To promote The Voyage of the Dawn Treader for Christian audiences, the film has partnered with Grace Hill Media. The website NarniaFaith.com was created as a resource for pastors. One feature of the website was the pastors could sign up to see an early screening of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. The requirements were that you had to have a church email address and be a Head Pastor, Pastor, Priest, Small Group Leader, Adult Ministry Leader, or Youth Ministry Leader. This week there were at least 25 different screenings across the country. Click read more to see the early responses Pastors had for the film, some of the comments contain spoilers.
Screenings have been completed in Atlanta, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Houston, Louisville, Minneapolis, Nashville, New York, Orange County, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland, Sacramento, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, Tampa, and Washington, D.C. Walden Media co-founder Michael Flaherty introduced the film and answered questions about the film at the Dallas, Texas screening. In the Denver, Colorado screening Philip Yancey introduced the film.
The majority of the screenings took place Thursday night. Early reactions to the film could be found on twitter by searching for #DawnTreader or by following @SuperTreader who has been organizing screenings and re-tweeting some responses.
NarniaFans.com writers Paul Martin, Copperfox, Michael Thom, and myself (read my comments about the film here) were able to attend screenings of the film last night. Stay tuned to NarniaFans.com for when they will post more about their thoughts about the film here.
Paul Martin wrote over twitter:
@narniafans: “Just saw #DawnTreader, I’m overwhelmed.. that was spectacular and emotional with great character depth and power.”
Michael Thom wrote on Facebook:
“Michael Thom is back from the “Narnia: Dawn Treader” screening. Overall, very impressed. The film is well-paced, the CGI is fantastic, the colors pop – and the ending was left unaltered from the book.”
I posted on Twitter:
@NarniaExpert: “Just saw Voyage of the Dawn Treader again. I enjoyed it, I look forward to seeing it in 3D on December 10, 2010 #dawntreader #narnia“
@AzLisa: “I loved voyage of the dawn treader! i loved seeing ben, skandar and georgie together again! and even a brief minute of william! OUT 12/10!”
@LadyoftheBass: “My brief #DawnTreader review: amaaaazing film!!!!… But purists will die appalled at the re-ordering, lack of Gumpus, Ramandu & history #fb“
Don Spivey is a pastor of The Church At South Lake in Clermont, Fl. He attended the Orlando, Florida screening of the film last night. After watching the film he wrote:
@dspivey: “Went to pre-screening of Narnia: voyage of the dawn treader last night. It’s a must see movie this Dec.#dawntreader”
@dspivey added about one of the spiritual themes in the movie: “Voyage of the dawn treader, ‘No matter how hard I tried 2 change myself, I just couldn’t.’ Eustace says after Aslan changes him frm a dragon”
Tony J. Gapastione is the pastor of Peninsula Covenant Church and attended a screening of the film in California Thursday night. He tweeted:
@tonygapastione: “Just saw a preview of Narnia voyage of the #dawntreader . Amazing. Moving. Symbolic. Crazy/intense action!laughter & crying outta me #fb”
Aaron Harington commented about the film on Facebook:
Aaron Harrington: “Most of the more memorable islands from the book are in the movie, though they’re visited in a different order and two of the most important islands have been combined. It would seem that the writers thought the story needed a unified representation of evil, so they gave it one (you’ll know it when you see it). This felt very out of place for me, but overall I was satisfied with the film because of how much I enjoyed the parts they ‘got right.'”
Jill A. Smith from Stow, Ohio wrote on twitter:
@jillasmith: “Go see Voyage of the Dawn Treader – full of action, suspense and a great message – opens Dec. 10 #dawntreader“
Matt Ferguson from Fort Worth, Texas responded to the film:
@fergieferg30 “Just saw the new Narnia movie #dawntreader, best 1 yet. Excellent adaptation. Perfect family movie. Great job @waldenmedia #fb“
Jacob Gerry from San Diego, California wrote:
@thesubverse: “Just got done seeing #dawntreader too short, otherwise it was good”
Ryan Black tweeted:
@rblack20: “Just saw the new Narnia movie. One of the best movies I’ve ever seen. Go see #dawntreader !!”
First! And I was quoted!
I’m glad to see so many positive responses to the movie! I’ve been following them on Twitter too.
Even though I haven’t seen the whole movie yet, I can still give it a positive review, can’t I? 😉
I love the book and I know I love the movie!
I went with my dad, who is a pastor, on Thursday to see it!
It was good! Sadly it was nothing like the book. But the visual effects were pretty cool!
And the acting was much better then in the last movie!
To say it “was nothing like the book” does the movie a great disservice. The movie contains everything that I remember from the book, having last read it about 5 years ago or so, and listening to the audio drama a year ago. For it to be “nothing” like the book, it would have to be a movie like “The Princess Bride” with the title changed to “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.”
really? umm i’m curious….how many times have you read the book?
I’m a very slow reader. I’ve read it straight through once, but over the years I’ve likely read it a vast number of times when working on things for this website. I read books like some people watch movies: once. Because when I read a book, I read every word to make sure I understand completely. Because I’m a slow reader, I pick books very carefully to read, and can rarely read a book more than one time. If this, to you, means that my opinion should not matter, then I would have to ask why? Why is it that we would rank fandom on the sheer number of times a book was read? That’s something I’ve heard that Twilight and Harry Potter fans have done in the past, we don’t need that kind of thing happening among Narnia fans.
Quality before Quantity! I think you are doing a great job Paul… I think I will be a little disappointed in the storyline changes but at least it will follow the MAIN storyline… and plus: didn’t all the other stuff in the movie make up for that?! (CGI, Acting, etc.)
The acting and everything they got right makes up for any additions or changes that were done to unify the episodic story.
I have read PC and LWW several times. PC was very close to the book. The main change was the castle raid. This worked very well in the movie and was not any further from the book than LWW’s waterfall scene.
The waterfall scene was like a scene that could have been left out of the book. The Castle Raid was not. PC did not come very close to the book, especially with Peter’s attitude and Suspian. These aren’t even hinted at in the book, and are inappropriate changes in my opinion. The other changes aren’t as bad, and are almost necessary, but still, they changed the plot a lot even without those two big changes.
But Arvan they have to add SOME stuff to the book… as in Peter and Susans attitude! I mean if they didn’t mention it then they would have to give them personalities from scratch.
All the key parts of the book were there so it was not “nothing like the book”, but this was much further from the book than LWW or PC.
If it has all the key parts of the book, I wouldn’t say it was farther from the book than PC.
Three words,”Evil Green Smokemonster” (Is Smokemonster one word or two?)
This is not a new spoiler, read the Scholastic Script and it will detail the role that “Green Myst” plays in the movie.
PC was a faithful adaptation. The only changes were that they added a castle raid scene and changed the ordering.
I beg to differ. Most people, myself included, believe that PC was NOT a faithful adaptation, and the ones who do think so are in the sore minority. That said, the people who believe that will not want to see the movie if people say that PC was a faithful adaptation while Dawn Treader is not.
From what I’ve seen, Dawn Treader is more faithful to the book than PC ever could be, and I’ve read both at least 5 times.
My dad would have gone to the screening, but didn’t have the right e-mail address (which I thought was a stupid rule!), but looking forward to it on the 10th.
The smoke isn’t a monster…
I agree completely with Aravis Kenobi. The Dawn Treader looks like it’s got most of the book and more. Prince Caspian had less of the book and more. I’ve accepted Prince Caspian painfully. Dawn Treader looks a lot better to me, but I’ll know better when I see it.
Like my mom said: You have to go see a movie in the mind set of the movie… not the book! Because they are never going to make a movie perfectly to the storyline… If you’ve read the LOTR books and THEN seen the movies… you can tell it is VERY different from the book! but they are still GREAT movies! I hope you all take this advice.
Prince Caspian movie has a lot of cool plot stuff in it which is implicit, not explicit. Only thing is it probably helps to know the book with this, while at the same time being different from the book. And you have to be quite present when watching (or immersed..) to really appreciate some stuff that you might otherwise not pick up on.
Like Trumpkin the dwarf being captured by the Telmarines when Caspian is clearly being chased, yet he finds that Maraz is telling the other Lords that Caspian was abducted by the Narnians…hmmm …& the Narnians in the movie all know about the horn, as Badger is telling Caspian they should wait for the Kings and Queens of old on way to eventual night meeting while Nikabrik is saying Caspian’s gonna get it ( which nearly happens ) ..so when Caspian & Pevensies finally meet, without explictily covering it, you know how both Peter & Caspian know who the other is and the over all situation.
Through most of the movie, there is quite a real connection to scenes before hand, one following the other, but you have to be quite present when watching to really absorb all of it but it is rewarding.
And the plot device of Peter having been corrupted( even though he is well meaning) from the good that he experienced in his golden age of just high kingship in Narnia, becomes very interesting when parralled against Maraz who is at the point of being an out and out tyrant in rule over the Telmarines, and Caspian who gets corrupted by wanting revenge as well as the draw of his own rightful kingship as an end to itself. All three characters are on kinda different points of a political pull here, and it’s kinda a cool plot addition, contrasting the arrival of Aslan and the deeper magic which pulls Narnia, & some of the character arcs, back together beyond issues of kingship etc
They did a great job really.
oh yay!
ohh i’m glad that some of you got to go to screenings of the movie of VODT and enjoyed it i’m glad to hear the main themes were in the movie 🙂
I am hopeful about “Dawn Treader” but after the disastrous mess that was made of “Prince Caspian” I am hesitant too.
“Caspian” failed at the box office because it broke faith with the readers of the book and ruined so much – and left out even more. The previews of “Dawn Teader” look good, but we’ll soon know.
Fox does have a history of changing book-to-film adaptations drastically…
It is probably not *fox* that changes the story, but the director.