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).
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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.
 
wonderings said:
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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Oh indeed. With any move that I want to see, I always give it until the credits (and sometimes a second viewing) before I decide how I feel about it. I enjoy a lot of movies that others do not. And yes, this gift does serve two purposes. First, it was a gift that she wanted to give to fans of the property. With the Walden Media films, they never gave any gifts like this. There were other things, but never anything like this. The fact that she wrote the note to all of us, and gave each of us a piece of the film set and a copy of the book was very gracious. It comes from a genuine place, and isn't something that will influence how people view the film. It was a way to let people know that there is a Narnia movie coming. A lot of people that I follow on various social media sites got the same thing. The idea was to spread the word that the movie is coming. Ironically, it came at the same time as the announcement that the movie was delayed.

I do know exactly what this gift was for, and yeah, the other Narnia site's folks got one as well. I don't know how they got all of their team one, but they did. That said, I am still in the same position about this movie as I was before the gift. Wait-and-see mode.

And yeah... the timeframe *could* mess with the other books... but... it is possible that it doesn't. We'll have to wait and see. And that will be a long wait. We won't know how it changes anything going forward until the follow-up movie is released... probably around 2029 or 2030.
 
Even if she tried hard, Greta Gerwig COULD NOT POSSIBLY do as much damage to "Magician's Nephew" as "Prince NON-Caspian" did on purpose to the character of Peter Pevensie. The Caspian film went out of its way to make Peter a loser and a doofus. He gets in a fistfight over nothing, and loses; then he (a war veteran) can't beat Caspian (who should have been kept at his canonical age); then he needs Lucy to lecture him; and then he ISN'T the one to come up with the single-combat suggestion.

"If it ain't broke, break it, then SAY that you improved it."

Greta Gerwig, I'm crossing my fingers while cheering you on.
 
Specter said:
Oh indeed. With any move that I want to see, I always give it until the credits (and sometimes a second viewing) before I decide how I feel about it. I enjoy a lot of movies that others do not. And yes, this gift does serve two purposes. First, it was a gift that she wanted to give to fans of the property. With the Walden Media films, they never gave any gifts like this. There were other things, but never anything like this. The fact that she wrote the note to all of us, and gave each of us a piece of the film set and a copy of the book was very gracious. It comes from a genuine place, and isn't something that will influence how people view the film. It was a way to let people know that there is a Narnia movie coming. A lot of people that I follow on various social media sites got the same thing. The idea was to spread the word that the movie is coming. Ironically, it came at the same time as the announcement that the movie was delayed.

I do know exactly what this gift was for, and yeah, the other Narnia site's folks got one as well. I don't know how they got all of their team one, but they did. That said, I am still in the same position about this movie as I was before the gift. Wait-and-see mode.

And yeah... the timeframe *could* mess with the other books... but... it is possible that it doesn't. We'll have to wait and see. And that will be a long wait. We won't know how it changes anything going forward until the follow-up movie is released... probably around 2029 or 2030.
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Good that it does not affect your objectivity, though many I would say are easily swayed by trinkets and simple hype. The gift itself does presuppose some things, first is that the movie is going to be so good that you literally want a piece of it the production. And so good that even just a bit of wood used in the staging of the movie is a worthwhile gift opposed to something more obvious like a prop piece.

The note itself is again PR work. This does not mean it is not honestly written but I have trouble believing she just wants to touch base with fans... well not fans, but people who run websites for fans of the series. Fans themselves were not given gifts (as far as I am aware). Why is that? The reach of fan sites is probably the fastest way to get this gift out to show their members. I personally think they are trying to buy some good will as the whole industry is facing serious back lash when they mess with beloved stories and characters. And what we have here from all that we know is again messing with a beloved story. Very real possibility that Aslan is a female or at least voiced by a female and a serious time change that literally effects the timeline of the rest of the books and the characters traveling from "our world" to Narnia. If this really was no big deal then why do it at all? I will always add this that I do hope I am wrong but Hollywood has a horrible track record for taking beloved stories and destroying them and then blame the fans for it. I can see if Aslan is voiced by a woman and when the fans react it will be the toxic masculinity that roams social media.

Copperfox said:
Even if she tried hard, Greta Gerwig COULD NOT POSSIBLY do as much damage to "Magician's Nephew" as "Prince NON-Caspian" did on purpose to the character of Peter Pevensie. The Caspian film went out of its way to make Peter a loser and a doofus. He gets in a fistfight over nothing, and loses; then he (a war veteran) can't beat Caspian (who should have been kept at his canonical age); then he needs Lucy to lecture him; and then he ISN'T the one to come up with the single-combat suggestion.

"If it ain't broke, break it, then SAY that you improved it."

Greta Gerwig, I'm crossing my fingers while cheering you on.
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She can easily do as much damage. Hollywood is limitless in what they can do in destroying what people love in the name of telling a story in a bold new way.

I do want the movie to be good but without a Christian actually steering the ship I don't see how you can possibly get the "deep magic" in Lewis' work. End of the day no matter how much the movie could betray the books, it ultimately does not effect the best way to experience Narnia and that is through C.S. Lewises writing. Any and every adaptation is a pale reflection to the books.
 
Wonderings, I do not dispute your view at all. It's just that, long ago, God told me I was too quick to judge people negatively. So, since then, I've tried always to give others the benefit of the doubt. But this optimism does get exploited by wrongdoers.
 
No "progressive" filmmaker can destroy the Chronicles of Narnia any more than a "progressive church" can destroy the atoning sacrifice and resurrection of our Lord. They can seek to associate with it, and even claim to represent and adore it, and yet still miss it entirely. But just because a target is missed does not mean it goes absent. It still stands waiting for the archer who shoots the skillful arrow.
 
EveningStar said:
No "progressive" filmmaker can destroy the Chronicles of Narnia any more than a "progressive church" can destroy the atoning sacrifice and resurrection of our Lord. They can seek to associate with it, and even claim to represent and adore it, and yet still miss it entirely. But just because a target is missed does not mean it goes absent. It still stands waiting for the archer who shoots the skillful arrow.
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I don't think anyone has made the claim that a filmmaker or any sort can destroy or even elevate The Chronicles of Narnia. The books are written, everything else is literally a poor substation for the books.

What a bad filmmaker can do is taint the message or the story, just as a bad church can Tain the message and story of Christ to those unfortunate enough to attend a service. Maybe that was their first taste being in a church. Same goes for Narnia and any of the movies. Say your first taste of Narnia was Voyage of the Dawn Treader or Prince Caspian, or really any of the Disney movies in my opinion. They are poor retelling of beautiful stories filled with truth and goodness interwoven into the core of each adventure. Would you recommend someone watch the movie first or read the book? I have always recommended to friends and now for their kids that they read Narnia first, they read The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings before watching any of the movies. Let the magic of a good book pull you in.

Copperfox said:
Wonderings, I do not dispute your view at all. It's just that, long ago, God told me I was too quick to judge people negatively. So, since then, I've tried always to give others the benefit of the doubt. But this optimism does get exploited by wrongdoers.
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I am not judging Gerwig, she is not doing anything ethically or morally wrong. They have the rights to produce the film. This is about the opinion that their misguided attempts at re-imagining a story and somehow improving it is completely opposite. They (generalizing Hollywood) has a message that they think needs to be in everything they produce, despite the fact that movie after movie are flops when they do this. I do believe Gerwig thinks she is doing what is best for the retelling of this story, at the same time I think, or maybe assume is better at this point, she is misguided.

On a side note I recently watched the BBC mini series for Lord of the Flies that recently came out. Masterful story telling without messing anything up. The kid who played Piggy in that series is playing Digory in Magicians Nephew. Great child actor and I think perfectly cast for his role.
 
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