WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY-PHILIPPINES College of Technology Cabanatuan City

World Literature
(Film Review about a movie story based on book)

Submitted by:

Raymart t. cruz Bsece 3

Submitted to: Prof. Joanne Mae Liwag

Film Review: Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Diary of a Wimpy Kid is a realistic fiction novel by Jeff Kinney. It is the first book in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, based on a webcomic at Funbrain. A film of the same name was released on March 19, 2010. It stars Zachary Gordon as Greg Heffley and Robert Capron as Rowley Jefferson. The books focuses on Greg's life as he enters middle school and facing many hardships with his family. SETTING: The story began on Gregs house and school. CHARACTERS: Main characters: Greg Heffley Gregory "Greg" Heffley is the main protagonist of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. He is best friends with Rowley Jefferson and he is known for his misadventures throughout his school.

In the film, Greg is easygoing and good-natured. He is just trying to survive middle school, failing to realize that he is a bit too selfish, and once got beaten down by Patty Farrell because he insulted her. Rowley Jefferson Rowland "Rowley" Jefferson is Greg's best friend, although Greg views him as immature and ignorant. Rowley gets a note that says he's cute because of his pimple from all the girls,but Greg is jealous of his pimple so he writes a fake letter to him. In Dog Days, they separate, and Greg knows that he and Rowley will no longer be friends, but they got back together in the end of The Ugly Truth. At the end of Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Rowley eats "The cheese," a secret that only Greg and a small group of teenagers know. Susan Heffley Susannah "Susan" Heffley is Greg's mother. Susan is trying to be a good mother, but is shown as impulsive, ignorant, and somewhat overprotective, much to Greg's annoyance. She and her husband pay far more attention to Manny than their other two sons, and give their youngest nearly everything he wants. Susan humiliates Rodrick on stage during the school talent show in Rodrick Rules, when she performs an embarrassing dance on stage during Rodrick's band's heavy metal performance. Frank Heffley Franklin "Frank" Heffley is Greg's father. He is interested in U.S. history, especially the American Civil War, and he even made a replica of an American Civil War battle field. Frank is edgy around Rowley, does not appreciate Greg's skill at video games, loathes heavy metal, and strongly detests adolescents Rodrick Heffley Rodrick Heffley is Greg's older brother and is often mean to Greg. He starts a hard rock band called Lded Diper, but he misspelled it and the real name is Loaded Diaper. In Rodrick Rules, he is the main antagonist and constantly bullies Greg, threatening to spill Greg's "big secret". Manny Heffley Manuel "Manny" Heffley is Greg's younger brother, and is far more spoiled than Greg and Rodrick combined, mostly because he throws extreme tantrums to get whatever he wants. Other Characters: Gregs relatives, and teachers - the other characters have their minor parts.

Greg's classmates: Fregley Breck, Holly Hills, Chirag Gupta, Patty Farrell, Collin Lee, Alex Aruda, Albert Sandy and Christopher Ziegel PLOT: The book opens with Greg Heffley saying how bad his life is with his family, and his best friend Rowley Jefferson, whom Greg worries about, and the moldy cheese on the playground, telling how once a kid named Darren Walsh touched it, and it started a link called the "Cheese Touch." Greg faces many hardships, including Halloween. As Greg and Rowley go Trickor-Treating, they anger some teenagers who chase them. They barely escape but manage to get to Greg's grandma's house, the teenagers see them inside and so Gregg and Rowley taunt them. Not all goes to plan though and when they get home and Greg's dad, who was hassled by kids, throws water at them and the water soaks their candy. The Wizard of Oz play is also a hardship for Greg, Patty Farell, who does Dorothy, is coming on stage, and since Greg is a Tree, he thinks he can throw apples at her, but the director takes it out for health and safety. Mrs. Norton, the music director, tries to make the Trees sing an embarrassing song, but on the night nobody sings out of fear and the play is ruined. Greg and Rowley's friendship is starting to fall apart. Greg invents a game where one person would throw a football to make the other fall off the Big Wheel, A gift Rowley got for Christmas, however when Rowley falls off ,he breaks his arm. Greg is jealous of the attention Rowley is getting. Rowley is also framed for scaring kindergarteners, when it was Greg wearing Rowley's coat. When Greg confesses, Greg is kicked out, and Rowley is promoted. Rowley also declares himself the owner of a comic strip, Zoo-Wee-Mama, that was created by Greg and Rowley, but Greg drops out to make his own comic strip. The two stop being friends. Greg and Rowley get into a fight at the blacktop, when the teenagers from Halloween come, and grab Greg and Rowley. They make Rowley eat the cheese, and are to make Greg do it too, but Greg finds a way out. The students however notice the cheese is gone. Greg, being a good friend to Rowley, lies and says he threw it away, but this gives Greg the Cheese Touch. Greg and Rowley becomes

friends again, and Greg begins to see the good advantages of having the Cheese Touch.

THEME:

The theme of the story is based on the life of a wimpy kid and his relationship with his family and friends.

POINT OF VIEW: The point of view is 2nd view. Greg is talking to you, but you aren't in the story (1st person), and you aren't just reading it but you are reading what everyone does (ex. Harry Potter, instead of, "I ran down the hallway" or "I ran down the hallway, but you would know that", it would be more like "Harry ran down the hallway." So, it's second view. MOOD: Basically it's about how annoyed Greg is about his middle school experiences. Diary of a Wimpy Kid uses a positive tone. Even though there were funny and sad parts which shows the struggles of Greg, real friendship and forgiveness still reigns in the story. It is because at the end, Greg and his best friend Rowley became friends again.

TONE:

MY SUMMARY/CONCLUSION: Diary of a Wimpy Kid, by Jeff Kinney, is about a year in Greg Heffleys life. Greg is a skinny middle school student who loves drinking hot chocolate in the morning. This book takes place in his hometown. The main characters are Greg, Gregs brother (Rodrick), his mom, and his dad. The book has a vast amount of cartoons and is printed in a handwritten-style font. The main characters in Diary of a Wimpy Kid are about Greg and his family. Greg is a normal boy who likes fame and being protected from bullies at school. He hates singing songs and embarrassing moments, but unfortunately for him, his brother loves to embarrass him. Gregs dad hates video games and punishes Greg for playing them when it is a sunny day outside. He would dismantle the game machine but he doesnt know how to. When Greg does something wrong, he just throws whatever he has in his hands at Greg. Gregs mom is very different from Gregs dad. When Greg does something bad, she takes a few days or weeks to figure out the punishment. While she does that, he does all these good things to reduce the punishment. When Greg forgets

about the punishment, she punishes him severely. There are more characters in the book, but I like these best. The main events were when Greg became a cartoonist, the few days that he was a safety patrol, and the month when the middle school boys had their fitness unit. Greg was a cartoonist for his school newspaper for only a day. After one day, he quit because the newspaper manager, Mr. Ira, said he would make a few edits, but instead changed the whole thing. When he was on safety patrol, he was allowed to get hot chocolate in the morning and go to first period10 minutes late and not be tardy, even though he wasnt doing morning safety patrol. During the fitness unit, Greg borrowed some video games to practice wrestling moves. Unexpectedly, when it was time to wrestle, he had to wrestle in a different way from the video games way of wrestling. He was happy when the PE teacher said the wrestling match pairs would be based on weight. However, this meant Greg had to wrestle another skinny guy that he hated so he tried to move up in the weight chart. He thought he should just eat tons of junk food, but he thought maybe he could gain weight by building muscles instead. The good qualities of this book are a relatable plot and cool pictures. The storyline is about Gregs experiences throughout a school year. If you are a kid, you can really understand Gregs point of view. As a kid, you can actually see the picture forming from the description and the pictures. Its like youre a observer of Gregs life. The pictures are really funny and feature stick figures in a comic book style. This book is good because your parents cant accuse you for reading a comic book, but you still get to read comics. The book is so wonderful that I read the sequel and am waiting for the last book. I recommend the book for young readers because it has a lot of comics. It is very well done.