Greta Gerwig Sent us a Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew Gift Today

Some good PR work on their part. It is nice of course, but I have trouble believing it is nothing more than just part of the prep for the release of The Magicians Nephew.

The wood piece is numbered, is that saying the lamp itself is limited? I can't see the wood piece itself as being the limited numbered piece, but then it feels weird that they would make that many lamp posts.

The greatest gift Gerwig could give the fans is a faithful adaptation, sadly I think we will be left empty handed.

**Edit
I was curious how many of these were sent out and found on another Narnia forum that they received one as well, which also had me realize the lamp post was not part of the gift, just the box duh :D So definitely a PR kit looking at all that is in that box. Again not to diminish a gift but I really have trouble seeing this as a heartfelt gift and look at it as marketing to slowly try and build some hype from a movie that if the rumors of a female voice for Aslan, the time change setting among other things are true, the trailers may be ratioed pretty quickly. People are tired of the stories they love being destroyed by Hollywood, at least destroyed in their adaptations, the books are here to stay unchanged thankfully.
 
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Yeah... the lamppost was not part of the gift. :-D It was just the box with the letter and the book. From what I heard, they only sent out 50 of them, and the number, hand-written on the item, was just the number that we got. I do not know where all of them went, but it was a very kind gesture to send this out to people.

You're not the only one to be skeptical of this gift, but that is most definitely rooted in fear that she will do the book a great disservice with her adaptation. I'm taking a wait-and-see approach. I'm going to see the movie, no matter what it turns out to be, so I can give it as fair a look as possible.

When I review the movie, I'm going to look at it from multiple angles.

1) How does it work as a film, in a vacuum? I'm going to give it a score based on the film itself. I'm going to base my score on how it works as a fantasy film, to me, if the book didn't exist, and all I had was this film, just like seeing Toy Story 5, which isn't based on a book. I'm intentionally not re-reading The Magician's Nephew in the run-up to the film's release. It will be difficult to separate my own visions of it, but this will help.

2) How does it work as an adaptation? I'm going to score the film based on my memories of the book. This score might be different from the above score, but it could honestly be the same. It depends on how the movie turns out. I am also going to re-read the book at this point, and will either revise this part of my review, or write an all-new analysis review, once I'm able to read it and see the movie close together.

3) I'm going to give it a final score, which is not going to be an average, but how I feel overall.

So if I gave the movie an A as a film, a B as an Adaptation, and an A overall, it's because that's how I felt about it, and why it's not an A- or something. But I'll give all of my reasoning behind things, and why I score it like I do. I don't like reviews much, myself, but when I have read them, the ones I liked actually backed up their scores with facts (opinions).
 
Specter said:
Yeah... the lamppost was not part of the gift. :-D It was just the box with the letter and the book. From what I heard, they only sent out 50 of them, and the number, hand-written on the item, was just the number that we got. I do not know where all of them went, but it was a very kind gesture to send this out to people.

You're not the only one to be skeptical of this gift, but that is most definitely rooted in fear that she will do the book a great disservice with her adaptation. I'm taking a wait-and-see approach. I'm going to see the movie, no matter what it turns out to be, so I can give it as fair a look as possible.

When I review the movie, I'm going to look at it from multiple angles.

1) How does it work as a film, in a vacuum? I'm going to give it a score based on the film itself. I'm going to base my score on how it works as a fantasy film, to me, if the book didn't exist, and all I had was this film, just like seeing Toy Story 5, which isn't based on a book. I'm intentionally not re-reading The Magician's Nephew in the run-up to the film's release. It will be difficult to separate my own visions of it, but this will help.

2) How does it work as an adaptation? I'm going to score the film based on my memories of the book. This score might be different from the above score, but it could honestly be the same. It depends on how the movie turns out. I am also going to re-read the book at this point, and will either revise this part of my review, or write an all-new analysis review, once I'm able to read it and see the movie close together.

3) I'm going to give it a final score, which is not going to be an average, but how I feel overall.

So if I gave the movie an A as a film, a B as an Adaptation, and an A overall, it's because that's how I felt about it, and why it's not an A- or something. But I'll give all of my reasoning behind things, and why I score it like I do. I don't like reviews much, myself, but when I have read them, the ones I liked actually backed up their scores with facts (opinions).
Click to expand...

To think the gift as a genuine gift is a bit naive, it is purely marketing and who better to market to then the people who sites that promote the book they are adapting for a movie? I would never begrudge a gift but you cannot ignore what it really is. I saw more details on another Narnia site. It is not one I visit but when I saw this post I was curious if another large Narnia forum would get something similar and as expected they did. I am not naturally a pessimist... except when it comes to Hollywood. They know how to destroy what is good all under the guise of a "bold re-imagining". A quote from Amy Pascal who is a producer "very new take on Narnia". What truly makes Narnia loved by so many is that it is timeless. What Lewis wrote is what people love and no real lover of this masterpiece would want it told in a lesser way. If they are not using the book as their influence then it is doomed to join the rest of the slop that comes out under the name of the masters like Lewis and Tolkien. I have seen a few plays based on different books. The best adaptation was The Magicians Nephew. It is hard to describe the changes they made and how they used that to influence set design, but what they did not change was the core elements of the story. No gender swaps, no humanizing evil and ultimately staying true to the core of the story and all that comes from it. This was much more necessary for a limited stage play that did not have a huge budget. For a movie under Gerwig they do not have the same limitations outside of their ego and viewing this book through a distorted lens. Look at the Odyssey movie, or at least the discussion surrounding that film after the first trailer. It seems like Nolen might have been influenced by a feminists translation of the book. If you read just the first page of her adaptation and compare that to the celebrated for their accuracy and maintaining the tone of the book and they are night and day different. This feminist wrote her translation through the lens of feminism and her view of men, it is obvious from the first page. Now can you possibly adapt a book with deep Christian messaging without viewing it through a Christian lens? You may be able to capture some of it but you are missing the really important parts that a Christian only truly understands.

I don't see ho you can really separate it from the book. It is not a stand alone fantasy story, it has roots deep and wide that in my opinion does not let you look at it as a separate entity. The only way I could do that is if I viewed it as obvious plagiarism like this horribly bad rip off of Harry Potter

How it works as an adaptation is what really anyone is going to care about as that is all that matters. If sources are correct and just the time period has been moved then they have fundamentally ruined all other Narnia movies. I don't think it is necessarily as important for The Magicians Nephew but it certainly is for The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. Tolkien said it best:

“The canons of narrative in any medium cannot be wholly different; and the failure of poor films is often precisely in exaggeration, and in the intrusion of unwarranted matter owing to not perceiving where the core of the original lies.”

And after this long winded reply to a post about a gift I would say enjoy it, I love imagery of Narnia as those alone are hard to corrupt and still leads me back to what is true, good and beautiful.
 
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