I’ve now seen The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader a total of five times. Yes. Five. I have yet to post my review of the film, because I’ve written such a long review that I need to edit and add more to. (I just want to address my thoughts thoroughly.)
Anyway, Narnia fan Carl McColman has written a fantastic article about the film, after he watched the movie for a second time. He goes in-depth into the smaller character moments that the film captures, including the character arcs for Reepicheep and Eustace.
Here’s an excerpt from the article, which you can read in full, here.
Here’s my point: C. S. Lewis’s ‘Dawn Treader’ is a deeply contemplative book, concerned with inner transformation throughout the spiritual life. Michael Apted’s ‘Dawn Treader’, constrained by the limitations of his cinematic art, necessarily downplays the contemplative dimension and instead emphasizes how the characters relate to one another and their shared struggle against evil or injustice. The book gives a lengthy description of the sheer beauty to be found in the last sea, as the Dawn Treader nears Aslan’s Country (heaven), whereas the film (rightly so, I believe) offers only a hint of that profoundly contemplative experience. But if we dismiss the movie because of these kinds of changes, we risk missing treasures found in the film alone. For example, the delightful and nuanced friendship that develops between Reepicheep, the valiant talking Mouse (and the only character in either book or film to complete the journey to Aslan’s Country) and Eustace, the spoiled and naughty British school boy who undergoes a dramatic conversion experience in Narnia, all the way down to his reptilian brain. C. S. Lewis only hints at how Reep and Eustace interact, but in the film their blossoming relationship serves as the benchmark by which Eustace’s spiritual growth can be measured.
yeah, i’ve watched it twice already after reading the book and intend to catch it at least 1 more time. the movie is very entertaining, gets better each time and carries a great message. my nieces have watched it 4x so far and wish to break their own record by watching it 6x. one of them tweeted georgie henley and told her so. georgie thought that’s awesome. i agree that all Narnia fans should catch it on big screen several times to support the movie. hence, long live Aslan and Narnia!
yes!!!
Thanks for this article even if I don’t understand everything because it’s not in french :). Sorry for the errors.
But in all book and this film we can see a lot parallels with God and the christian life. There is a lot of comparison: ( temptation, tests, conflict against injustice, endless life, paradise..). It’s very nice. And I hope the next films will be more spiritually.
Well, I’ve seen the Voyage of the Dawn Treader 4 times! On December 3 and 10 in 3D, both Friday and see it again on 15 and 17 in 2D. =)
Lucky…. I have a big family & I still don’t have my driver’s license…. so it’s REALLY hard for me to get out to the movies. Have seen it twice in 2D already, though, & am taking my little sister to see it in 3D for her birthday. 🙂
i think that the voyage of the dawn treader was better than any other movie that i saw of the chronicles of Narnia. i rate 5 as the best cause it was awesome
i think that you should watch the voyage of the dawn treader because ….. it is the number 1 movie in america for all of the people who likes chronicle of Narnia so that why i recomand that you watch chronicles of Narnia the voyage of the dawn treader.
if you love watching the chronicles of nornia
please watch it on fallowing dates
dec.24,25,21,& the 20 jan.1,5,7,20,23, & the 4
I’ve seen it 3 times. I’m planning on seeing it this week-end with a friend who hasn’t seen it yet. I’m planning on giving tickets to the movie as Christmas presents.
I saw the midnight release in 3-d, then again on Saturday. I’m going to see it again on Tuesday. Hopefully I can take my father to see it later, as he has been looking forward to it but hasn’t had a chance to go to the theaters yet. Maybe I can host I party of Narnia fans in my area where we all see the movie.
tickets for xmas presents is a great idea!!!
I’ve seen it once… And I’m not expecting to see it again (in theaters), I’ll watch it on DVD (hopefully buy it) But I thought a lot of the movie was cheesy…
And don’t get me wrong, I’ve been a narnia fan sense almost day one, I LOVED LWW and PC! I really didn’t care for VOTDT, my biggest fear is that Apted will stay on board and ruin the next movie, I’ve gotten that acusasion because first, my brother thought the same thing second, I’ve also noticed on the reviews Apted was lower in shields, I just hope he doesn’t add anything stupid.
You really need to broaden your horizon a bit. Not in a bad way, but in sympathetic way. I have been thinking the same way since I heard that Apted, Fox, and David Arnold if that is his name were taking over, I feared the worst. Then only months ago, I was beginning to see hope for Narnia. I haven’t yet seen it, so I can’t say much about it, but I’m sure the magic is restored and will finally gain the attention it deserves.
Well thats how I was too, I was scared he would ruin the movie then I saw hope, I got all excited and then I saw the movie, and Apted did mess up the scenes that he added.
Or he didn’t mess up the scenes that he added. After seeing the film 5 times, I can tell you that I am okay with the additions. I think they take some time to grow on you, but you start to notice the little nuances of the scenes and how the performances were constructed. I think it’s a matter of living with it for a while and knowing that it’s there and looking at it with a different perspective than “it’s an addition that Lewis didn’t write, so I hate it.”
P.S. Patrick, I hope I didn’t build your hopes up too much. Trust me on this: the movie does get better with each screening. I’ve lived with the seven swords story for over a year, and the green mist for almost as long. I have known that there were some major things that purists would have a lot of trouble accepting. I’ve also got confidence in the fan community, that we can accept change for what it is, and be able to look past the movie that we each have in our heads, and see the movie for what it is. I believe Caspian might have said it best at the end of the film. I don’t remember it exactly, so I’ll paraphrase. “I spent so long worrying about what I’d lost, instead of accepting what I’ve been given.” It doesn’t mean that we have to accept everything or love everything, just that if we look at it for what it is, we might find treasure there that we might not have noticed otherwise.
well I DID like some of the changes, Me AND my friends thought the swords were cool, I liked the scene where Lucy was SPOILER: Susan : SPOILER. So I wasn’t mad about all the stuff. Thanks for the inspiration by the way, It’s helping, I definitely won’t be able to get my family to the theaters again, but, I will definitely get the DVD! And I hope you are right, about it growing on me!
My greatest fear is: If VOTDT wasn’t AWESOME than Will SC be much better. For example, spiderman 1 and 2 were excelant until the third. All the Star wars were Awesome until the 2nd and 3rd. It seems to me that almost ALL the squeals go down hill the more there are!
Well, consider that Spider-Man is based on a comic book series, and there are a thousand stories that could be told. Also consider that, with Star Wars, the general consensus is typically that Empire Strikes Back is the best of the originals, and that Revenge of the Sith is the best of the prequels. Film 2 and film 3, respectively.
Also consider that Narnia is based on something. It has source material that is already written. We know what we can expect from the storyline. It’s just how well it translates to film that is in question, and if we get a director that has the vision to bring that material to the screen in the best way possible.
Nobody sets out to make a movie like this and says to themselves “I think I want to make a bad movie out of this material.”
haha! well I guess all we can do is pray that they make it, and that it is made good! This is kind of random, but hows your life with Courtney going Paul?
I’ve seen it 3 times, and I still can’t get enough! I may have to see it again…
I still have yet to see it. Getting my family to see it is pretty hard because they are so annoying about making plans and in the end they are last minute people. My brother only cares about work when he comes home, my dad doesn’t like movies anymore, though he likes C.S. Lewis, and my mom well she doesn’t like fantasy and on top of it her dad passed away. So it is even harder to get them to see it. My chances of seeing it more than once in theaters is going to pretty slim.
i´ve seen it 6 times and want more i don´t know how i make myself time cuz my work and the university keeps me already bussy all day but i don´t care i´ll go to see it again during the month maybe 3 more times.
and for me the book was excelent as all of then with the message and the way how lewis describe some things but be realistic some part of the book was for children like the sea serpent i mean just push it out of the dawn theader and that´s it and i thing dark island have more sense than just enter and then get out was wear, i think eustace fight with the sea serpent the dark island just be enchanted and the way how aslan turn him as a boy again in the movie was excelent and all magic they put into and magician island desing was cool than in the book of course i´m not agree that between ramundu´s island dark island and the flowers before aslans country where to close and i don´t like it cuz i felt it was like fighting with the time
sorry it´s if is to long but it´s how i see and that´s why it´s really popular in peru more than harry potter and i´m dying they change some things in silver chair like they really visit de center of the world, and a couple more stuff and i a little worried with the hourse and the boy(i love the book)and the plot is something that people saw in other films (they will think that cuz they don´t read the book), and if narnia becomes popular people will expect more magic and wonderfull places,that there is not much in this book so will have the same problem like caspian (i love the movie and book too)and the last too books be will stuning as movies, and sorry if it´s too long!!!!!
No offence, but your reply could really use some punctuation; it was hard to read.
I’ve just gotten home from seeing the movie for the first time (loved it!! I paid for my family to see it as an early Christmas present)!!
Hey I will be seeing the film tonight with my brother at 10:25. Should I buy the tickets now or I can just get them when we are at the theater?
The review captures my thoughts exactly. I loved the contemplative nature of the Dawn Treader book but if you separate the movie from the book, you can find many things that also are wonderful.
Just got done seeing The Voyage of the Dawn Treader for the second time in 3D today, and it was immensely better now that I had gotten over the changes ; )
I’m pretty sure it might be my favorite Narnia movie now…
I’m gonna watch it again next wednesday with my friends 😛
i’ve seen it twice in 2D (on opening day) and once in 3D! it gets better every time! and i hope i can see it at least once more!!! i saw PC 4 times so i would really like to go 5 times 🙂
paul, i couldn’t reply to your comment above, replying to patrick, but i just want to say ditto!!! totally agree with you regarding changes to the story!
i’m ok with the changes because what is ok for books might not be suitable for movies so i’m cool with it. going to watch the movie again this weekend
I agree we should all see this one more than once. A lot of important points go by fairly quickly in the film but should become more evident upon repeat viewings. I still don’t think that all these excessive changes were truly “necessary”; however, it’s still a very good film and should be admired for its own merits. I loved Reepicheep and Eustace in the film too, and I now very much want to see what Will Poulter will do with Eustace in The Silver Chair.
Let’s all buy the DVD and Blu-Ray too! I’m actually pretty eager to see what this will look like on Blu-Ray.