NarniaFans Mailbag #35: Skandar Keynes, Georgie Henley, Indiana Jones, and Harry Potter vs. Narnia

We now present to you, this week’s mailbag. I’m losing track of the days of the week these days. It’s been one crazy week, that’s for sure! Look out for Kansas City’s Union Station launch of The Narnia Exhibition, opening tomorrow! A press release will be available shortly. Just to give you the heads up on other stories that I’m working on: both involve Narnia art. Look for those as well, this evening. Let’s get to the letter answering!

Q: Hi! First, I wanted to tell you that I think the Mailbag is a really cool feature! Now, on to my question. Recently, someone asked what William and Anna were doing lately. What have Skandar Keynes and Georgie Henley have been up to? Thanks a lot!

-Tarwe, the Narnian Elf

Paul: Thanks, Tarwe. I think it’s a really cool feature as well! As for Skandar Keynes and Georgie Henley… well… they’ve not been sitting around doing nothing. No. They’ve been sitting around doing school. Yes, friends, they are normal human beings just like the rest of us. At the time of the Prince Caspian press week in New York last year, Skandar was studying for a huge test that all British children have to take. It’s a test that determines a lot about your future schooling, kind of like the SAT or ACT here in the United States. Georgie has also been attending school, while both have been waiting for the start of filming on The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Part of what is keeping both young actors grounded in reality is not doing too many film projects, and keeping focused on education. Another thing that Skandar has been doing is helping out with a wildlife / environmental conservation effort, called connect2earth.

Now it’s time to answer another old e-mail… maybe a few… we’ll see how this goes.

Q: I’ve noticed that the mailbag hasn’t been up lately…I’ve missed it. Anyway, I’m really excited by how far the Narnia team is coming along in Prince Caspian…do you think there could be a possible trailer release in November or December of this year? And do you think the release of Indiana Jones 4 will hurt PC’s box office earnings any?

-Stephanie

Paul: We missed it too! But here we are again. As you can tell this question is really old! Anyway, yeah… the trailer came out in December of 2007 (the year the e-mail was written)! As for what happened with the box office… Indiana Jones 4 did hurt Prince Caspian‘s overall box office take, as did Iron Man. Indiana Jones was released a mere 6 days after Prince Caspian giving it a day less than usual to make some extra cash. It might have only been a few million dollars more, but that’s the kind of thing that could have created a domino effect. If the right audience sees a film, and spreads the word, then a movie can go on to make more. That extra day could have brought in a group of people that may have otherwise missed the film. They may have really enjoyed it, and seen it again. I think that both Prince Caspian and Indiana Jones catered to the same audience, with similar styles of action.

Of course, this is a lot of what-ifs, and things we’ll never know the answer to. But based on word-of-mouth and box office histories, you can piece things together pretty easily sometimes. It may have done better with that extra day… but it’s unlikely it would have been more than a few million better.

Q: Hello! Your site is absolutely amazing. But I have a question for you and other Narnia fans on this site. What is your opinion of the Harry Potter films in comparison to the Narnia films? I’m personally a fan of both movies but I like Harry Potter better. But I just wanted to know you guys’ opinion on this topic. Thanks so much, and I hope you have the time to reply!

-Matt Clipp

Paul: Good question, Matt! Harry Potter vs. Narnia. That’s sure to bring in some debate, but I’m going to venture a guess and say that the debate will be informed mostly by the readers of the books, and book-to-film comparisons, rather than the films taken on their own merits. I’m going to write based on the films, and not the books.

Let’s get this out of the way, right away: I’ve never read a Harry Potter book. The most exposure I’ve had to Rowling’s writing has been when I flipped through Order of the Phoenix to learn who died (didn’t see what the fuss was about) and listening to the audio version of Deathly Hallows because I knew it would probably be spoiled before the movie came out.

Now that you know where I’m coming from, it helps put things into perspective for how I have felt about the movies thus far. There are some Harry Potter fans that feel I have no business in judging the films, having not read the books, but to them I say “you have no business judging the films, having your own bias on what the outcome should be.” Controversial? Yes, but no more controversial than telling one that loves film as I that he has no business judging a film on its’ own merits.

I’m going to go through each film in the series one by one:

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Philosopher’s Stone) – Not a fan… I thought it was rather dry and not very magical a story… and the cinematography was rather lacking. The only thing it really had going for it was the score by John Williams. Chris Columbus does a great job of Christmas themed elements in movies, but that was the only thing that stood out in this film… because it was reminiscent of his Home Alone films. Home Alone 1 and 2 each apart had more magic than this and the next Harry Potter film combined.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets – Is it strange that I don’t remember this one? Nor the threat to Harry’s life? I only really remember thinking that Dobby sounded a lot like Jar Jar Binks and I wondered why I was the only person that felt that way. I wondered why nobody felt betrayed by that, as they are geared toward the same audience. Then I remembered that Star Wars is an institution that had no Jar Jar prior to Episode I, but Dobby was an established and well-liked character… apparently. I couldn’t see why, and I dread his return to the films. That’s about all I remember, though.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – This is the first truly great film in the series. It’s the first one that I bought, and it was the first time that the films had managed to capture magic on celluloid. The addition of Gary Oldman to the cast gave the film added weight, and the story was fun and entertaining to follow. Not to mention the fact that Dumbledore, for the first time, was the Dumbledore that I had heard he was from a friend a few years earlier. Until this point, Dumbledore was portrayed so meek that it made me wonder what made him so powerful. He wasn’t like the Yoda of Attack of the Clones, but rather closer to the Yoda of Return of the Jedi. The Dumbledore of this film, however, brought life to the character. Could it be that this, the one adventure so far without Voldemort, is proof that Voldemort was a villain that did not capture my interest? Could it have been the obvious Ringwraith rip-offs, the Death Eaters that made this film so good? I didn’t know, and the next film wouldn’t do much to answer those questions. The new director on this film breathed life into it that Columbus hadn’t.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire – This had dragons and adventure… why wouldn’t it be great? Well, it seemed to be a Cliff Notes version of the book without explanation. This is the one time in the series so far that I think had I read the books I might have gotten more out of the motion picture version. There was a lot of stuff happening and a lot of flash and pizazz and not a lot of substance. What’s more, Voldemort appears and does little else than talk too much again. Granted, if a villain ever did anything to the hero of the story toward his goals without meandering on pointless diatribes of what could be done, it would be The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars or Narnia. In each of these films, the villain is bent on his goals and will either send the hero to his death, or, should the hero prove worthy, offer a position to the hero to join the villain (as is the case in Star Wars as well as Narnia).

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix – Finally, it seems that Voldemort has finished his verbal presentation, and sees fit to break Harry down. This one, thankfully, has a new director and a simplified story that was easier to follow. The dark story was closer to the themes of the third film, and I did end up purchasing this one as well. The direction on this one kept things moving toward a satisfying finish, and made me happy that the same director would work on the following three films.

So for me, so far the series is two for three, with only two good films and three bad films. It’s headed in the right direction, though, based on the trailers for Half-Blood Prince. However, it’s going to be tough to look at Dumbledore this time around and not see him as the Gandalf rip-off that he appears to be.

As for the Narnia films: you could read my reviews of each film to get my thoughts, but in quick summary, I loved both, and cannot even watch the BBC versions of the stories any more. I felt they did a great job of telling the stories, and the both hold their own as films apart from the books. Thus far, you can understand what is going on in each of the films very easily, and they both have magical elements to them, and manage to capture my imagination right from the title screens. In the first film, it was the scene at the train station that drew me into the adventure, and in the second it was Caspian’s ride across the fields. In both, the music soared to great heights, both unique scores for fantasy films, thanks to the efforts of Harry Gregson-Williams.

To this end, I find the Narnia films both much more satisfying than the Harry Potter films that I like, and infinitely more-so than those I do not. Granted, this question was asked about nine months prior to the release of Prince Caspian, so the answer may have been a little different then, but not very.