Changes from VDT book to film ** Spoilers **

inkspot

inkspot

Beloved Disciple
Royal Guard
Emeritus
OK, here is where we discuss the changes they made between the book and the film. I took the pledge not to read the book in the month prior to the film so I would not be too attached to specifics in the book (thanks AK), so I don't have anything like a list. I will say what I noticed right off, and what I think of it:

1. They deleted Lord Bern's heroism and the whole Governor Gumpas incident and replaced it with the slave trading having wiped out (it looked like) most of the island, and with the arrival of "the mist."

I like that business with Gumpas in the book, but I also liked the way they handled it in the film, although I missed the sentimental part of Lord Bern's story.

2. They compressed islands, making Eustace become a dragon on Death Water island.

I understand why they did this, and I like how they handled the actual Death Water scene, the little tension between Ed and Caspian, etc. I didn't like not seeing how Eustace actually became a dragon, and I would have liked to see that. I am afraid people who haven't read the book might not understand it.

3. They added the mist, and the quest for the swords.

I didn't mind this, I think it helped to unify the adventure and drive the story. it was a big video-game-ish, but I liked that it gave Eustace a heroic thing to do at the end.

4. Caspian went to the end of the world with them.

I didn't mind that, either, because there was nothing in the script that forbade his going, as there was in the book, and his promise to be a better king there at world's end was nice and touching. I would have liked for Lucy or Ed to remind him that he ahd practically promised Ramandu's daughter he would return! That would have been cute.

5. Aslan wasn't a lamb who turned into a lion.

I wish it had been possible, but I loved the ending so much, I really didn't mind this at all. I felt like they were very true to the book's intentions.

OK, what do you think? And what else do you remember?
 
I was OK with the fact that Aslan didn't turn into a lamb. I was so touched by that scene that I forgot to be bothered. :p

I was displeased with Lord Bern. But other than that, the slave trader scenes were pretty cool. More cinematic than in the book. They worked very well, and don't upset me very much.

At first, I panicked that Caspian was going with them to the end of the world. But now I see that it's really not that bad. The same objective was achieved, so it wasn't necessary for him to stay behind on the ship. It worked really well to have him come along, and was really touching.

Of all these changes, the only one that REALLY made me angry was how they changed Lord Bern. I don't know why, since it's not like I ever loved him in the book. It's just that I can justify the other changes and they make sense, while this one seems obtrusive.
 
I promised to reserve a review until after I'd seen it again, but I will comment here; I didn't like Lord Bern's role either. First of all, I didn't imagine him being that old. The others, yes, because they (especially Lord Rhoop and the 3 lords at Aslan's table) were in situations where they aged quite a lot. You know how odd it is that after Dark Island, we don't hear anymore about Rhoop? I wasn't happy with the Lords.

I also wasn't happy with how little time the Duffers had in the movie, nor did I like Coriakin. I always imagined Coriakin as being more of a dwarf-like character, not a human.
I didn't care for the slave traders scenes either. Why? It was way too rushed. I didn't mind the mist, but I DID mind the whole "sacrifice to the mist" bit. What the heck?!

But like I said, I'll have to see it again to be sure I don't like those bits, and to refresh my memory.
 
Oh the Duffers scenes were severely shortened from the book, and that was a shame. I would hav preferred they stayed closer to the book with them. But i still liked what we did see of them. It didn't make sense the way they did that island, either, to go on shore just to sleep, and then for no one to wake up when the Duffers were bounding around? Caspian would have set a watch, and of course Edmind would have been awakened by that pounding. The whole thing would have worked best had they left it in the movie the way it was in the book. The idea that they wanted to kidnap a girl because she would be easier to force her to do what they wanted was ok, but it should have happened as it did in the book -- or else they could have swooped down on Lucy when she fell behind her party, as she did in the book.
 
All good points. I'm trying to come up with the major change from book to movie... I had been looking forward to this movie reminding me more of the feeling I got when I first watched LWW, the intense emotion as I saw that story brought to life on the screen, and it stayed true to the story. And while I liked PC, I didn't feel that intense emotion, the feeling of deep belief in Aslan as a symbol of Jesus Christ. I did feel it again in Dawn Treader, but not to the extent as I did with LWW. One big change I felt from book to movie was the change of conflict. In the book, Dark Island was only one of several somewhat loosely connected or even unrelated adventures in which the protagonists learned more and more about themselves and the quest for Aslan's country, and in the movie Dark Island became the focal point of evil that all good characters were battling against. I really felt like the book's intended conflict was more a Man vs. Himself conflict, a journey of self-discovery, and Dark Island was only one aspect of it. In the movie, the conflict changed to Man vs. Supernatural Evil. Ramandu's daughter's comment that the evil will soon become uncontrollable or some such statement emphasized this change in conflict. How important is this change? I'm not sure, I don't think it destroys the integrity of the book, but it does de-emphasize what I think Lewis intended as the real quest of the Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
 
You're right! I felt deep, exhilarating emotion when I watched VDT, just like I did with LWW. It was overwhelming gladness, not just the excitement of the moment. I got excited during PC because it was a cool movie. But I was never overwhelmed with feeling.
 
Nice to see you here, GSM. I agree with you in prnciple, but I think the idea that the evil drove the kids to their temptation made it both a supernatural evil power and a way for the kids to examine their own hearts and motives and overcome the temptation, at the same time. I think it worked ok. And I agree that the Narnia "magic" was back; especially at the ending, I thought it was beautifully done and fully in the spirit of the book. That kind of thing was lacking in PC film.
 
One of my daughter's friends, who had not read the book, was momentarily confused by one of the movie changes, namely how Eustace told Edmund that he was a dragon.

When she saw the scene of Eustace-Dragon flying over the flaming hillsides, she thought the words spelled out:
I ATE EUSTACE

When she told us about her misreading after the movie, we laughed and laughed!
 
inkspot said:
Nice to see you here, GSM. I agree with you in prnciple, but I think the idea that the evil drove the kids to their temptation made it both a supernatural evil power and a way for the kids to examine their own hearts and motives and overcome the temptation, at the same time. I think it worked ok. And I agree that the Narnia "magic" was back; especially at the ending, I thought it was beautifully done and fully in the spirit of the book. That kind of thing was lacking in PC film.
Click to expand...

Not to mention, whether this was intentional or not, the spiritual warfare evident in Dawn Treader is something that Christians deal with every day. That wasn't conveyed in the book.

I think I prefer that better actually; considering the spiritual warfare going on in the world today, it was good to see that portrayed on screen.
 
Benisse said:
One of my daughter's friends, who had not read the book, was momentarily confused by one of the movie changes, namely how Eustace told Edmund that he was a dragon.

When she saw the scene of Eustace-Dragon flying over the flaming hillsides, she thought the words spelled out:
I ATE EUSTACE

When she told us about her misreading after the movie, we laughed and laughed!
Click to expand...

Oh my goodness! That is absolutely hilarious!!!! :D I just love some of the people's responses who have never read the books. They are too great sometimes!!! :)
 
<Turkish Delight> said:
Oh my goodness! That is absolutely hilarious!!!! :D I just love some of the people's responses who have never read the books. They are too great sometimes!!! :)
Click to expand...
Yes, they really are!!!! :D That story really made me smile. Had I not known in advance what the dragon had written, I would have had trouble making it out.
 
There weren't a whole lot of changes from the book that bothered me; mainly the lack of time the duffers were there, the fact that there was an island called Ramadu's island but no Ramandu (or birds that came each day with the feast and his berry for that matter)and it bugged me as well that they changed Bern's character from the book. The arrangement of the islands was kind-of annoying too. It seemed unnatural that the Magician's island was first and it threw me off balance when I thought the first island beyond the Lone Islands was the dragon/deathwater island and it turned out not to be.:rolleyes:

I didn't mind the mist and Dark Island too much because it gave the movie a bigger plot to follow or a plot a movie could follow at all. The Dawn Treader book has a book-plot, the movie changed that plot so that it could be made into a movie-plot so I was fine that they changed it. Except one thing concerned me- is the fact that the mist is green somehow forshadowing the Lady of the Green Kirtle in the (hopefully) next movie? That concerned me a bit.... But I suppose I'll wait and see, just a thought.


At any rate I understand why they made most of the changes from the book and I do believe that the Narnian magic in The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe was brought back from the depths of the Eastern Ocean where it had sunk to with Prince Caspian.:)
 
At any rate I understand why they made most of the changes from the book and I do believe that the Narnian magic in The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe was brought back from the depths of the Eastern Ocean where it had sunk to with Prince Caspian.
Click to expand...

Clever. :D

When I first heard that the moviemakers were, in a sense, 'borrowing' from TSC's plot, I just about had a heart attack. :rolleyes: But honestly, it wasn't that bad at all.
 
Aravis Kenobi said:
Not to mention, whether this was intentional or not, the spiritual warfare evident in Dawn Treader is something that Christians deal with every day. That wasn't conveyed in the book.

I think I prefer that better actually; considering the spiritual warfare going on in the world today, it was good to see that portrayed on screen.
Click to expand...

I really like this poin, aravis. Its so true, it seemed that most of the changes had very redeemable qualities :)
 
MissReepicheep said:
Clever. :D

When I first heard that the moviemakers were, in a sense, 'borrowing' from TSC's plot, I just about had a heart attack. :rolleyes: But honestly, it wasn't that bad at all.
Click to expand...

I didn't see anything borrowed from TSC; maybe I missed something.

Mozart, while there were no actual birds, did you notice the bird statues on Ramandu's Island? I thought that was a nice nod to the birds in the book.
 
Because of the added spiritual warfare, I found the movie very edifying. :)

EDIT: overposted: AK, they didn't really borrow... the whole green mist thing isn't really related to TSC. But in an earlier interview, it sure sounded like they were saying that VDT had borrowed plot elements from the next book.

I didn't notice the birds. :o I'll keep any eye out for them next time I see the movie. ;)
 
I didn't think about the green mist foreshadowing the LotGK, but that would work, actually, because she would have a grudge against Caspian already since he defeated her dark island/mist.

AK, I think I agree with you that the film adds, for believers, a dimension to the book, the dimension of temptation and defeating evil in your own heart/life. That is somewhate incorporated in the book with Lucy and the spell book and the boys on Death Water, but they made it more promient in the film. It was a good change, I think.
 
I need to see the film again, but I was thinking about Lucy and the spell book. Does she, indeed, say the spell to make it snow? Because it does snow on her. In the book, you get the impression that she's only "authorized" to say the one invisibility spell ... she is upst by saying the eavesdropping spell, and Aslan scares her into not saying the beauty spell (although she has already seen the tragedy it will bring). So, what do you make of the snow spell? It was a charming moment in the movie, but ought she to have done it? And of course they had to change the part from the book of her reading the story for the Refreshment of Spirit. I don't know how they would have done that in the movie, but I do love it in the book.
 
When I saw the movie, I perceived that the snow was in place of the story, which would be VERY difficult to properly portray in a film. After all, Lewis never actually told us what it was like.

The whole idea of spells is a turn-off to me. Still, I think that the snow spell was really neat. In 3D, it seemed like the snow was falling all around me!
 
Back
Top