Last week, while I was out of town, I received an invitation to a screening of footage from The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. This screening was to happen on the Monday, only two days after my return to the United States, so unfortunately I had to turn down the chance. However, there were many outlets that were there, and they’ve provided so much coverage of the event that it’s almost like being there. I do have to warn you, though: there are a LOT of MAJOR SPOILERS in the reports. And I mean it. If you read all of the reports, it’s almost like having seen the movie. If you want to go into the movie and be surprised, or leave any secrets to experience for the first time at the movie itself, do not read any of them.
However, if you’d like to spoil yourself almost completely, read on. I must tell you, though, that whatever you read doesn’t cover everything that is in the movie, and this is a very good thing. There are many amazing things that aren’t even touched by the footage that they saw.
Either way, one thing that this screening has accomplished is something very important: confidence. Reports from Narnia bloggers are one thing, but when they come from places like ComingSoon.net and Hit Fix – that is another thing entirely.
ComingSoon.net sums up their report, saying:
Overall, it was an impressive cross-section of what to expect from the movie in terms of the magic and wonder they’re aiming for, we got a tiny taste of the action, as well as getting some idea about the new characters and how the two youngest Pevensie kids have changed since the previous movie.
HitFix ends their report with:
Apted also noted “Treader” is five weeks away from finishing it’s 3-D conversion. While that should help ticket sales, judging from the eye candy displayed on the Fox lot, it probably isn’t that necessary. Overall? “Narnia” looks like a return to the solid success of “Wardrobe.” And even if it only comes close, Walden will be very, very happy.
And they also say: Fans can breathe a sigh of relief because, as promised, the “magic” has returned to “Narnia.”
Examiner talks briefly about the content of the third trailer for the film:
The third “Dawn Treader” trailer is a visual feast of the colorful Dawn Treader ship, massive tidal waves, Aslan (the all-powerful lion voiced by Liam Neeson), the Narnia heroes’ adventures on water and on land, and a brief glimpse of the epic final battle with a sea serpent. (The trailer shows Reepicheep getting into the fray.) And good news for fans of Barnes: Unlike the previous “Dawn Treader” trailers, which mostly showed Barnes with his back to the camera, this trailer actually has him facing the camera most of the time he is seen on screen.
Aslan’s Country has a transcript of the footage that was shown as well, but they didn’t sum up their overall impressions of it. Instead, what they did was write down as quickly as they could, literally everything that they saw, and revealed a few details that the others hadn’t.
SPOILERS AHEAD
Here’s where I’m going to write a bit about many of the points that were revealed. If you’re avoiding spoilers, leave now.
– We’ll see Susan writing a letter to Lucy and Edmund near the beginning of the film. – This is a very smart way to explain her absence to those that either don’t remember Prince Caspian‘s ending, or missed the movie entirely.
– Eustace writes in his diary. This is something we saw a glimpse of in the trailer, but in the footage he is also narrating what he is writing.
– Uncle Harold is in the film (we still don’t know who plays him).
– Apted talked about the adventure the three kids will be joining Caspian on, in which they look for seven lords, friend’s of his father’s who were exiled after the war, and to get seven swords which will put a stop to the White Witch returning.
– There will be a food shortage on the ship, during which Reepicheep catches Eustace stealing an orange.
– Lucy is kidnapped by Invisible Giants and taken to the magician’s house to say the spell.
– The seven swords must be placed at Aslan’s feet in order to destroy the Dark Island.
– Liliandil introduces herself as the daughter of Ramandu.
– Eustace, in dragon form, fights the sea-serpent.
– Lucy asks Reepicheep for permission to give him a hug.
Now, there’s a line that has cropped up in the Aslan’s Country summary of the footage:
Caspian: “Susan! It’s ok, I’ve got you!”
Lucy: “It’s me, Lucy!”
This line has caused a little bit of a ruckus from some fans in the comments. Here are my thoughts on the issue, for what it’s worth. Siblings look like each other. It’s been a while since Caspian has seen the Pevensies, and only briefly catching a glimpse of Lucy, he merely mistakes her for Susan. This is typical of people in the real world. I volunteer at a youth group that has seen many siblings come through, and it’s scary how much people look like each other. Sometimes people come in and ask if that person is who they think it is. So I think this is pretty much a non-issue. Caspian, seeing Lucy for seconds, believes that it is Susan for a moment. No big deal.
Anyway, I hope that this helps get you excited for The Voyage of the Dawn Treader more than ever. It’s going to be a real treat, and you don’t want to miss it!
i am starting not to care who’s in the move i just want it to come out already!!!!
It’s sounds like it’s going to be a good fun Voyage!
it doesn’t sound terribly scary…again it will depend on context. As long as they leave Aslan’s country and those lines intact, I’ll be happy. I’m really excited though. 😀
well I’m nervous about the seven swords… where the heck did that come from anyway? And The Dragon fighting the serpent is off the storyline, but thats just me being strict… None of it is terribly away from the story line and they aren’t bad changes. Thank you VERY much for giving these spoilers to us!
I think the line about Susan I got you is hilarious! because caspian was just waiting for the day for her to come back! haha but I agree with you Paul about him just getting confused.
The seven swords, I wouldn’t worry about. It came from the fact that the book itself is episodic and doesn’t lend itself to a singular story extremely well.. but having a singular mission helps to link them all the better. You’ll understand it better when you see it.
haha Thanks! It does sound like a good idea… the only thing (as of now) that I’m a little worried about is them combining The sea serpent with Eustace and Deathwater island with dragon island!
I know! I thought we had gotten past that. I thought they said that they took that out because of the whole grace issue!?
That means that Caspian has been fantasizing about his lost love “Lucy” all this time. That’s just disturbing on so many levels. One is tempted to make a joke about the Don Juan in Hell legend where he didn’t know the name of any the women he’d, uh, kissed.
There’s something vaguely unsettling about these spoilers, after so many assurances. I suppose what bothers me most is the impression that Eustace reforms much later, and spends most of the movie as a brat. That’s going to get tiresome.
That’s a very disturbing observation there, gn. I don’t know what gives you that impression of Caspian. I don’t get what brought you to that conclusion.
Well, they ARE famous. If he thought she was Susan, he must have thought the girl he was kissing was Lucy.
That makes no sense whatsoever, dude.
Sigh. I hate having to explain a joke. He thought all this time that the girl he was in love with and kissing was named Lucy.
Even your explanation of the joke doesn’t make sense to me… lol… and I have a great sense of humor. I guess it’s just lost in translation, somewhere. Text is a hard medium to be funny with, and when the joke is a bit crass it is more difficult to land. Especially when we don’t know your set up.
I’m going to take one more stab at this. Since it’s a major plot point that Susan and Lucy look nothing alike, I assumed that the mistake revolved around his having put the wrong name on each of the girls this entire time, since he met them. But from reading here, most people seem to be assuming that he simply wasn’t expecting Lucy to be so old. In which case, why did he assume that they were the Kings and Queens at all? Was Edmund rescued first? If so, his being noticeably older should have been a tip-off. Maybe I’m overthinking this, but my read is, “Oh, I just found someone in the water who (it’s important) looks nothing like Susan – must be Susan.” I’m just not getting the logic of it.
Okay, your second part is correct. It is actually that he caught a quick glimpse of Lucy and immediately thought that she was Susan. It’s a mistake that I have made with some youth group kids little brothers / sisters before. The first assumption that you made is likely just how it all came together in your mind, but likely stops there. 😉
The logic is that Caspian sees someone in the water, that someone reminds him of Susan, and he just assumes that it is her.
Really? Let’s look at the facts.
1. He falls in love with Susan during Prince Caspian.
2. It has probably been 2 years (earth/movie) time, and lucy has grown up.
3. Nothing so far reveals that Lucy kisses Caspian in this movie (blech)
So the first time Caspian sees Lucy (probably in the water when they’re floating up) he mistakes her for Susan, no biggie. Why would he think that he had kissed Lucy?
haha what the crap dude! How would you think they’d do that to the movie! haven’t you seen someone with a younger sibling about a year apart and they both look alike! and it’s easy to confuse them?!
On a serious note, it’s hard to tell whether that throw-away lines plays into or totally submarines the Lucy vanity plot. Did he seriously think for a moment that she was actually Susan, because of her age? You would think she would regard this as flattering and alleviating all her fears about beauty. Or is it a disappointment thing – when he gets a better look he’s disappointed and can see that it’s “plain Lucy”, which would be encouraging from a writing P.O.V.
Good questions that should be answered by the film!
Paul, sorry that you could not go to the screening. Now that I have retired, I would go in a heartbeat if asked.
I agree with you. We die-hards each have our reservations, but it is going to be a great show. I do not sweat the small stuff. It looks like the moral center is there. I am glad to read that Georgie really stepped up to the task.
It’s cool. I’ve seen and done so much already. I fully expect that the World Premiere could be the next big event for me. (It’s the day before my 30th Birthday, lol)
Written Quickly? It took me forever to transcribe all that! ..Ah, well. I thought the clips were pretty self-explanatory. Maybe I’ll add a summary to it tomorrow 🙂
Just wrote the same thing you did, with different words. You were writing quickly as it was on the screen without looking. lol
DEFINITELY don’t want to see the whole Caspian/Lucy “I’ve got you.” “I’m Lucy,” line.
I wasn’t bothered by Susan and Caspian’s kiss in the last film, but I know so many other fans who were IMMENSELY bothered by it. These same fans are also obthered by seeing the White Witch, Peter, and Susan in the trailers.
I’m fine with the witch potentially returning because she was a vital piece to the first film that did well at the box office. Her return, and other elements such as the London scenes, shows a return to these elements in the first film that were lacking in the last films. For Prince Caspian, I think a lot of people went to the theaters thinking they’d get Wardrobe II, and were dissapointed in the change of tone. Hopefully this film incorporates elements from Wardrobe, cinematography from PC (you have to admit it was great) while also being its own masterpiece (retaining the spiritual themes/lines in the book would be nice too).
However…the Caspian and Lucy line is just going to alientate the many book purists who were upset with the Capsian-Susan kiss. This line will probably just be used for a dumb joke, so it’s not vital to the story if it’s taken out. However, for the book purists who are upset that the chronicles are drastically being changed, or Hollywood-ized…this is yet another example to alienate them.
Filmmakers/Michael Apted/Mark Johnson/Andrew Adamson/Douglas Gresham, please remove this line. Thank you!
One more thing about the White Whitch…is she going to be appearing in all films from here on out (I sort of hope not). The book says the Lady of the Green Kirtle in SC is “the same kind” of witch, but not the same one. I hope SC brings a new, fresh female villain, as it would be weird to have Tilda Swinton/the white witch as a villain in these movies for FOUR+ straight films. They could use Tilda for the Magician’s Nephew (even though I imagined Jadis with black hair) though. Also, it’d be cool to see the WW in the last battle as a final victory over all evil. She’d add a different, more magical tone to the villains in that book.
However, in LWW, the main theme was that good triumphs over evil. It’s strange that this evil keeps coming back, even though this looks good cinematically.
I honestly don’t think that the line is as big a deal as people are making it out to be. It’s only a fraction of a second long and then it’s over. It doesn’t do anything the alienate any fans, nor does it effect the overall story. I can tell you right now that the line isn’t going anywhere, as the cut is locked. It’s not a line that will change anything about any of the characters, and the only one that it will effect in a way is Lucy, who we all know (from the book) is having issues with her image. The line may help to push that further. Let’s just not make a mountain out of a mole-hill. Not until we see it in context.
And I do agree with you Paul…I just worry about alienating the fans, and am drawing from my experiences.
Thanks for all you do with this site, I’ve been viewing it since LWW came out. I enjoy reading all of the info/posts.
PS — this has been on my mind lately. Hope your relationship with the REAL Aslan is going well too, and that He is #1 over your whole life. I sometimes have to tell myself to keep things in perspective too. When Disney left the series b/c of PC’s box office (and it looked like the series might not continue), I had to remember that we can’t be obsessed with things that will fall away but have to have the Kingdom of God/Jesus as #1.
CS Lewis has some great other works too, and I sometimes wonder how/if they could be incorporated into this site.
Anyways, God Bless. Hope your new marriage and job are going well!
Eustace fighting the serpent in dragon form? Seven swords to destroy dark island? What in the world? Yeah, no. Oi. *facepalms* It doesn’t inspire much hope for book lovers, but what else is new. Lord willing I’ll see the film at least once…but I’m more wary than ever at this point. I’m NOT impressed.
The first comment has to do with the order of events in the book versus the film, as well as the logic of the characters being where they are when they are. The seven swords story has much to do with a way to connect the story in a way that makes the episodic adventures into one. But then, we’ve talked about book to film translations to death… lol
Dont worry… You’ll love it! I’ve gathered what everyones talking about and I KNOW that it will be awesome!