My ratings for the graphic novels so far have been:

Five on a Treasure Island ☆☆☆☆
Five Go Adventuring Again ☆☆☆
Five Run Away Together ☆☆☆☆
Five Go to Smuggler’s Top ☆☆☆
Five Go Off in a Caravan ☆

Will Five Get Into Trouble redeem the ratings slide or is it going to be terrible? I honestly didn’t know what to expect.

A book of two halves

There are parts of this adaptation which stick fairly close to the book, with some things altered slightly to make them fit the shorter format.

We start with the Five arriving on their bikes at Green Lake, which is fine, we know we don’t have pages to spare on them planning a trip or cycling for days before the main story starts. This means we haven’t met Richard yet, but again, it’s not desperately important.

We do then go back and waste a page covering how Uncle Quentin tried to get them all to go to a science conference which is why they go off cycling – unnecessary and not that funny – and might have been better used introducing Richard.

As per the book Dick is kidnapped – though in broad daylight with all the rest of the Five nearby – and Richard is found hiding.

They make their way to Owl’s Dene, where just like the book they sneak into the grounds, canvass the joint and enter via a window in the middle of the night. So far, so good. They are caught and put in a room upstairs, just like in the book.

We get a bit of back story about why Richard is afraid of Rooky – he stole money from Mr Kent and was fired – and how Dick got taken by mistake.

And then it all goes somewhat off-piste.

The part which doesn’t resemble the book

Book Aggie is on the Five’s side – quietly and unobtrusively. Graphic novel Aggie, well you’ve got to wonder what she’s doing working at Owl’s Dene. Book Aggie is terrified of Hunchy, Mr Perton, Rooky etc and believably seems utterly trapped.

This Aggie is confident, clearly hates Hunchy and Mr Perton and has absolutely no problem in walking – or rather cycling – out when it suits her. So why has she put up with the job until now? On one hand she’s got the morals to help the Five escape, but not the morals to not work for a bunch of crooks? Is she a crook but one who draws the line at kidnapping children? Who knows.

This Aggie plots with the Five to help them escape, showing them a more complex set of alarms and sensors than the book’s electric gates. She helps them gag and tie up Hunchy after he knocks himself out while being chased by Timmy. I know it’s poetic justice or whatever, to tie up Hunchy the same way he tied up Dick, but come on. Can you really see the Five lynching someone and hanging them upside down? The time and effort alone is ridiculous. They’re not vicious or vindictive, they’re sensible. Hanging upside down can be fatal in a matter of hours.

Aggie also sets off an alarm to bring Mr Perton running so the Five can clothesline him and tie him up too.

(They’re obsessed with people flying through the air…)

In the end she cycles off with a basket of food and says she’s going to camp with the Five at Green Lake and cook them a big meal…

And all the other silly bits

I said that the first half more-or less sticks to the book, but it also wastes lots of panels on nonsense and does things very weirdly at times.

Like why does Dick have to walk upside down in the morning before he is kidnapped? OK it’s obviously so the rope loop hanging from the tree can catch him [see above] – but that then begs the question of why the trap was even set up that way.

The Five use an abandoned farmhouse across from Owl’s Dene to spy on it. And Julian’s legs convey him in a manner I’m sure it’s humanly possible down the stairs.

There’s no classic black Bentley KMF 102 (and no I didn’t have to look that up it’s engraved on my brain). Nor is there a replacement classic car. Instead there’s a meals on wheels van… why? Who’s ordering meals on wheels at Owl’s Dene? It’s only there to cause the gates to open so the Five can dash in. Maybe Hunchy is running a scam using the van to steal from unwitting pensioners but, again, who knows?

Richard’s several page explanation about how Mr Perton and Hunchy come into it make little sense, and could easily have gone unexplained. They work for Rooky, end of.

(And another bike crash! They’re obsessed with them too, it seems.)

Anne and Julian go wild over nothing. Yes, Richard asked for a different shirt. He’s about to go into the lion’s den, why wouldn’t he want to disguise himself? Him pretending not to be Richard Kent doesn’t harm the argument that Dick isn’t Richard Kent. In the book Julian encourages him to use soot to darken his hair exactly so he isn’t recognisable as himself.

For the parts that stick to the book I might have given a 3 star rating, four if I was feeling very generous. For the rest (including the part where Anne makes Richard bite on a stick for multiple pages to stop him from saying anything stupid…) It’s 1 or 2 stars at most.

It’s not that I hate changes – I just hate them when they make no sense. Skipping those we could have had one or two elements from the book like Richard escaping in the Bentley (I’d even have accepted him escaping in the Meals on Wheels van!) to redeem himself, or them finding the escaped prisoner and the diamonds in the secret room.

So in the end –

Five Get Into Trouble ☆☆