Good things come in small packages, or so every small person protests. Unfortunately, this doesn’t apply to one of the less successful cinematic genres: the TV-to-film adaptation. Sitcoms, in particular, face a difficult choice – maintain the show’s legacy, or potentially ruin all your hard work with a film flop. A joke which is funny on the small screen will not necessarily have you rolling in the cinema aisles (although if you do, bring a change of clothes..).
Since the rise of TV sitcoms, both the UK and US have been keen to jump on the big screen bandwagon, but with mixed success. Until recently, British adaptations have fought against the stigma that their sit-films aren’t very good. Camp ’70s film adaptations, such as, On the Buses and Are You Being Served?, are far from cinematic masterpieces. The latter had one reviewer proclaiming it as ‘guilty of violating almost every law of comedy and film’.
However, perhaps the tide is turning. Other sitcoms have managed to develop entire movie franchises. Mr. Bean spawned two successful movies; the Muppets are soon to embark on their 208th blockbuster outing, of which about 150 have been disappointing (with the obvious exception of Muppet Treasure Island). Adaptations of Sacha Baron-Cohen vehicles Borat, Bruno and Ali G, have produced successful and critically acclaimed movies, as did The Thick of It’s big-screen adaptation, In The Loop, which receieved an Oscar nomination for best-adapted screenplay. Further still, this summer’s The Inbetweeners Movie made a surprisingly smooth transition to cinema screens, surpassing last season’s laughs.
Can America follow Britain’s lead? The Simpsons Movie was genuinely funny, bettering the show’s recent form. Hopes are high for the Arrested Development movie, adapted from the criminally overlooked television series, which will be released in 2012 – as a last hurrah of sorts before the world ends. Whether it will remain as fast-paced and easily digestible as it was in short, 20-minute spurts remains to be seen. But as long as writers are savvy enough to transfer what made their original series so well regarded on television to a completely different, cinematic medium, there should really be no reason why a film based on a sitcom is worse than any other comedy. Unless, that is, you rely on slapstick, outdated sexual stereotypes or take your characters to Dubai. On a bus.