Some Kids Want You to See The Lightning Thief

At their urging, the following is a guest post written by my children:

You may have heard of Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, the movie that came out Friday, February 12, 2010.

Many people have been calling it a Harry Potter knock off. To begin with, the book series is not another Potter. The only comparison one could make is that the main characters are two boys and a girl, and the male protagonist doesn’t fully know about his true powers until he goes somewhere away from home (Camp Half Blood/Hogwarts) to train.

Would Potter ever go to Vegas?!

We both read The Lightning Thief (along with the rest of the books in the series) at a young age and were captivated by how exciting it was. Both of us still consider it the best book we’ve ever read (tied with Stephen Colbert’s I Am America (And So Can You!) and Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird). We have also read the Harry Potter books and seen the movies and the Lightning Thief series differs in many ways. The Lightning Thief is a fun way for kids and teens to learn about Greek mythology.

The Lightning Thief brings Greek mythology to the modern world, with the gods and goddesses hidden at the top of the empire state building. Camp Half Blood is the where the demigods gather, the only place they are safe. Demigods are the offspring of a god and mortal, so they are half-human and half-god. Harry Potter, however, is about witchcraft and wizardry. Magic. Contrast that with gods and Greek mythology. Nowhere close to the magic that is described in the Harry Potter series.

Have you seen this promo, where water roars behind Percy?

Percy is the son of Poseidon (god of the seas, which must be noted because the naysayers probably didn’t even know that), not a recently-trained-in-magic Quidditch captain. The people who accused The Lightning Thief of being a cheap knock-off probably didn’t even know that the book was released in 2005, before five of the Harry Potter movies were released. Also, one could make the argument (an inane, ignorant argument) that The Half Blood Prince and Camp Half Blood have something to do with each other. Well, unless Snape’s dad was Zeus or Ares or any other god, they have no connection except for the words “Half Blood.”

Anyway, the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series of books was hugely successful, a New York Times #1 Bestseller and given five-star reviews by many, including the writers of this article. The people who criticized The Lightning Thief probably did no (or very little) research and just looked at the ad for the movie while tweeting “Am I the only one that thinks that Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief is a total Harry Potter cop-out? #iamnotamused.” (@clawtooth35) or “hilarious: billboards for ‘Percy Jackson and the lightning thief’ don’t even try to hide the fact that it’s a facile Harry Potter ripoff…” (@estherdbrazil) or “the lightning thief dd not lve up 2 my expctations. almost juvenile for my liking. it’s like harry potter with a better looking protagonist.” (@bookletjeff) Uh huh. To quote @pfpaul, “BF#1: “The Lightning Thief looks stupid. It’s exactly like Harry Potter. Different people, same names.” That doesn’t even… “what?!”

Exactly. Different people, same names?! No they don’t…oh, whatever.

We just disagree.

Go see The Lightning Thief.

Let us know what you think.

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