The incredible trailer for The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe played before Episode III...I am now even more psyched about this movie now.

The trailer actually made me weep...it was just overwhelming to see images on a big screen of a story you've loved since childhood. It really looks like it's going to be great. I am already trying to figure out who will babysit for us so we can go see it (wow...babysitters...that's a whole new concept for us!)

For lots of news and updates check out www.narniaweb.net

Ooooh! Thanks.

Brandon and I were just talking about this the other day. We didn't know when it came out.

If they ruin this, I will hunt somebody down (specifically, someone in charge of making the movie). I don't know what I'll do with them once I've got them (I may use some choice words..perhaps more), but you better believe that I will find them.

from the director of Shrek...

~fff - np: aimee mann - magnolia

I bought myself the Narnia books last week. Figured that at 36 it's about time I finally read 'em.

I must admit that I've never read the books either. I've been following the release of the movie for a while now on another bboard and must admit that I'm interested in seeing what hoopla (if any) will be stirred over these movies after all the stir over Harry Potter. Perhaps talking lions aren't as bad as kids who use magic?

Cher

yeah.... If you read all the books it turns out the talking lion is a blatently Xian talking lion, so it will probably be okay with most of america.
it's a little weird.
~m

Still a good read at your ages, but you really miss something of the magic if you don't read them before the age of 12.

Enjoy them anyway. I'm going to give them another go this summer.

Just make sure you read 'em in the right order. ;-)

And yes, I know Lewis approved the reordering, but I'm sorry, The Magician's Nephew
just does not have the same resonance if you haven't read LWW already. Why should
you care about a lampost growing out of the ground if you haven't met Mr. Tumnus
under it? I think reading them in publication order is way better.

But I know this will get debated until the sun gets squeezed out. :-)

I agree. Start with LWW.

The Magicians's nephew scared me to no end when dad read it to me when I was like five. Should have started with LWW, wich is a lot friendlier.
Patrik

These books were read to me as a small child, and I read them a few times later. I have to say that I can't trust Disney with this story, because they've just about plumbed out the depth in any other story they've ever touched. I'm not one of those "Oh, the movie will never be as good as the book" people, I know they are two separate art forms. I just hate to see things watered down and gummified Disney style. Perfect example: The Little Mermaid. Compare those for a laugh. She's supposed to end up in constant pain, punishment for her desire to be something she's not...

Perfect example: The Little Mermaid. Compare those for a laugh. She's supposed to end up in constant pain, punishment for her desire to be something she's not...

Aw, but that wouldn't have made for a very fun song (To the tune of "Under the Sea")

"I'm in so much pain...I'm being punished so bad...do do ta do..."

We went to see SWIII yesterday too, and my mom and I were also both crying pretty seriously by the end of the Narnia preview. I've read all of them a few times (esp. The Horse and His Boy and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and the Last Battle) and they've become such a part of my inner landscape, I couldn't help it. Almost didn't care about the SW movie after that... I'm SO excited about these!
I highly recommend reading them before you see the movie, if you haven't already. They're quick reads, too.

emily

they're having lion parties!!

50 days!!

When I saw the trailer for the first time on the web, I boohooed like a baby and thought, surely, I was the only one. Then when it played before a movie my movie club went to see last week and my friend Diane, she got all teary-eyed too and that made me feel better (for one, because I wasn't the only one, and two because it was a shared experience).

The trailer looks spot-on. But I am not without my concerns. For one, the stand-up board thing in the theater lobby has the White Witch's sledge being pulled by polar bears which is interesting visually... but in the book her sledge was pulled by white reindeer. But, in the end, if the fudge a few details but get the [i]spirit[\i] right, I'll be satisfied.

Brad C.

Polar bears, white reindeer. Who gives a rat.

Brad, you showing up to any of these stinkin' Ohio area shows in the next few months?? Dan and I keep thinking you should join.

I appreciate the invite, naturally, but I'm a poor boy and Ohio's a long commute from Arkansas.

I have to say that as much as I am excited about this movie, the new marketing style of cajoling churches to advertize "Christian" movies irritates me greatly. I just received a Christian ministry paraphernalia catalog that included movie banners of Narnia selling for over three hundred dollars. Um, no thanks. Fund your own ad campaign; don't tell me I'm evangelizing by hanging your pricey movie poster on my church building. Hmph.

yeah, and that crap CCM industry is getting on board. i think i might puke.

http://www.narniaweb.com/webadmin/adtrack....com%2Fnarnia%2F

i do love the books. the whole thingy with eustace and the dragon is precious in my heart.

BTW, does anyone remember the Narnia-inspired LP by Christian vocal group 2nd Chapter of Acts? That was one of my favourite albums as a kid.


Patrik

Ditto. Love the Eustace part of the story. These books are quite nostalgic for me as well. I've been rereading and some of it is better than I remember...and a few moments were worse. Ahhh...age. I refuse to not enjoy myself at the movie though...they would have to suck it up REALLY BAD for that to happen.

They pulled off Potter and LoTR, why not these?
I actually saw a song titled Aslan...and became visibly sick. THAT is what kills it for me. As long as the CCM album is supplementary and not actually included in the movie, I think I can survive.

my landlady's family's new favorite album is the "songs inspired by" soundtrack to the movie.

all CCM. all wretched.




yeah, i would have to agree. if i hear rebecca st. james or jars of clay emoting out those horrible tunes during an otherwise poignant moment i'm just going to walk out and stick with the images in my head.

I saw the trailer for the first time a couple days ago, and while I was on the edge of my seat with chills running through me, emotionally moved by the whole thing, I also have to voice a concern over the animation used to make the animals "talk". something about it struck me as hokey, like the "look who's talking" movies. I hope it doesn't turn out to be a big distraction to what looks like an otherwise awesome movie.

Wow!! I just saw the movie last night. I loved it and felt the movie did the book justice. There were only two parts that were added or different from the book. I do not want to say much more until more people have seen it, but DON"T LEAVE at the end. The credits roll and then there is one more little scene that half the theatre missed. Lovely little suprise.

Are the graphics / special effects in the movie as cheesy as they seemed in the trailer? I mean, seriously... are they?

~fff - np: yann tiersen - black session

i must admit that i've never gotten past halfway through the third book.

i think what happened is that when i tried to read them (age 10 or 12, maybe? it actually couldn't been earlier than that...) i got so into the main characters from the first book that i hated the new characters when they were introduced.

that being said, i plan (when i get a free minute...HA!) on reading them again. i think i still have my old hardback copies stashed away of bookshelves with my old christopher pike books...

i am interested in seeing this movie...but again, i don't know when i will have the time. especially with all this crazy hooplah that i hear is going on in cincinnati this weekend...

i really liked it. i thought it was perfectly casted. the kids were amazing.


actually, i didn't think they were all that bad.

I am in the process of reading the books now (I, too, read just the first few as a kid, and am now trying to get past the "Who is this Jill Pole and what did she do with Lucy??" hump).

*spoilers of a kind*

I would say that there are few changes between the book and the movie, but some of the most subtle changes are also the most significant. Some of the best dialogue and imagery is curtailed, apparently to make more room for the battle (which was truly only a small piece of the book). There is also a greater emphasis on the children's part in making things happen, as opposed to Aslan's effect. And the witch isn't afraid of Aslan, and that is a big piece of her character in the book. She is fantastic, though. Lucy and the White Witch are really, really lovely characters.

It's a decent movie, though far too violent a rendering of Christianity (if we are to follow Lewis' intended allegory). The images and plot harken to the Crusades. Of course that is also an element in the source material, and would be a qualm I have with the books themselves.

Anyway, there's my 2 cents.

Ok, I saw the movie on Friday and enjoyed it very much, though I have to admit it did not blow me away like LOTR did. I did notice the graphics being cheesy from time to time, but for the most part I let myself get sucked into it. They really did do a good job on the whole. Not everything was like I imagined it, of course, but I don't have any huge offenses that I can think of (though the witch's lack of fear of Aslan diminished something for me as well). It's so strange seeing something on screen that has already played out so vividly in your mind since childhood . . .



As far as the CCM hullabaloo . . . I'm wracked with violent wretchings. At the Christian bookstore I found a display with a plethora of tracts amongst other guides to finding God in the movie. Every other church in town is fashioning sermons off the story and sections of it they can buy for a hefty fee from Disney. (Yesterday in church the pastor actually gave away the ENTIRE movie in order to work it somehow into his Christmas Joy massege. GRRR . . . ) And the "inspired by" CD's are just that - a marketing ploy but not actually songs that are in the movie. The music in the movie is good . . . I think the end credit song is Alanis, yes?

When it's all said and done, if the movie (or it's various and sundry "inspired" products) leads somebody to seek God or a means for inspiration or peace, who am I to say anything? But aside from all that stuff. It's a good movie based on amazing books. Watch it & read them.

I'd much more enjoy a movie on CSLewis's The Screwtape Letters. Maynard James Keenan could play one of the demons... muhuhaha...

The Biznatch of Narnia will sit in my "For Rental" queue...

~fff - np: howard zinn - a people's history of the united states

I haven't read the books ... just couldn't get into them. So, I hadn't planned on seeing the movie. However, now that I've been reading about all the hoopla about the 'message' of the movie, I have decided to see it sometime next week once I get the hall closed for XMas Break. I always like to make sure that I'm knowledgeable about whatever subject I find myself discussing. So, I want to be able to maybe understand why a movie with a talking lion and magic is any better or worse than a movie with young wizards and magic or a movie with wizards, hobbits, elves, orcs, dwarves, etc and magic. They are all chock-full of make-believe, but the stories, I assume, are all the same ... that good triumphs over evil through love.

Maybe I'll have more to say later.

Cher

that's exactly where my brother stopped reading, and where I remember getting bogged down at as well (though I managed to plow through and continue to the end)

I saw it the other day, and thought it was about as good an adaptation as could be expected. I counted more than two additions to the book, along with a plethora of trivial changes (the scenes leaving London, they saw Edmund go into the Witch's castle, the scene with Tumnus in the dungeon, the scene on the ice by the waterfall, etc.), but I thought most of them worked for the film and were in keeping with the spirit of the book.

I don't know what you mean about the witch not being afraid of Aslan. I thought it was pretty clear she
was terrified of him. I loved her reaction when she asked how she would know if he would keep his
promise and he roared at her. It was just the way Lewis described it in the book.

I thought they did a great job of showing the familial bonds between the children -- that felt stronger
to me in the film than in the book, most likely because having real people say the lines can bring more
emotion into it than just reading it. Similarly, I felt they kind of played up Peter's "becoming a man"
theme more than the book does, or maybe it's been a long time since I read it, and I didn't notice that
theme as strongly last time I read it. I'll be reading it again, soon.

I thought it was such a good adaptation, it had the strengths and weaknesses of the book. The Father
Christmas scene still feels completely out of place to me. Yes, I know it shows the witch's power is
breaking, and yes, I know it serves to get the kids their special weapons, but what is *Santa* *Claus*
doing in *Narnia*??? Mythologically, it makes absolutely no sense at all. It would be like Loki showing
up at the Crucifiction.

I didn't mind the special effects, although I think they were good enough to show that what makes
Lewis's portrayal of Aslan so compelling is something that just cannot be shown visually. The effect
Aslan has on those around him just can't come through by watching. The animation was very good,
but the sort of comfort and chastisement that Lucy gets from the mane just can't be shown in a film.

Still, great fun to see it finally done really well. Tilda Swinton was absolutely perfect, and she makes
me look forward to The Magician's Nephew. I hope they get her back for that one, assuming they
make films of the whole series. I hope they stick with the correct order. :-)

See ya,

Don

I liked the movie, but it's hard because I had really high expectations . . . I wanted to love it, so just liking it felt like a disappointment. One that I set myself up for

I agree with a lot that's already been said--Tilda Swinton was just brilliant. I really liked Edmund and Lucy and thought they were the best of the child actors. I'm not sure I liked having Liam Neeson as the voice of Aslan. I just kept thinking, 'Oh, that's Liam Neeson talking,' and it kind of pulled me out of the movie. He did a good job, though, so that's just my personal hangup. I also agree that there are some things that just can't translate . . . for some reason, Santa Claus showing up in the book never seemed that out of place, but in the movie it really does.
There were a couple of moments where the special effects seemed a little made-for-tv-ish--I don't know if they ran out of time or what. For the most part I thought they were really good, just a couple of 'meh' spots.

In thinking about it I decided that with LOTR, you could really see how much care and investment Peter Jackson had in the story, and it felt like that wasn't so apparent in this movie. Like, it's good, but there seemed to be something missing to me. Then again, my ridiculous expectations could be at fault there too.

Oh, and I really, really liked Tumnus!

AWESOME

http://www.youtube.com/watch.php?v=zLElfJ9YCh0

I finally saw this in the theater with Karen this afternoon (her second time). I've never read any of the Narnia books, but I thought the movie was enchanting. The kids all did a wonderful job with their roles, the Queen was convincingly treacherous and sinister, and the Lion was appropriately wise-and-courageous-yet-gentle (I didn't realize the voice was Liam Neeson myself until I read the credits). I thought the effects were convincing enough, and the wintry ambience of Narnia throughout most of the movie was so pervasive I was shivering in the theater.

Definitely not on the same scale dramatically as the LOTR films IMO, but this was a story meant to be very accessible to younger children.

i wanted to like this. i didnt. i was really disappointed. the trailer warned me that the production values sucked but even so.... the animation techniques themselves were great in that the software has come a very long way, if realism is your goal.
as always, this was simply an illustration of a novel not an adaption that took avatange of the elements of sight, motion and sound. blah blah blah...
ok im done.

i did love tilda swinton. i knew she would not disappoint.
at least there was that.

d.

Yes, well. I didn't think this was a bad movie, but (echoing others here) it was such a kids' flick. The child acting was mediocre at its best, and the animation was so-so.

Keith alludes to what I think: LOTR has ruined fantasy movies hereafter.

I just watched it this afternoon, and I agree. I'm glad I waited.

Cher