Focus on the Family’s Plugged In has released their detailed assessment of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. This spoiler filled summary of the film is designed to help families determine if The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is age appropriate for their children. The article written by Paul Asay (the same writer who wrote this story about me five years ago) can be found by clicking here.
Plugged In had this to say about the violence in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader:
“Dawn Treader’s action sequences, though frequent, don’t wander far afield from those found in classic swashbucklers starring Errol Flynn. And they’re far less traumatic than those seen in the previous Narnia film, Prince Caspian. There are swordfights aplenty, and a few slave traders are thrown off buildings or take tumbles into the drink. But there’s no blood and no painfully obvious deaths.
There is, however, a pretty scary sea serpent that attacks the Dawn Treader as it sails toward Dark Island. The serpent is toothy, ugly and ever so mean, and it might well frighten younger moviegoers right out of their landlubber shoes. Also, Eustace, as a dragon, gets stabbed with a sword, and we see the remains of some of the lords Caspian is searching for. (One of them has been turned into a statue of gold. Another is a skeleton.)”
Plugged In concluded the article by saying:
“If The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was cautious and Prince Caspian grim,The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is, quite simply, fun—a cinematic adventure that retains the spirit (both literarily and theologically) of Lewis’ original treasure. It even, incredibly, gives audiences a hint of his humor. As such, it is without question the best of the series so far.”
MovieGuide.org also analyzed the film they summarized the content of the movie (including spoilers) as:
“Strong Christian worldview diminished by magic though the magic is often rebuked, with very strong moral elements, including kindness, compassion, loyalty, real love stressed, and selfishness rebuked, but girl fights in battle against C.S. Lewis’ beliefs; no foul language; strong action violence includes sword battles, attacks by monsters including dragon and sea serpent, people hurt falling, man turned to gold by falling into a lake, boy transformed into dragon and painfully changed back into a human, slaves are roughed up, slaves sent as a sacrifice to the green mist; no sex; fawns and creatures have upper male nudity, but nothing explicit; no alcohol; no smoking; and, green mist preys on people’s sin nature and selfishness.”
Movie Guide gave the film a four star rating for overall quality and a “1+” rating for acceptability meaning that the film is worthwhile as long as there is some discretion for younger viewers. The full MovieGuide.org assessment can be viewed by clicking here.
The end battle with the sea serpent may be a bit intense for very young children, but I highly recommend bringing the entire family to see this movie on Saturday.
I honestly think the stuff with the mist would be the worst- at least for my kids. My 6-year-old was (surprisingly to me) traumatized when the king and queen disappear in Shrek. I suppose it seems more of a fear that could somehow come true. (he has premonistic dreams and fears losing me for instance)… the violence they can handle. We got enough CSI and LOTR to keep us from being squeamish
My Daughter 8 and Son 10, watched the movie with us and in no way were fased by any of the scenes. The battle with the sea serpent was for me the worst. Real life in this world is sometimes more scary that a Voyage on the Dawn Treader
Haha David, I seriously just got on the computer right now to post this exact same article. I think this review from Pluggedin is my favorite review yet! Here’s the best line from the whole thing:
“Reviewing some films, we say right up front that there’s “too much blood” or “too much sex” to catalogue it fully. Here, we have a more unique issue: There’s too much positivity to adequately deal with in this space.”
The mist really creeped me out in the movie.
The myst creeped me out too, but not because it was creepy. The myst was a very very bad idea. I don’t know what the film makers were thinking.
went to see Dawn Treader Friday – one word EPIC. I did get a little freaked out at the Serpent mainly because it was so ugly and it was frightning when it opened up but it was brill – skandar had amazing “jack sparrow” stunts – it involved a rope and some dangling off the side of the dawn treader
Took 5 year old granddaughter and 4 year old grandson. both had watched previous 2 movies. Both loved the movie. They know dragons and sea serpents are not real. GREAT MOVIE. Can’t wait to see the Silver Chair
I think this movie seems to be targeted at 3 to 7 year olds! I want the old Narnia back, that’s the two previous ones!