Aravis Kenobi. I am on your side on this matter. I was utterly disappointed with how the dryads and naiads were portrayed in the films so far. I did not like that the film dryads were; 1. Portrayed digitally. 2. Made out of bloody flower petals. 3. Not among the stone prisoners in the Jadis' courtyard like the book stated. 4. Not among the combatants of Aslan's Army against the Witch. As for the naiads I hated that they were: 1. Completely omitted from the first film. 2. Almost completely omitted the same way they were in the first film, with the except of the river god being portrayed(by the way, river gods are the same species as naiads, they are simply male versions. Lewis does mention male wood and river spirits along with female wood and water nymphs. Read MN, PC, and LB.), although I strongly feel that they made him far too huge, his head was stated to be larger than a man's but that doesn't mean that he's a liquid water giant! 3. Portrayed as replacements for the Sea People, and further more depict with bloody fishtails! Naiads ARE NOT mermaids!! The VDT film basically portrayed naiads as relatives of the merpeople only that they are made out of liquid! Plus traditionally naiads live in fresh water, not salt water! Nymphs of salt water are nereids or oceanids. This is going to be confusing for people who have seen the films but read the books later on. When they discover that the giant water man and the liquid mermaids are a river god nad naiads respectively, they're gonna get confused and say: "Ok, so the giant water giant is the father of those liquid mermaids that live out in Narnia's Sea?? HUH???"
If I had any say or hand in how the dryads and naiads were designed, I would have hade them for the most part be portrayed by real actors and actresses and only a minor but of CGI to make the naiads and river gods look like their skin and clothes give off a watery or bubbly feel. For how they looked, I would have the dryads were greek style gowns, tunics, and togas edged with leaves, paint their skin in shades of green or the color of bark, dye their hair or give them wigs with hair colored to make tree foliage with leaf headbands around the heads, and twigs and branches growing out of their hair. As for the naiads, same thing clothing wise, except have it in shades of blue and edged with foam and bubbles. Skin color would also be in shades of blue, green, and white. Hair would also come in these shades but with river plants growing and wreathing their heads. Also I would have their ears(both dryads and naiads) be slightly pointed so as to make them look less humans. Plus I would also have them be combatants in the battle against the witch with some of them using their abilities to tunr into trees and attack with their branches and roots(dryads) and manipulate water(naiads) while the others stick with traditional fighting weapons.
) But really, the effects don't bother me at all! I think it was great!
