What Do You Hope That Narnia Films Or Series Get Right?

jasmine tarkheena

jasmine tarkheena

Active member
I'm sure that as Narnia fans, want new films or series to follow the books as much as possible. Yet of course, it's understandable that there are things in the books that may require some changes. There are things in the books that may not work in a movie or series. There are things that we hope they get right.

Probably the big one is to get the character of Aslan right. It's a hard task. He should have like a wildness in him and unpredictable. I've enjoyed Liam Neeson in the Walden Trilogy, though he sounded more like a Gandalf or a Obi-Wan Kenobi. The BBC had some growling effect, but there wasn't much wildness in him. Then there's David Suchet in The Focus on the Family Radio Theatre who does have a powerful voice, but it almost got to where it's too powerful. So getting the character of Aslan right is a big one.

I also hope they get my favorite scene, Emeth's meeting with Aslan, right. He is a Calormene soldier who has been seeking Tash since he was a boy and even volunteers to go into the stable. Then there's a whole passage about how tells of his meeting with Aslan. There, we could see Aslan from Emeth's perspective. "Surely, this is the hour of death" and Aslan tells him, "Child, you are welcome." Aslan explains to Emeth that anyone who does right and true in the name of Tash has done to him and whoever does cruelty in the name of Aslan has done so to Tash.

Is there anything you can think of that you hope that Narnia films or series get right?
 
I want them to get the overall tone right. Too often Hollywood uses a formula for films and they check off everything to make sure there's something for everyone. So help me, if they could put a car chase into these films to make them more interesting, they would, and it would end in a car careening off the side of a high cliff to bounce like a fireball into the canyon. These books were reverently written by a believer: I surely don't want to see anyone being given more dialogue about how "a good God would not have let this happen," or cut dialogue because "nobody thinks that way." In short, I want films that appeal to the people the books were written for, not some sort of blockbuster designed to appeal to Trek, LOTR, Avatar, and Matrix fans.
 
EveningStar said:
I want them to get the overall tone right. Too often Hollywood uses a formula for films and they check off everything to make sure there's something for everyone. So help me, if they could put a car chase into these films to make them more interesting, they would, and it would end in a car careening off the side of a high cliff to bounce like a fireball into the canyon. These books were reverently written by a believer: I surely don't want to see anyone being given more dialogue about how "a good God would not have let this happen," or cut dialogue because "nobody thinks that way." In short, I want films that appeal to the people the books were written for, not some sort of blockbuster designed to appeal to Trek, LOTR, Avatar, and Matrix fans.
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Oh yes. That was my main criticism with Walden's Voyage of the Dawn Treader. They turned a adventure and human story into a big epic quest about life or death, and even added a villain with the Green Mist. I mean, I understand that it's almost traditional to have a villain, because that's what people expect to see. But a movie or series can be done without one!
 
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There WAS a central theme to the book. VODT was a series of temptations for power, wealth, safety, or curiosity that prevented those unworthy to reach Aslan's country on the other side from doing so. In a way it was like Pilgrim's Progress.
 
I think another would is to really put emphasis on the despair and the hope. We should really feel that despair as well, like in The Silver Chair, the fateful night when Prince Rilian doesn't return home and whether King Caspian is going to die without an heir. Then take time to feel the joy when Rilian is reunited with his father Caspian.
 
I think that WHATEVER they do should not fundamentally negate or bend the tone of the canon. For instance, O Henry wrote a short story called "The Fourth Wise Man" about a fictional also-ran among the wise men from the East. That's ok because despite what you've always heard, the Bible doesn't tell you HOW MANY wise men there were. A story about the wise men hoping to bribe the newborn king to favor their outcome in a long stalemate war would be abhorrent to scripture and an affront to God. Considering that Narnia was written compatible to Lewis' strong Anglican faith, any episodes should not affirm an outcome or a motivation that is anti-Christian.
 
I think another would be cast child actors as the children. That way, it would avoid the temptation of a romantic subplot, especially with Digory and Polly or Eustace and Jill or Tirian and Jill or a love triangle with Tirian, Eustace and Jill. It's almost rare for Hollywood for a boy and a girl to have a close friendship and that's it. I know people are into shipping way more than about 20 or 30 years ago. I know there are those who ship Tirian and Jill, but I don't ship them so much.

The only romance I see happening are Frank and Helen, Olvin and Liln (if there is an episode about Mount Pire), Cor and Aravis, and Caspian and Ramandu's Daughter. It would be nice if they could expand on Caspian and Ramandu's daughter relationship and I'd much rather have that than the non-canon Caspian and Susan romance that Walden did.

So casting child actors would be idea.
 
Ironically if Walden had kept the franchise, they could have used today's motion-capture cgi to make virtual younger Pevensies so they could appear in The Last Battle.
 
I actually haven't thought of that. Though I'm sure a lot of us are getting tired of a romantic sub-plot being forced into just about every Hollywood production. Romance doesn't really belong in Narnia as a whole.
 
You have the lovely couple, Frank and Helen who become the first king and queen of Narnia and they have multiple children.

According to the timeline, Olvin defeats the giant Pire in Archenland and won the hand of Liln.

Cor and Aravis constantly argue at their first meeting, though they end up getting married.

Then Caspian meets Ramandu's Daughter on Ramandu's Island and he is drawn to her innocence, and after reaching the Last Seas, he brings her back with him to Narnia, and they marry. I can almost picture in my head a royal wedding procession taking place at Cair Paravel.

I think the most recent recent Disney princess movies have shied away from romantic subplot and the cliche "happily ever after." The way I see it aS three categories: the early Disney princess movies had the subplot of love at first sight; the next era of Disney princesses had the couple take their time for their relationship to develop; the most recent had shied away from a romantic subplot.

I think it would be nice to have Digory and Polly and Eustace and Jill as close friends. They don't have to get into a romantic relationship.
 
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Of course romantic love EXISTS among sapient beings in the Narnian world, but the books are not ABOUT that.

Now, here is MY pet anxiety, one which I was already expressing before Dancing Lawn had its dry spell. In "The Silver Chair," the educational philosophy of Experiment House was clearly related to the growth of socialism and atheism after World War Two. But I dreadfully suspect that politically-correct adapters nowadays would portray Experiment House as being run by Bible-thumping white supremacists, who want all women to be forced to wear Handmaid costumes.
 
Socialism is the philosophy that rights belong to mankind but not to men. That can only be realized if people put their faith in the state rather than in God.
 
That's just too strange...to see Ginger at Defense Technologies, Ltd., behind him a map of the world, talking with Rishda about the glories of the military-industrial complex.
 
Rishda wanted to gain more power, perhaps his given reason not to believe in any of the supernatural, Tash or Aslan. What if they actually have him sit on a throne on something when the Calormenes arrive in Narnia?
 
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I think getting their personality right is really important, regardless of their hair color. Susan is described as having black hair, but in the BBC she's a blond. Lucy is described as having golden-haired, but in the BBC, she's darked hair. At least they got their personalities right. I think the way Susan was depicted in the Walden didn't fit her character.
 
Long-time Dancing Lawn members know that I used to be highly worried about the ending of "Dawn Treader." I was afraid that, when asked if He was present in our world, the movie would have Aslan saying, "I have MANY names: Hanuman, Zeus, Odin, Buddha, Krishna, Godzilla and Cthulhu." Happily, they didn't do that.

I don't know what secular moviemakers may have in mind for Volume Seven of the Chronicles, but there are possible ways they could ruin it.
 
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