Oh no! More confusion!

L

la-la

New member
Since yesterday I managed to be even more confused than I was before. I now know that the version of animated Narnia I´m looking for is the one seen on for example familysafemedia.com. But now there is a language problem. The one I saw was apparently dubbed into swedish, but then from what I understand there is 2 versions - one in american accent and one in english accent...
Does anybody know anything about this? Soon I think I´ll belive not seeing Narnia at all... :confused:
 
There are two audio versions. I'm not sure where to get the English accented one, as I've got the American accent version, myself.
 
okey.. but after negrecting my job yet another day to research about this :) it seems as though the american version (the one with info on this site) is the original? Hmm...
 
I'm not sure which the original is. However, both are exactly the same except for the voices.
 
i checked out imdb and when looking at the film from 1979 the voices in that film is the exact same as in the version on this site.. but howcome there is one i brittish english aswell..? i read rewievs on the movie and that people thought the film was spoiled with the american vioces... that´s why i was puzzeled to see that the american vioces was on at -79... hmm... maybe i have been diigging in this for too long now.. :)
 
la-la said:
okey.. but after negrecting my job yet another day to research about this :) it seems as though the american version (the one with info on this site) is the original? Hmm...
Click to expand...

I believe the original animated version was made by an American group, Children's Television Workshop (aka Sesame Workshop, the same driving force behind Sesame Street), and so that is why the original was casted with American voices.
 
Last edited:
There were a couple of groups that commissioned Juan C. (Bill) Melendez to do the animation. He had an extremely tight schedule to have it finished by the time they needed it to premiere and was surprised it turned out well.

Yes, his was the same studio that did the Peanuts Specials. He also appears as "Juan C. Melendez" in some of the old Warner Brothers animations.

Trivia fact: He spoke heavily Spanish accented English but did the voice of Snoopy. Think about that next time you watch the Christmas Special and everyone laughs at Charlie Brown's miserable tree. Snoopy leaves last with a final "Hahahahahahaaaaaaa". That's Bill. He also did the howl at Halloween when Snoopy was listening to the depressing World War I songs.

Done originally for US audiences, the additional UK voices are an afterthought designed to keep some of the more annoyingly Yankee voices from turning Narnia into the Bronx.

In general this adaptation is extremely faithful to the storyline and tone of the original book. The biggest single change was in having Aslan give the Pevensies gifts rather than Santa Claus. This was done, I think, more to appease some of the more conservative churches involved by keeping Christ--and only Christ--in Christmas.

I still think it has the most reverent depiction of the resurrection of Aslan that I have ever seen. Bar none.
 
Copperfox said:
Yes, that was a high point in cell-animation productions.
Click to expand...
This special?
Hardly.
'Fantasia' yes.
'The Lord of the Rings' Maybe.
'Fritz the Cat' heck no.
But a Narnia special that barely made a blip on the radar? I wouldn't call it a high point of animation, but possibly a High Point in Animated Specials. I can't think of a single animated special other than 'Horton Hears a Who' (1970) in that decade that could even be considered so well made.
 
I don't call it a high point because of the animation quality, but precisely because WITHIN such limitations they carried across the SPIRIT of the book so well.

While I have your attention, can someone remind me of something? I like it in the big-screen Lion-Witch MOVIE that the children's father is fighting in the war; but I seem to recall that in the BOOKS, Mr. Pevensie remained a civilian, never having any part in combat. Am I correct?
 
I don't think the books say anything at all about what Mr. Pevensie does during the war. It's hinted that he's an academic of some type, since he gets work "lecturing in America" during Dawn Treader. Put that together with the fact that during the Blitz (1940-41) he has four children ages (say) 14 down to 9, and you've got someone who probably served during WWI, and thus was too old to join Britain's armed forces during WWII.
 
Mr. West is correct, I think they added it for emotional conflict and for explaining where Mr. Pev was. It's also worth pointing out that the war is over in VDT, while it's still very active in the film.
 
Back
Top