BBC Special Effects

Copperfox

Copperfox

Well-known member
In the BBC version of "Lion/Witch," all winged creatures in flight were depicted with superimposed cartoon animation, because they didn't have the budget to attempt any "physical" representation. (And CGI had not yet been invented.) Does anyone feel that it would have been better simply NOT TO HAVE any winged creatures depicted?
 
I feel the same way as you, it look rather silly seeing it. I burst out laughing at the sight of the creatures. It was just the time period back then, no one really cared about that. I think that is one of the reason's why I watch them. They care more about the story than the effects, or how cool the animals look.
I love BBC, but some times the quality of the special effects makes me laugh. The ones in Doctor Who for the longest time weren't that good.
 
Alas, that was filmed during the infamous Winged Creature strike of 1045...

The technique used was wax crayon on frosted cels. The textured plastic could still be seen through for photography but its surface would take crayon unlike smooth cels. If you're familiar with the animated Raymond Briggs story "The Snowman", you know what I mean.

Now pardon me whilst I convince Reepicheep that a "Centaur" is not a hundred legged bull....
 
I tend to agree that it would have been better (at least for me as a viewer) if BBC had just chosen not to include the winged creatures since they couldn't afford decent special effects. Every time I see the winged creatures in their goofy, obviously fake flying mode, I want to burst out laughing, and, even as a child, that always kind of destroyed my suspension of disbelief, reminding me that I was just watching a tv serial, not really traveling through Narnia or anything exciting. I love the BBC version for other reasons, and I watched it a ton as a child, but, yeah, the special effects on the winged creatures, sadly, were not the serials finest hour...
 
I'm thinking traditional cel animation would have looked far more realistic (or less unrealistic) since airbrushed shadows would have made the characters look solid.
 
That's interesting. I grew up with PC, VotDT, and SC from the BBC, and the animated LWW. So I never saw the animated characters en mass till later, when I saw the BBC LWW. But the little bit of animation in WotDT (I can't remember if there was any in SC & PC) never bothered me. I thought it made the birds on Ramandu's Island seem more magical and un-earthly. :p

The numbers surprised me when I saw LWW. But again, once I got used to them I thought it kind of worked—I liked them better than the so-so costuming used for other animals. I actually remember wishing they'd done Aslan that way, so that instead of a so-so puppeting job, you'd have an other-worldly effect.

I usually try to find a way to justify these things so that I can better enjoy the story, so objectively maybe it is terrible. ;-) But I've learned to like it by thinking of it that way.
 
When I watched the movies as a kid, I don't remember the creatures sticking out as bad or anything. Actually, I don't really remember them much at all. Of course, as a child I didn't think Aslan looked silly. Anyway, in that interview of the grown-up actors who played the Pevensies, the interviewer asks them the question, "What was it like working with ground-breaking special effects?"
 
I guess it would have been ground-breaking for _television_ at the time. That was in the days when you would watch "Doctor Who," and a character would point over his shoulder and say, "My spaceship is on the other side of that hill."
 
I was once in such a film with ground breaking special effects. It was shot on Arbor Day.... :D
 
Copperfox said:
I guess it would have been ground-breaking for _television_ at the time. That was in the days when you would watch "Doctor Who," and a character would point over his shoulder and say, "My spaceship is on the other side of that hill."
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The classic Who episodes were so bad when it can to effects. Very entertaining to watch now.
 
Dernhelm said:
That's interesting. I grew up with PC, VotDT, and SC from the BBC, and the animated LWW. So I never saw the animated characters en mass till later, when I saw the BBC LWW. But the little bit of animation in WotDT (I can't remember if there was any in SC & PC) never bothered me. I thought it made the birds on Ramandu's Island seem more magical and un-earthly. :p

The numbers surprised me when I saw LWW. But again, once I got used to them I thought it kind of worked—I liked them better than the so-so costuming used for other animals. I actually remember wishing they'd done Aslan that way, so that instead of a so-so puppeting job, you'd have an other-worldly effect.

I usually try to find a way to justify these things so that I can better enjoy the story, so objectively maybe it is terrible. ;-) But I've learned to like it by thinking of it that way.
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That's more the way I feel about it, myself. I also noticed something I've never seen anyone else mention on this subject, is that they included A COCKATRICE on Aslan's side! I thought that was really cool because a cockatrice is often thought of as being related to dragons, and dragon-kind don't often get positive attention in the world of Narnia.
 
In their version of "The Silver Chair," just before Jill, Eustace, Puddleglum and Rilian departed from the underground realm, the screenwriter apparently wanted to toss in a special effect which they COULD do, just for a bit of razzle-dazzle, regardless of whether it was faithful to the book. So they showed what looked like an inferno apparently CONSUMING all the underground people -- whereas, in the book, no harm came to them when the Green Witch died. After all, they had been her SLAVES, not her voluntary accomplices.
 
Copperfox said:
In their version of "The Silver Chair," just before Jill, Eustace, Puddleglum and Rilian departed from the underground realm, the screenwriter apparently wanted to toss in a special effect which they COULD do, just for a bit of razzle-dazzle, regardless of whether it was faithful to the book. So they showed what looked like an inferno apparently CONSUMING all the underground people -- whereas, in the book, no harm came to them when the Green Witch died. After all, they had been her SLAVES, not her voluntary accomplices.
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I thought it looked more like they were jumping down into their lower world with some spouts of fire for dramatic effect, because just before we see this, we see one underworld man raises his arms and shout rejoicingly, then dive off a ledge into the lower world. I figured this was meant as a nod to the book where we actually learn more about them and experience their joy in returning to their home.
 
I just had a thought about the use of superimposed animation to depict monsters in the BBC versions. The sci-fi series "Babylon Five" did some retroactive improvement of its visual effects; maybe someone could take the BBC Narnia productions and overlay new better-quality CGI images on the unconvincing cartoon monsters.
 
Copperfox said:
I just had a thought about the use of superimposed animation to depict monsters in the BBC versions. The sci-fi series "Babylon Five" did some retroactive improvement of its visual effects; maybe someone could take the BBC Narnia productions and overlay new better-quality CGI images on the unconvincing cartoon monsters.
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Hey, that's a cool idea!
 
Now, the BBC folks did do a pretty good job with a life-size "dummy" dragon for "Dawn Treader." In fact, it worked well enough that they also gave it a brief "walk-on part" in their version of "Silver Chair."
 
Copperfox said:
Now, the BBC folks did do a pretty good job with a life-size "dummy" dragon for "Dawn Treader." In fact, it worked well enough that they also gave it a brief "walk-on part" in their version of "Silver Chair."
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You mean when Eustace walks up to the dragon and whispers in its ear, followed by the dragon flying away peacefully? I liked that scene because it gives an example of a dragon that isn't shown as an enemy.
 
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