Movies and cartoons are often interpretations of longer, more complex works. For the sake of visual appeal, they must often sacrifice important themes and events that contributed to the value of the works upon which they are based.


When the first three movies on our list were released, most theater attendees would have read the stories previously because they were required reading in most schools. We selected the fourth movie ("Meet John Doe") to represent the Horatio Alger stories that were more-often books that were read outside the school systems.

The "Gulliver's Travels" cartoon is an entertaining video, but it offers very little of the original's satire and political discourse.