Changes from VDT book to film ** Spoilers **

Oh! I have got to see it in 3D!!!

And I guess you are right: the snow replaced the story in the book.
 
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.
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Thats because they changed the script.

Originally the slaves were to be fed to this Serpant Cave that led them into the Underworld, so that the Lady of the Green Kirtle could use them to raise an army. The kid's ended up using the Knife that killed Aslan in a battle against the Lady of the Green Kirtle's Sea Serpant and the Sea People (who the Lady of the Green Kirtle had enchanted).


Due to budget cuts and fan criticism, they replaced the Serpant cave with the Green Mist, make the cause of the trouble the Dark Island instead of the Lady of the Green Kirtle, and had the Serpant come from Dark Island instead of being a pawn of the Lady. And instead of using the knife that killed Aslan to overcome the Serpant, they use the power of the seven swords from the seven lords.

But despite these changes, I still think they will connect the Green Mist to the Lady of the Green Kirtle.
 
I was actually a little disappointed Aslan didn't at first appear as the lamb at the end. It would have been a nice touch. On that note, I like how they kept in Aslan's words ftrom the book. I thought they mgiht change it on film to sound less Christian-orientated but they didn't, so that was applaudable.

It's a shame when Lucy went into the wizard's house you didn't see as she went along the slightly formidable corridors, etc.; instead she was suddenly in the right room. I would have liked it if Aslan's face would have suddenly appeared on the page of the beautiful lady as a warning and shock to her. I can't remember if that happens in the book or if I'm just thinking of the BBC version!

I agree the Dufflepuds did not get enough time!

I was fine with the mist thing. It didn't mess the story up --- it worked.

I too would have liked to have seen Eustace's transformation. When Eustace was finding the treasure I was thinking, here it is... he'll see the dying/dead dragon now and then suddenly later change... But no. Shame! I wanted to see Eustace peeling the scales off himself when he changed back. But Aslan digging his claws into the ground worked.

Where was Ramadu? And I thought more of the daughter was going to be seen... oh well; fortunately it made Caspian not seem like he was suddenly all into her after Susan!

I keep thinking of more things... I'll think of more to post here a bit later! :D
 
inkspot said:
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?
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I felt the same way about the snow. She's not really supposed to say any of the spells but the one she was told to; in Lewis' Narnia, humans aren't supposed to perform magic. The snowing spell was a nod to LWW, with an over-grinning Lucy and magic that doesn't pertain to the story: a "Return to Magic" that made the film seem cheap to me, much like the first sighting of the water nymphs.
 
Arvan said:
I felt the same way about the snow. She's not really supposed to say any of the spells but the one she was told to; in Lewis' Narnia, humans aren't supposed to perform magic. The snowing spell was a nod to LWW, with an over-grinning Lucy and magic that doesn't pertain to the story: a "Return to Magic" that made the film seem cheap to me, much like the first sighting of the water nymphs.
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If people continue to nitpick, then even us optimistic ones will be depressed. :rolleyes: Good grief.
 
MissReepicheep said:
I thought the water nymphs were delightful.
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I thought they were good too, and the one that warns Lucy not to go to Dark Island was a good idea. But the first time we see them, they drew it out almost as long as Eustace's undragoning, and the line "Return to Magic" came to mind after 10 seconds. It was just too... dramatic. "Look, see? Maaaagic! Ooooh!"

Aravis Kenobi said:
If people continue to nitpick, then even us optimistic ones will be depressed. :rolleyes: Good grief.
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Nitpick? Ouch. I hate that word, especially if it's to describe me. Am I really nitpicking? If I was a true nitpicker, I wouldn't have liked the VDT movie at all. I'm optimistic (almost as optimistic as I get). I refused to judge the film heavily until after I saw it. It looked better than I expected in many places, and worse in others, Now I'm stating what I think. I liked that they kept so many plot elements in, and I didn't mind Ramandu's disappearance. Nitpickers would not approve of that at all.
 
I am an extremely pessimistic person, but I love VDT! The important parts of the book were preserved; so what if the rest of it isn't perfect? LotR isn't perfect either! :eek:
 
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.
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Thanks Inkspot... the role of the green mist/evil/Dark Island did, as you point out, maintain the original intent of the story which was to test each member of the quest on a deeply personal level, show each member's struggle with temptation, and the final reward to those who have passed the test. Lucy's struggle was by far the best depicted in the movie, and I thought it was extremely well done... in fact it might be one of the aspects of the story in which the movie improved upon the book. If time had permitted, maybe we could have seen more of Edmund's and Caspian's struggles. I don't remember the book giving any temptation to Reepicheep, although in retrospect it would have been interesting to see what form his temptation would have come in and his response to it. I still think the change in conflict was the most significant change from book to movie, but the important thing was that the integrity of the story is maintained.
 
MissReepicheep said:
LotR isn't perfect either! :eek:
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No, but was pretty close! (Extended Editions)

BarbarianKing said:
Here you go again. Stop it, AK. Let people have their say. Good grief. :rolleyes:
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Well, AK's frustrated by the pessimism that I and many others keep demonstrating. After all, I was pretty irritated with you when you kept saying things about VDT, mainly because you hadn't seen it yet. Now I've seen it, and I'm figuring out what I liked - and what I didn't. I don't like being called a nitpicker or pessimist, but hey, as long as I'm not being attacked, everyone's got to have their own opinion! If I start ranting and raving, or become truly annoying, I hope people will say so!
 
Greensawmill said:
Thanks Inkspot... the role of the green mist/evil/Dark Island did, as you point out, maintain the original intent of the story which was to test each member of the quest on a deeply personal level, show each member's struggle with temptation, and the final reward to those who have passed the test. Lucy's struggle was by far the best depicted in the movie, and I thought it was extremely well done... in fact it might be one of the aspects of the story in which the movie improved upon the book. If time had permitted, maybe we could have seen more of Edmund's and Caspian's struggles. I don't remember the book giving any temptation to Reepicheep, although in retrospect it would have been interesting to see what form his temptation would have come in and his response to it. I still think the change in conflict was the most significant change from book to movie, but the important thing was that the integrity of the story is maintained.
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I wonder if mice are immune to temptation? :p

And I thought that maybe the green mist didn't have any more of a purpose than giving a visual to the evil. It only appeared when people were being tempted. And I noticed that when Lucy blew on the book the first time and the pages turned, she slapped the book, green mist came out, and she turned around almost like she had heard something. And I wonder, was the Sea Serpent a source of the evil in DArk Island? Or was he simply a manifestation of their fears? If you noticed, he leaked out green mist when he died, and his death produced the destruction of Dark Island.
 
Aravis Kenobi said:
I wonder if mice are immune to temptation? :p

And I thought that maybe the green mist didn't have any more of a purpose than giving a visual to the evil. It only appeared when people were being tempted. And I noticed that when Lucy blew on the book the first time and the pages turned, she slapped the book, green mist came out, and she turned around almost like she had heard something. And I wonder, was the Sea Serpent a source of the evil in DArk Island? Or was he simply a manifestation of their fears? If you noticed, he leaked out green mist when he died, and his death produced the destruction of Dark Island.
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I'm wondering all the same things...
 
Aravis Kenobi said:
And I thought that maybe the green mist didn't have any more of a purpose than giving a visual to the evil. It only appeared when people were being tempted. And I noticed that when Lucy blew on the book the first time and the pages turned, she slapped the book, green mist came out, and she turned around almost like she had heard something. And I wonder, was the Sea Serpent a source of the evil in DArk Island? Or was he simply a manifestation of their fears? If you noticed, he leaked out green mist when he died, and his death produced the destruction of Dark Island.
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My impression was that the Dark Island (and the Serpent) was destroyed by the Seven Swords being laid at Aslan's table.
 
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.
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I disagree. The external, supernatural aspect if evil is emphasised in LWW and TSC, but in VDT (book) it is more the internal temptation that is being emphasised. By changing this to a more external understanding, it gives the impression that all evil comes from outside ourselves rather than inside.

And I wonder, was the Sea Serpent a source of the evil in DArk Island? Or was he simply a manifestation of their fears?
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I thought the sea serpent was the product of Edmund's fears. It appeared just after Rhoop had said that dreams came true, and then Edmund said, "Oh no," and sthen someone said, "What did you think about?" (or something like that - I forget the exact words).

I wonder if mice are immune to temptation?
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Of course we are. That's what makes us so perfect and loveable... :p

Peeps
 
you're forgetting that Coriakin said, "In order to defeat the evil out there, you must defeat the evil within yourself first". And I honestly don't see how it changes anything. The entire context of the film was overcoming your fears. The dark island battle was centered on that idea. It didn't give a different "impression" of anything. Evil comes from both inside and outside because Satan isn't like Jesus; he doesn't live in our hearts. Yes, because we're born sinners, I suppose evil comes from us, but it comes from other sources as well. Namely one source: Satan. He is an outside AND an inside force.
 
Well said AK, well said. I think one reason for the Green Mist is to have a visual, physical aspect of the evil for the film, something the producers thought necessary.
 
Arvan said:
No, but was pretty close! (Extended Editions)
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Yes, it was, excepting Legolas's excruciatingly obvious or melodramatic lines and some moments of bad acting. But don't get me wrong, I love LotR and think of the movies as masterpieces. :)
 
Arvan said:
My impression was that the Dark Island (and the Serpent) was destroyed by the Seven Swords being laid at Aslan's table.
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I agree, and there is a Christian basis to this... laying down our arms (earthly weapons) and fully relying on the power of God.

I think the point of the green mist was just to give the ever-lurking evil presence a physical form so that you could see it was always around. And yes, the serpant was a manifestation of their fears. Edmund had heard (and made fun of) the crew's fear of sea serpents in the uncharted waters they were traveling. When Lucy said not to think of anything, Edmund thought of that, and it manifested.

I have to say that was the one part of the movie I had to do a mental *face-palm* because I immediately thought of Ghostbusters and the Stay-Puft marshmallow man. LOL!
 
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