Something about that, no one really knew about those books, no one ever heard of Kung Fu Panda or How To Train Your Dragon books. Also the movies are NOTHING like the books so I don't know why they even bothered naming it the same name and same characters. Also Shrek was a five paged picture book and had nothing to do with the story in the movie
Kung Fu Panda was NEVER a book. The writer just appears to have really liked the movie. I personally feel it's THE film that Dreamworks grew up and matured on, and it doesn't have the in your face edginess the previous films had. In fact, it was treated as almost a real kung fu movie. Albeit, a comedic one. Though, I will say I like Jackie Chan's role in the second more than the first. Why they didn't make him all that funny a character in the first one is beyond me.
Shrek barely had the same plot... but it was about an ogre that wanted to be friendly and an annoying talking donkey. The similarities end there. Among others, the princess wasn't just always an ogre and never a human, she was pretty nasty and grouchy. That's how they fell in love in that version. Shrek somehow became the "Grrrr! I'm so angry with Disney so let's mock them" franchise.
But then again, the TV show Arthur dropped it's book roots in the second season, the Clifford cartoon changed a LOT, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs only had the disastrous food falling from the sky (most of the movie was based off the last 4 pages of the book... to say the least they explained things that were just part of an unbelievable Grampa story and that took ALL the magic out)... the first Berenstain Bears cartoon was heavily based on the books, but only because the authors actually wrote the thing, the second, while book based, took a LOT of liberties. The first Mr. Men cartoons were directly from the book with certain changes, but the Mr. Men show just took the characters and put them in a more SNL like setting. And let's not forget the biggest example... Jurassic Park. That was totally changed, BUT it kept the same plot generally.
That said, out of all of those, Cloudy's the one I take most umbrage with. Was there ever a word for word version of a movie?
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