While it seems fairly common for book-to-film adaptations to change things in the process, I've heard that "The Adventures of Huck Finn" went so far as to change what happened at the end. But I've never read the novel, so maybe I shouldn't comment on that. The truth is, Mark Twain intended for his work to be serious (not to get adapted by Disney).
But one point that they certainly kept was something that we talked about in an ethics class that I took two years ago. In one scene, some people ask Huck (Elijah Wood) whether Jim (Courtney B. Vance) is black or white, and Huck says white. You must understand that Huck was raised to believe that slavery was correct and that he should return escaped slaves. According to that, it was immoral for him to lie about Jim. But since slavery has now been mostly - unfortunately, not totally - discredited, it looks perfectly moral for Huck to lie about Jim. Therefore, Huck is a moral nihilist, subscribing to neither approach.
But otherwise, the movie's OK as a simple adventure story. Just not the sort of thing that I necessarily recommend as a history lesson. Also starring Robbie Coltrane (Hagrid from the Harry Potter movies), Jason Robards, Ron Perlman, Anne Heche, Curtis Armstrong (Booger from "The Revenge of the Nerds") and Frances Conroy (Ruth on "Six Feet Under").
But one point that they certainly kept was something that we talked about in an ethics class that I took two years ago. In one scene, some people ask Huck (Elijah Wood) whether Jim (Courtney B. Vance) is black or white, and Huck says white. You must understand that Huck was raised to believe that slavery was correct and that he should return escaped slaves. According to that, it was immoral for him to lie about Jim. But since slavery has now been mostly - unfortunately, not totally - discredited, it looks perfectly moral for Huck to lie about Jim. Therefore, Huck is a moral nihilist, subscribing to neither approach.
But otherwise, the movie's OK as a simple adventure story. Just not the sort of thing that I necessarily recommend as a history lesson. Also starring Robbie Coltrane (Hagrid from the Harry Potter movies), Jason Robards, Ron Perlman, Anne Heche, Curtis Armstrong (Booger from "The Revenge of the Nerds") and Frances Conroy (Ruth on "Six Feet Under").