This Can't be Happening at MacDonald Hall (1978)
Go Jump in the Pool (1979)
Beware the Fish (1980)
The Wizzle War (1982)
The Zucchini Wars (1988)
MacDonald Hall Goes Hollywood (1991)
Something Fishy at MacDonald Hall (1995)
I haven't read any of the books -- I never heard of them before Netflix - but Bruno is the "let's fill the swimming pool with jello" trickster, Boots the "but we'll get in trouble" superego, and they're surrounded by the usual high school nerds, jocks, and martinet teachers. The rival school is the snooty York Academy, and Miss Scrimmage's Finishing School for Young Ladies provides a female Bruno-Boots pair to spar with and get crushes on.
A series of movie adaptions has appeared in Canada. The first, Bruno and Boots: Go Jump in the Pool (2016), now streaming on Netflix, stars:
1. Jonny Gray, a Disney teen, star of the similarly-themed Max and Shred (2014-2015) as Bruno.
Jonny is the one on the far right.
In the movie: They just want the pool. Plus Boots goes out for swimming so he can impress The Girl.
That's right, the gay-subtext motive has been obliterated, and a hetero-horny motive introduced.
I guess because in 2016 you couldn't pretend that gay people do not exist anymore.
I fast forwarded through the other two movies, to see if there was anything good:
Bruno and Boots: This Can't Be Happening at MacDonald Hall (2017): The headmaster tries to separate the duo.
Bruno and Boots: The Wizzle War (2017): They try to get even with a crazy teacher.
Gay characters: The girl-crush is de-emphasized. You can still read them as a gay couple, if you want. .
Beefcake: Bruno and Boots rush to class in their underwear, with some blatant bouncing around. Otherwise nothing much.
My grade: C-
Gordon Korman wrote the first novel in the Bruno and Boots series when he was in the seventh grade. His English teacher was a coach who simply gave them time to write whatever they wanted. Gordon decided to write a book. He completed it and sent it to Scholastic. It was published the next year, and he's been writing all kinds of books ever since. In the books, Bruno and Boots are in middle school. The films raised their ages and put them in high school. And the publishers have changed the covers over the years as well. Instead of two boys with their arms around each other, there's a skunk or a rubber duck, etc. But Gordon Korman's a good writer. Check out "The Twinkie Squad."
ReplyDeleteThat's very interesting. I wonder if the cover art change was an attempt to erase gay subtexts
Delete