The late Michael Crichton is responsible for writing the novel, Jurassic Park.

Published in November 1990, Crichton’s 400-page story became an instant classic that inspired film director Steven Spielberg, to bring it to life.

Who could forget the thrilling adventure of seeing dinosaurs interact with humans for the first time when Jurassic Park came to theatres on June 11, 1993? It was the film that caught the attention of not only children, but their parents as well.

The jaw-dropping film became an instant classic, just as the book had. But were the film and novel deemed classics for the same reasons?

The differences between the film and novel range from minor changes, to a complete 180.

For example, the famous Barbasol shaving cream can being used in the film to transport stolen embryos, was said to be made by Gillett in the novel. A bigger contrast would be that of some of the characters.

In the film, one of the main characters, Dr.Alan Grant (portrayed by Sam Neill) is notorious for his “dislike” if you will, of children. In the novel, Dr.Grant is said to love kids.

Other characters like Dr.Wu and Dr.Harding, who have about 1 ½ minutes of screen time in the film, play a rather large roll in the novel.

Also, the ages of Tim and Lex are reversed in the film (Lex is younger in the novel), which creates a difference in the way the scenes are depicted. Some additional characters, including Ed Regis, Bob Morris, Dr.Carter, and more, are left out of the film entirely.

As the film does contain some of the same suspenseful scenes as the novel, most of them are either totally cut from the story, or changed in some way.

One of the most memorable scenes, like that of Donald Genarro being eaten by the Tyrannosaurus Rex off of a toilet, does NOT happen in the novel. In fact, Genarro doesn’t die at all.

Even after seeing the film when I was rather young, I had no clue up until a few months ago that the movie was actually based on a book. Shortly after finding this out, I immediately got the book in my possession and read it right away.

To my own surprise, and to most people I have told, only the first two films are based on the two-book series (Jurassic Park and The Lost World). The third film was created entirely on its own as is the upcoming fourth.

I know some of these things may not make a difference to people who have only seen the movie, but to someone who has read the book, it can change their entire outlook of the story line, and decrease their interest in the film.

In light of the final film in the pro-longed Jurassic Park series being released on June 12, I think it would be in your best interest to decide for yourself just how well you think the first two films carried out the details in the original novels.