Its a safe bet that we won’t see any Narnia films in the near future. And that’s too bad, because the first three films from C.S. Lewis’ best-selling books were technically-competent and generally well-executed. In formula- and sequel-heavy Hollywood, the films were something unique, something different. “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe,” “Prince Caspian” and “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” each had their moments – some good and some bad. Today we take a gander at the Narnia films’ five best elements. Check back in a day or two for the five worst moments.
From the Blitz to the Wardrobe. Andrew Adamson and the production team hit LWW out of the ballpark. But the film’s early scenes were uber-perfect, from the German bombers to the train station farewell to Lucy discovering the wardrobe, the snow and the iconic lamppost. Harry Gregson-Williams’ score was fantastic, especially “Evacuating London” and “The Wardrobe.” So much of what appeared on screen looked exactly like what millions of readers had always held in their imaginations. This was a great way to start the franchise.
Aslan. Many fans rightfully feared that Aslan would look cartoonish in the Narnia films. Indeed, the creation of a photorealistic lion would prove to be a daunting task for the production. With the exception of the roar at the end of the LWW teaser, and perhaps Lucy’s dream sequence in PC, I am happy to report that Adamson, Apted and countless visual effects artists did incredibly good work on Aslan. For my money, Aslan’s best scenes are his first appearance to the children in LWW and at the end of VDT. The visuals, script and music combine to give fans a memorable introduction (and farewell) to Narnia’s ruler. None of this is to overlook Aslan’s voice; Liam Neeson deserves credit for his outstanding vocal talent.
Tilda Swinton as the White Witch. Other than casting Georgie Henley as Lucy, I don’t know that a better casting call was made than to award Tilda Swinton the role of the White Witch. Swinton was pitch-perfect, playing the witch as appropriately seductive, tempting and evil.
Eustace. Readers know little of Eustace, except that Lewis says the boy (almost) deserved his name. Thus was born the character that Narnia fans love to hate, and Will Poulter’s portrayal in VDT was spot on. He was an annoying, melodramatic brat at the beginning of the story and completely changed at the end, just as Lewis intended. Eustace’s transformation in the film was more than believable. A great tragedy of the series’ moratorium is that we likely won’t see Poulter in character as Eustace ever again.
The Visuals. Lewis often said that he was motivated to write by looking at scenery that made him long for another world. The challenge of any Narnia film is to leave audiences with the same impression, and all three films succeed. The battle shots from LWW, random dryads, and countless seascapes from VDT – not to mention the island locales – made Narnia a very real place to millions of fans. Early on, Andrew Adamson said that Narnia was always a real place to him and he wanted it to be portrayed as such. He was entirely correct, and the films are better for it. But which film is best? I argue that VDT offers the most breathtaking scenery by default, given the structure of the story. The setting sun over the ocean, the sea of lilies and the standing wave in front of Aslan’s Country…I could go on and on.
And there you have it – part one of my post-mortem of the three Narnia films thus far. Sound off in the comments section and check back with NarniaFans soon for five low points from the film trilogy.
It breaks my heart to think that there’ll be no more Narnia films… I was so hoping for the Last Battle to come out! But these three films have been amazing indeed, though they had their flaws. I’ll be watching them over and over again!!
I have been so waiting to see the next Narnia Movie… The Last Battle…. I have purchased the others and have watched them over and over again…. They seem to build on each other …It is heart breaking and sad to say we will be left hanging
That is untill 2018.
I too wish they’d do more. I especially would like to see “The Silver Chair.” Of course “The Magician’s Nephew” and “The Last Battle” would be awesome too, although I’m worried that no cinematic experience could possibly express the true beauty of Aslan’s Country!
I agree that the beginning scenes of LWW were incredible as was the music, that Tilda was an amazing White Witch, that Aslan looked noble not silly, and that Eustace was well done. I especially loved your point about the visuals. I connected to Lewis’s description of longing for something that nothing on earth seems to satisfy although sometimes there are glimpses of incredible beauty that call to us, and I thought the films depicted that beauty well. (I also thought the score helped play up the gorgeous scenery too.)
I am incredibly disappointed that there will not be a continuance of the fantastic job the company was doing. I did wish that they had stuck a little closer to the books – the White Witch was dark haired and Lucy was blond for example. Susan did not meet Caspian till almost the end of “Prince Caspian”, and they most certainly did not fall in love! But I still really enjoyed the movies, and regret that there will not be any more.
I loved all the movies, though I pictured VDT a little different, I thought it was well done. Prince Caspian was my favorite – the music was fantastic. Regina Spektor captured the film exactly in her song, The Call, at the end. I love watching Lucy find Aslan also and giving him a huge hug. It would be nice to see The Final Battle end the franchise but it has been so long…I know the kids have grown up by now. And it would not be the same without Georgie (what a little actress!) Amazing find for the movies!!
What is the reason for no more films? I can’t imagine they would be satisfied to stop here with only the first 3 stories. It would be like them only making the first 3 Harry Potter books into movies. Makes no sense whatsoever. The audience is there, money to be made so please give us the reason for ending this series.
Good points, some of the best I’ve heard. However, I would also suggest that the CGI is also a huge highlight of the films. I’d go as far as saying that the Narnia films have had the best CGI ever in any film series. Although that will change as tech gets better over the years, at least for now I am in awe of the beautiful characters such as Reepicheep.
I really enjoyed all 3 films. I have been able to accept that some changes had to be made for the screen. I am disappointed as well that the series will not go forward for the time being.
As a Christian, I was able to identify with Edmund at the end of VDT. I long for the country that God has called me to, but I know He has work for me and I am needed here for now.
It would be a disappointment if there were no more Narnia movies, but may I be so bold as to ask how does this writer come to this conclusion? I mean nowhere does this critic state where he gets his information from. The Narnia movies have been so successful, why would they quit now
You might want to take a closer look at NarniaFans. Just two articles down on the homepage is this story:
https://narniafans.com/archives/12739
…which discusses the moratorium. The status of the Narnia franchise has been reported quite a bit on this site and a few others.
Is there any possible way that this moratorium could end before the eight years is up?
I think so, read the second paragraph of the article about Douglas Gresham on the Future of Narnia Films (the most recent one).
I’m so sad to hear that they aren’t going to be making any more films. I absolutely loved the books and all of the movies that I’ve seen. I would have loved it if they had made A Horse and His Boy. That has never been made into a film and I would love to see what could be done with it. I wish they’d at least make Silver Chair!
They probably will make another after the moratorium is over. 😉
I agree with everything, except for the fact that you say we will never see any more narnia films. Wheather it made it big or not is irrelivent. It’s Hollywood, and they will continue on with the series, they’ve already said they will continue with it and will next make “The Magicians Nephew”.
No Narnia films are currently anywhere near production, and that includes “The Magician’s Nephew.”
Gresham recently said he wants to make Silver Chair next.
The first 30 minutes of LWW are quite good. At that point during my first viewing, I remember thinking “oh man…I wonder if it’s possible Adamson has really nailed it.” After that, the movie kinda started to slump. It’s still an okay movie, but it peaks in the first act.
Lucy and Tumnus are the highlight of the movie. Everything about their relationship just works.
The low, as a fan of the book, was the abrupt transition from winter to spring. That is the heart of the book, and they totally threw it out. A heartbreaking cut.
A highlight was the scripting and acting of the Pevensies in LWW. The book didn’t dwell in depth on character portrayal (that’s not meant as a criticism by the way) so it would have been easy for the film makers to butcher the transition to the screen, but it was done superbly.
However a lowlight was the scriptwriters’ character assassination of Peter in PC. OK they wanted to present him as “human” – fair enough, but it was grossly overdone.
This is the one thing I hate about these studios. They get fans invested into these franchises then they call it quits 3 films in. It’s actually quite sad because there aren’t many fairy tales that can be made for film with such a wealth of visuals and story lines. They did the same thing with the Golden Compass. At least those books only had 2 more films to be made. It’s such a disappointment not only to long time fans but to the younger children as well.
I don’t think we should all rush to hasty conclusions about this. They were aiming a release for 2014. It makes sense I wouldn’t hear anything of it for a while, but that doesn’t mean it won’t happen. VDT really did well. Perhaps not in the beginning of its release, but later it brought itself up. I hate people giving in like this. I won’t give in until the year 2014 has arrived with some declaration that the next film is on the way.
No one is rushing to a hasty conclusion. As has been reported endlessly on several websites, there are no Narnia films in production right now. Nothing, absolutely nothing, was ever scheduled for 2014.
This is ridiculus. We were left excited for Eustace’s return, and now we wont see it. Fantastic. I, personally, fell in love with the scenery of Narnia. To think that we may never see that again is awful.
The Chronicles of Narnia was a brilliant fanchise, listed 20th of all time, actually. Yes, the money made in each one decreaed each time, but the people who watched the Voyage of the Dawn Treader were mostly loyal fans who lived in Narnia, as I do. I honestly don’t know what I’ll do without more films; these have been my life.
I owe a lot to the films. When LWW came out I was 59 and had never heard of Narnia. Something in the teaser trailer piqued my interest and I watched the film. More than anyone else it was Georgie Henley’s performance that captured me. More than anyone Lucy represents the family with Aslan as the head. The movies filled a void in my life. I have since read all the Narnia books many times and many of Lewis’ other works.
This break in production may be a blessing. I think Andrew Adamson did a great job and should direct all the movies. I hope that the future movies should be less “Hollywood” and more closely follow the books. I hope all seven of the scripts should be ready before the first movie goes into production. I hope the movies go into a year to year and a half production cycle, so the franchise does not lose momentum.
I am unsurprised that there will not be any more Narnia films in the near future. The brightly coloured computer graphics used in these beautifully made films must have cost a small fortune to produce. I reckon that fans of these films should be grateful that such good film narratives as the ones that were made have come from original book sources that were really very slim novels.
I believe, and always have done, that LWW is by far the best of The Chronicles of Narnia films because I adore the narnians. I like how they aren’t human as that makes them so much more special to me. I also love the fact that Narnia is untouched by humans but in PC and VDT, Narnia doesn’t feel as unique. I don’t know why but it just feels spoiled for me.
I think the best about the movies is the longing you get for Narnia; in ‘the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe’ everything speaks of it, while they’re in it, when they tumble out of the wardrobe, Lucy trying to get in again, and in ‘Prince Caspian’ the Regina Spektor song ‘the call’ and the gaze Lucy throws backwards – it all made my heart ache. VoDT had less of that, but it’s okay, I could just imagine the bad parts out of it and imagine my own parts in it :P. The films opened up the world of Narnia again, like the trees splitting, and really, it doesn’t matter that they were sometimes a bit bad, because hey, we know how it was supposed to be, and this is just a (great) variation on the theme and still has Aslan (I think pictured great) so who’s complaining! It’s just a minor gaze for us into the world of Narnia, and because we’re not (yet) chosen by Aslan, this is what we get! So let’s be content and enjoy!
These points are some of my favorite Narnia moments in all of the movies. Too bad it will be seven years before we can return to Narnia. But don’t loose hope. Queen Lucy didn’t, and neither have I!
i love the movies! andrew adamson was awesome!
I thought the visuals in LWW and PC were far superior to VDT. VDT imagery felt far too fake and computer generated for me. You can’t beat natural landscapes in filiming, in my opinion.
Great films! Huge fan of the Narnia series of books and movies. Very sad that the last one isn’t coming out, but I will cherish the ones that we have. Tilda Swinton is the perfect white witch!