The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader coming in December 10th 2010

[Varnafindë]

Originally Posted by Midge

Saw it! SPOILERS follow in my review!

So they will follow in my answer as well.
I basically liked the movie, but there were quite a few things that I wish they had done better.

However, I despised the whole green fog thing and making "Dark Island". In the book, it was the island where things you've dreamt come true; in the movie it's the evil island Does anyone understand my frustration with this?

Partly, but

the way I interpret the movie, the sea serpent isn't so much the ultimate manifestation of evil green mist, it's merely what Edmund happened to think of at the time.

The island is where your fears come true, even more than your nightmares.

Also Dragon-Eustace should have been green. I don't know if it says he was gold in the book, but I've always imagined that he would make an excellent green dragon.

It doesn't say anything about his color. I just checked. I'm sure green would have been good on him - but perhaps they avoided the green because they were using it for the evil mist, and he wasn't supposed to be evil.

I can't think of a specific problem with how Eustace was undragoned, but the whole thing was just not right. Possibly it was rushed, possibly it was because there was no well, possibly it was because Aslan never touched Eustace... It just doesn't feel right to me.

I didn't feel that bad about it, and I didn't miss the well, I didn't mind it being done on the island - but it was rushed. I wish they had given it more time - especially more time to Eustace trying to remove his skin himself, before Aslan has to take over.

Actually, that's actually the problem with the whole movie. There was so much they had to work with that they tossed out the nuances and kept the generalities.

Yes. The rush was the biggest problem. It didn't give them time to go in any depth. Too few nuances. And not enough time for bonding.

The main things I missed were the throwing out of Governor Gumpas from the Lone Islands, and the scene where Eustace and Edmund talk about Eustace's undragoning. Eustace tells the basics of it in the movie, but we don't get any of Edmund's input. "You were only an ass, but I was a traitor."

Also - Eustace = PERFECT! Definitely my favorite character! He got on my nerves the WHOLE time, just like he was supposed to do! On second thought, I might go see "The Silver Chair" if they make it just to see him again.

I wholeheartedly agree about that!
And the interactions between Eustace and Reepicheep were the best parts of the movie (followed by the parting at the end).

And I'm going to watch it again on Monday - with a friend who hasn't seen it before and who hasn't watched all the spoilers and trailers and TV-spots in advance. If they make SC, perhaps I should try to go spoiler-free. There was very little in this movie to surprise me at the theatre ...

I hope they will make an extended version for DVD - giving more time to some of those rushed scenes!

[Midge]

Originally Posted by Varnafindë

Partly, but The island is where your fears come true, even more than your nightmares.

Maybe I'm making too much of the green mist. I was okay with all the references to the witch as evil symbolism, but the whole dark island was merely a chapter in the book and it was almost the whole plot in the movie.

Originally Posted by Varnafindë

The main things I missed were the throwing out of Governor Gumpas from the Lone Islands, and the scene where Eustace and Edmund talk about Eustace's undragoning. Eustace tells the basics of it in the movie, but we don't get any of Edmund's input. "You were only an ass, but I was a traitor."

YES! I totally missed so much of the Lone Islands part. They cut that down to NOTHING.

[Midge]

I seriously think I'm going to write them a letter. I think that I personify the loyal C.S. Lewis fan who would watch the movie to see the book on screen and that I should be made a consultant. Perhaps I should start a petition.

I just can't stand to see them ruin another of Lewis's beloved stories like they did the PC and VDT.

I don't care that people who may not have read the books think those are good movies as they were made. It's like someone thinking a kid plinking out Mary Had a Little Lamb on the piano was great music, only because they've never heard Gershwin! Just because they're happy doesn't mean we don't have a responsibility to open their eyes to the truth!

I'm feeling very strongly about this right now.

[GrayMouser]

Just saw it ( on DVD) and wasn't as bad as PC, or as good as LWW.

Agree about the green mist (boo!), also disappointed about the Lone Islands.

Edmund thinking about the Sea Serpent reminded me of Ghostbusters

But they didn't build up to it properly by showing it as his nightmare.

Eustace and Reepicheep were great, but the CGI for Aslan is still lacking, and I still don't like Liam Neeson's voice- too soft.

Eustace was great.

[Valandil]

Just watched at home tonight with my two younger boys (8 & 10). We thought they were too young to see it at the theater in December, when I took my oldest (then 12).

We enjoyed it. Now my 8 year old is interested in reading the series.

[Valandil]

Oh - does anyone know if they're doing The Silver Chair?

[Valandil]

Just answered my own question...


http://www.christianpost.com/news/na...r-chair-49517/

[Varnafindë]

Even The Magician's Nephew hasn't been greenlit yet - there seems to be still negotiations going on. But there's always hope ...

[GrayMouser]

IIRC, one of the reasons they decided on TMN was the popularity of Tilda Swinton as the White Witch.

Unfortunately that puts at least 4 years on Will Poulter- tough to squeeze that in over a summer.

[Varnafindë]

Originally Posted by GrayMouser

IIRC, one of the reasons they decided on TMN was the popularity of Tilda Swinton as the White Witch.

Another might have been the popularity of one book over the other, in numbers of sold books.

Unfortunately that puts at least 4 years on Will Poulter- tough to squeeze that in over a summer.

I guess they will change the details, perhaps even the plot, to have the whole story starting later than just next term.

I so hope they won't go for a different Eustace instead. Will Poulter did him brilliantly.

[Aikanáro]

I watched this film last night. I have to say that I absolutely loved it. To be fair, I haven't read the book since I was a little girl, so while I remembered general details, it wasn't enough that I could be bothered by any of the changes.

I loved Eustace, and Reepicheep, and especially the interaction between Eustace and Reepicheep that helped facilitate his character development. I remember disliking Eustace a lot more as a child, so I'm not sure if the film has made him more sympathetic or if it's just my own shift in perspective.

I really need to read those books again.

Also - what happened to Caspian's accent?

[Varnafindë]

Originally Posted by Aikanáro

I loved Eustace, and Reepicheep, and especially the interaction between Eustace and Reepicheep that helped facilitate his character development.

So did I - it was one the best aspects of the whole movie.

I really need to read those books again.

Oh yes you do
And we could have some more activity here in the C.S. Lewis section

Also - what happened to Caspian's accent?

They just decided to drop it - without giving any explanation

My IC theory is that once the Telmarines started to interact with the Old Narnians, they would gradually switch to the real Narnian accent (i.e. British)

[Aikanáro]

Originally Posted by Varnafindë

Oh yes you do
And we could have some more activity here in the C.S. Lewis section

Well, I've got a certain other trilogy I need to finish first but i'm really tempted to buy a nice boxed set of the Chronicles to read over the long summer holiday.

They just decided to drop it - without giving any explanation

My IC theory is that once the Telmarines started to interact with the Old Narnians, they would gradually switch to the real Narnian accent (i.e. British)

I suppose that could work! I wish the film-makers hadn't decided to change it for no apparent reason, though.

*feels better now that you've given a plausible IC explanation, though*

[Midge]

Originally Posted by Valandil

Just answered my own question...


http://www.christianpost.com/news/na...r-chair-49517/

For the past several months, many Narnia fans were worried whether "Voyage of the Dawn Treader" could muster the box office numbers needed for Walden to produce another movie installment based on the beloved Chronicles of Narnia series.

Honestly, I was worried it WOULD hit the box office numbers required... And I think they forgot the word "loosely" before "based on the beloved Chronicles of Narnia series".

Apparently, I'm going to end up hoping against hope that every new movie they make is going to be book-worthy good.

[Varnafindë]

There's no knowing now when there will be more movies - Walden Media's rights have expired, so no-one knows what will happen next.

Douglas Gresham has just been answering questions on Twitter (on the @CSLewis Twitter account), but not talking about the movies, just about Lewis himself and his works. (I missed it, but there are highlights on NarniaWeb.)

He was asked, though, "What was the most emotionally difficult part of working on the Chronicles of Narnia films?"

And he answered, "The hardest part of working on the Narnia films was having to accept stuff that I knew to be less good than what Jack wrote."

So he had to do that ...

Edit:
Correction:
What he didn't talk about, was future movies. He didn't answer any questions about that.

[Grey_Wolf]

Ive just seen VoDT - It was pretty good.

[Varnafindë]

I'm glad to hear you say that, GW - I should watch it again myself some time ...

[Rían]

Whew - I finally got around to watching it, and ...

I'm kinda hating it so far ...

Eustace just turned into a dragon. Maybe it will get better.

I wish they would stick with the books! It was one of my favorite books

[Earniel]

I saw it a couple of months ago, and while I really liked the effects, the story was rather stupid.

Visually I liked it a lot. The ship looked awesome. The scene where the water seeps back into the painting, and all the island settings were pretty good. Eutache in dragon form looked quite good. Yeah, visually it hit all the right marks. I liked the sea-serpent (I have a soft spot for those) until it... opened up... What was that good for? Giat serpent not scary enough? Dude, this is a kids' movie, right? Totally uncalled for IMO. I know kids can stand quite a bit more than me these days, but seriously.

But the way they rewrote the story... meh. What's the point of adapting a book to movie if you're going to divert that far? Just make a generic kids traveling in a magic ship story then and be done with it. Didn't annoy me so much as the botched castle-raid in Prince Caspian, mind, but by the time of the big battle when they actually decided to go Ghostbusters(!) on me, I pretty much stopped caring.

Also, why was the slave-girl even there? Just to pass the Bechdel test? She was criminally under-used in already a quite extensive cast. Sloppy story-writing, this.