about Daphne Cassmore. In the movie, she spills tea on the shirt during their tea date, and she does buy another one for him. But not like the book.
17. The Bar Scene with Tova Listening to Cameron Sing
The bar scene in the movie with Tova listening to him sing, basically, is also very buddy comedy. Because that never happens in the book. Tova and Cameron mostly become friends just in the aquarium. They never even go to her house until Cameron shows up at the end when he comes back from trying to abandon Sowell Bay for California. It was whatever, I think the movie tried to add more scenes in because the book was literally them cleaning the whole time which made the narrative occasionally stall.
18. Cameron’s Reason for Coming Back Is Different
In the movie Cameron sees the lemon oil and vinegar Tova has made him to clean his camper while driving back to California and returns. In the book Cameron’s camper breaks down, and he actually decides that coming back is the right thing to do. But he leaves his phone on top of his bumper while trying to fix the camper. And that’s why he doesn’t know what happened when he gets back and he doesn’t hear back from Avery as well when he gets back to Sowell Bay.
19. Marcellus’s Final Resting Place Is Different
In the book, Marcellus goes under the sea and curls up with Erik’s bones. In the movie, we don’t get that detail. I’m personally thankful for that change. It was kind of dark and really made me sob. I’m glad I didn’t have to see that on the screen.
Cried about an octopus. No notes 🐙💔
Personally, I was imagining Marcellus a lot smoother in the book? I understand the texture in the movie is canonically accurate, and they captured Marcellus’s grumpy spirit so well. So I’ll forgive the bumpy skin.
What did you think of the Remarkably Bright Creatures Netflix adaptation? Did the movie hold a candle to the book? Or did you find the movie more entertaining? Tell us in the comments!
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