I saw Dawn Treader this weekend - twice, to be exact. I enjoyed it as a film, and was encouraged to see that it didn't try to introduce themes that conflicted with the original story (as Prince Caspian did.) However, it is my speculation that it will not be a commercial success, and for that reason will be the last of the Narnia movies. I say this with neither glee nor anguish. I'm not saying they should or shouldn't make further Narnia movies, but based on my reading of several factors, I don't think they will. This doesn't matter to me either way.
I realize that for anyone steeped in the mentality of the Entertainment Industry, that last statement is incomprehensible. To the Entertainment Industry, the Best Thing that can happen to any literary work is for it to be made into a movie. This is the summum bonum, the Most Desired Outcome. But not everybody thinks that way.
The success of the film adaptation of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was nearly assured because the book is a standalone classic. Many, many people have read Lion - or had it read to them - and grew up loving it as a classic children's story. Thus, Walden had a ready audience for the film, and their fidelity to the central themes of the story made it an easy transition. If you loved the book, you were probably going to love the movie. I think this was a big portion of the success of Lion as a film - there was a existing pool of enthusiasts who knew and loved the story and were eager to see the screen adaptation.
But moving beyond Lion introduced a different dynamic. If my experience is any guide, a significant percentage of people who loved Lion didn't know there was a sequel, much less an entire set of books about Narnia. Of those who did know, only some had read Prince Caspian and even fewer had read through the entire series. Those who had read the full Chronicles had done so because they had loved the stories enough to put the effort into reading them. Those who make this effort are the true Narnians, the pool of enthusaists critical to any subsequent Narnia movies.
But the composition and temperament of this pool differs from the broader and shallower pool of Lion fans. For one thing, it is smaller - possibly much smaller. Secondly, it is made up not just of people who'd had LWW read to them during story hour in grade school, but of those who had gone to the trouble of hunting down the later books. This means that on the whole, they would probably have a deep love for the stories and appreciate the complex and subtle themes which Lewis worked into them. Thus, these viewers would tend to be much tougher critics, far more prone to dissect and critique a film adapation - and probably quite vocal about their opinions, both good and bad. If the films after Lion were to succeed, they would have to succeed first with this group.
To me, it seems that this is where the film adaptation of Caspian collapsed. I suspect that most of the opening week viewers were true Narnians (I was one of them) who were eager to see how this much-loved tale had been adapted to film. Most of us were terribly disappointed. It wasn't so much the plot adjustments, which any reasonable person knows will happen when adapting a book to a film, but the introduction of alien and hostile themes into the story. Themes like the heavy-handed Hamlet motif, or the Petulant Peter - which was not just a minor adjustment in lines, but a gross violation of the character of Peter.
The letdown that was Caspian has been discussed more thoroughly elsewhere, but it had one ominous repercussion for subsequent Narnia movies: it poisoned the pool of true Narnians. Had Caspian been a thematically faithful adaptation to the book, it would have capitalized on the momentum generated by Lion. The spirit of, "All right! Another Narnia movie!" would have continued to build. But because Caspian was such a letdown to its core fan base, further sequels were anticipated with trepidation, not enthusiasm. I noticed that the "buzz" before Dawn Treader was at least as much negative as positive. Some Narnia lovers were speculating just how badly the story had been mutilated, and jumping on snippets from trailers to justify their pessimism. Even the most enthusiastic promoters of the film had to start with "it's not going to be that bad". This is not a good position among what is supposed to be your core fan base, those who will evangelize on the film's behalf. Among true Narnians, Caspian had blasted a terrible crater that Dawn Treader would have to fly out of.
I realize that for anyone steeped in the mentality of the Entertainment Industry, that last statement is incomprehensible. To the Entertainment Industry, the Best Thing that can happen to any literary work is for it to be made into a movie. This is the summum bonum, the Most Desired Outcome. But not everybody thinks that way.
The success of the film adaptation of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was nearly assured because the book is a standalone classic. Many, many people have read Lion - or had it read to them - and grew up loving it as a classic children's story. Thus, Walden had a ready audience for the film, and their fidelity to the central themes of the story made it an easy transition. If you loved the book, you were probably going to love the movie. I think this was a big portion of the success of Lion as a film - there was a existing pool of enthusiasts who knew and loved the story and were eager to see the screen adaptation.
But moving beyond Lion introduced a different dynamic. If my experience is any guide, a significant percentage of people who loved Lion didn't know there was a sequel, much less an entire set of books about Narnia. Of those who did know, only some had read Prince Caspian and even fewer had read through the entire series. Those who had read the full Chronicles had done so because they had loved the stories enough to put the effort into reading them. Those who make this effort are the true Narnians, the pool of enthusaists critical to any subsequent Narnia movies.
But the composition and temperament of this pool differs from the broader and shallower pool of Lion fans. For one thing, it is smaller - possibly much smaller. Secondly, it is made up not just of people who'd had LWW read to them during story hour in grade school, but of those who had gone to the trouble of hunting down the later books. This means that on the whole, they would probably have a deep love for the stories and appreciate the complex and subtle themes which Lewis worked into them. Thus, these viewers would tend to be much tougher critics, far more prone to dissect and critique a film adapation - and probably quite vocal about their opinions, both good and bad. If the films after Lion were to succeed, they would have to succeed first with this group.
To me, it seems that this is where the film adaptation of Caspian collapsed. I suspect that most of the opening week viewers were true Narnians (I was one of them) who were eager to see how this much-loved tale had been adapted to film. Most of us were terribly disappointed. It wasn't so much the plot adjustments, which any reasonable person knows will happen when adapting a book to a film, but the introduction of alien and hostile themes into the story. Themes like the heavy-handed Hamlet motif, or the Petulant Peter - which was not just a minor adjustment in lines, but a gross violation of the character of Peter.
The letdown that was Caspian has been discussed more thoroughly elsewhere, but it had one ominous repercussion for subsequent Narnia movies: it poisoned the pool of true Narnians. Had Caspian been a thematically faithful adaptation to the book, it would have capitalized on the momentum generated by Lion. The spirit of, "All right! Another Narnia movie!" would have continued to build. But because Caspian was such a letdown to its core fan base, further sequels were anticipated with trepidation, not enthusiasm. I noticed that the "buzz" before Dawn Treader was at least as much negative as positive. Some Narnia lovers were speculating just how badly the story had been mutilated, and jumping on snippets from trailers to justify their pessimism. Even the most enthusiastic promoters of the film had to start with "it's not going to be that bad". This is not a good position among what is supposed to be your core fan base, those who will evangelize on the film's behalf. Among true Narnians, Caspian had blasted a terrible crater that Dawn Treader would have to fly out of.
