Do you like this book

Do you think they should have done the Magicians Nephew first as a film or not?

  • Total voters
    69
"Magician's Nephew" is one of my favorite books in the Narnia series--a little less familiar to most people than LWW, and a great read. The predicament that Uncle Andrew forces Digory and Polly into is really fascinating: I think the book also feels a lot less "safe" than LWW because of the introduction of other worlds besides Narnia and our own. I love the book.

I do think, however, that it was best to do LWW first as a movie from a director's standpoint, simply because as a more familiar book it would be more likely to draw people into a movie series than MN. And since LWW was the real starting point for Lewis anyway, it feels more like a first book than MN.
 
Another reason why I like TMN is because most otherworldly fantasies take the reader into a fantasy world which is "already there;" not often do you get to see the fantasy world being created. And once the Narnian world is created in TMN, we get to experience vicariously with Digory and Polly what it would be like to explore this brand-new, still-mostly-vacant world.
 
I am surprised by the poll results at how many people say they don't like TMN. I love it for the same reasons as CF and Glenburne. When I was a kid it wasn't one if my favorites because to me CON was all about Narnia, being there, with Lucy and Edmund, etc. But now I really enjoy TMN because it extends the magic to other worlds than our own.
 
While I love TMN, I would not want it to be the first film.

First off, if you know who Digory Kirke is from the very beginning, it takes away the suspense about whether or not he'd believe the Pevensies had really visited another world through the wardrobe.

Furthermore, some of the things in TMN are only fully effective to an audience familiar with LWW. Think for a minute about a story of a dashing hero who saves the princess and falls in love with her but at the end of the movie he cannot marry her because he's not of royal blood. Then someone sees his odd birth mark and declares that he is the true heir to the throne switched at birth. Just imagine how you would let the air out of that to do a prequel FIRST so all the people in the audience are sitting there thinking, "Come on Rodrigo, show them your birthmark!"
 
Oh, I mis-read the poll! I thought the question was do you like this book?

OK, I am in total agreement with ES, that LWW was the natural choice to be the first film. Doing TMN first would not have made sense in the least.
 
"Another reason why I like TMN is because most otherworldly fantasies take the reader into a fantasy world which is "already there;" not often do you get to see the fantasy world being created."

Copper, I can only think of two books that are like that: MN and The Neverending Story. Both are amazing with the sprouting of Perilin, the Night Forest. That is an incredible way to create a world. The best part about the creation of Narnia was was the animals emerging from the ground.

I want to see both onscreen.

MrBob
 
This is kinda petty, but I really loves knowing who the Professer really was while the non-book-readers didn't. I know I cheered when he said "Try me," and lots of people looked at me strange, it was awesome :) I absolutly love TMN. I love the insignt it gives to LWW, I remember having a complete spaz attack when Diggory turns the Narnian tree into the Wardrobe. The imagery is fantastic, I love how Aslan signs Narnia into existance, and Strawberry! He's my favorite!
 
I really like TMN alot. I think it's a great book, and definitely one of my favorites. :) I can't wait to see it as a movie.

But as to whether they should have done it first... I think they made the right decision. Because LWW was the most well known book and all... I think they did the right thing, for the sake of the people who are not crazily familiar with the books like alot of us.

Although I do read the books in chronological order, and I know alot of us would have liked to see them in chronological order. ;) But for the sake of the others, and trying to get alot of viewers, LWW was best for first, in my opinion. :)
 
chronological

I read the books in order too. I've read the series 3 times all in chronological order. LWW was though a better first choice than TMN.
 
I love this book. Though I think it was best that LWW was first, because that was the most popular book. Plus it will be cool to get a movie that feels like a prequel in a few years down the road.
 
Welcome, TSC. I didn't see you post before! :)

I agree this is a wonderful book. I hope, if there is a film, that they do justice to the book.
 
its a great book I do hope the make this book into a film as I hope they make ALL the books into a movie .
 
Would be great movie

The Lion the witch.. was a guaranteed cinema filler and so was the obvious starting place. If Dawn Treader is successful then you never know, it could get made at some stage.
 
Its best to stick with the order that they were written in my opinion. They make enough sense in that order. What is wrong with a few mysteries here and there? They get answered soon enough.
 
I wish they'd done it first. It's the beginning, after all, and it's my favorite so I would have liked to see it first.:D There's so much in the books - the rings, the deplorable word, ack, I love it so much. <3
 
I loved reading the Magician's Nephew. The Wood Between the Worlds and the ruins of Charn were so creative and fun to imagine while reading. Having the Creation of Narnia described was beautiful and heart-warming. Digory and Polly are great characters who develop a strong friendship as the book progresses.

That being said, I think that Walden made the right choice when it filmed LWW first. LWW is the most well-known story in the series, and so it was most likely to be a blockbuster success, paving the way for future films. If MN was released first, it might not have been a success, and subsequent movies would be less likely to be funded, according to the inexorable politics and economics of Hollywood. Also, LWW stands alone as a book or a movie quite well. We don't need the background of MN in order to understand LWW.

I do hope that MN will be released as a film, though:D
 
It is a great book, not my favorite (that's The Horse and His Boy), but great nontheless like all the chronicles. My favorite part is, of course, the ending, specifically the last few paragraphs of the last chapter, where everything is tied together. I must have been 13 or so when I first read it, and I remember getting chills down my spine when the connections to LWW were made. Pretty cool stuff!
 
I'm glad that they made LWW into a movie first rather than MN. I say that because when I read the Narnia series first as a kid I always started with LWW and still do, because we're meant to discover the history of Narnia, otherwise Lewis wouldn't have put about not knowing about Narnia yet in LWW, and it makes a better element of surprise to read it that way and find out who the professor really is.
 
Well, I honestly like LWW (it's my favorite!). But if they don't make any more Narnia movies starring the Pevensies and Eustace, they should at least make the Horse and His Boy or MN. That way, the fans won't be impatient and at least have something Narnian to watch. Don't you agree?
 
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