Into the Wardrobe

A very interesting post. The limitations and demands made by changing the book into a film that you listed just line up as so many more reasons not to do so. Lewis himself (it's in C.S. Lewis at the Breakfast Table) thought a story should remain a story and was resistant to any adaptation of LWW.

Well done commentary, LG. Most of these comments, for good or ill (good or ill in terms of final quality of the film that is, not in terms of the value of your comments), reflect the reality of a director entrusted with ensuring a good return on a hundreds-of-millions of dollars investment so that "safe" measures must be taken to bring the book to film. This obviously prevents a lot of artistic and aesthetic ability from ever being realized and why it is generally the lower budget films that have the "surprise" break-out movies -- they can afford to take a bit more of a risk. And it is why I always dread seeing a favorite book being made into a film if the budget looks to be enormous -- even though it suggests the possibility of good special effects, it almost ensures that those special effects will overshadow all else and forces a lowest-common-denominator effort with lots of action and "advancing the plot" and pacing (which, in terms of modern film making amount to the same thing -- funny how "plot" in "advancing the plot" has virtually nothing to do with the idea of a traditional meaning of "plot". It really now only means heightened action).

It's sort of an odd combination of the fellows in the Scriptural parable of the talents. The one who got the least was the one who put it in the ground because he knew the master was a hard man and so was afraid. This seems like the producers and directors who have the biggest budgets since they bury their "talents" in the ground because they are afraid, knowing the audiences are hard. On the other hand, that fear apparently pays off and the producers and directors are rewarded richly for their timidity. So it just shows that heavenly things do not work the way earthly things do I guess:-)

By the way, I'll just comment that there actually was an "homage" (how I have come to hate the abuse of that word as applied to films these days) to the sucking paws bear. We actually saw a quick shot of one doing just that at one point if I'm not mistaken (have only seen it once)

--Stanley

Very interesting -- thanks, LG!

I know, I know, I'm late. However, considering I just saw the film for the first time a week ago and saw it for the second time today, I have that excuse.

First off, I will say I'm glad I read most of the spoilers, else I would have been completely shocked at what were either big changes or I would have considered big changes. Watching glumpuddle's videos helped tons on that as well and so I went into the theatre knowing what to expect and able to enjoy the movie. (However, I did embarrass my mother, who went with me, when I attempted to throw food at the screen during the kiss)

I enjoyed PC a lot. There were parts I felt were a little 'off'. And I disliked some of the changes (especially the kiss), but overall I enjoyed it.

A couple things:

* The first time I watched it, I was incredibly confused as to why Edmund went to the castle first in the night raid and used the torch to guide Peter and the others on the griffin in. The second time I came to the conclusion that perhaps he was seeing if the bridge was up or down or something, but even then I'm not sure. I understood Edmund signalling the troops, but why didn't all the griffin people come in together?

* The best part of the Susan/Caspian flirtation was her siblings making fun of it. Lucy: "You may need to call me!?!" Susan: "Oh, shut up." Actually, have been contemplating Lucy and Edmund's exchange after the kiss "I'm sure when I'm older I'll understand" "I am older and I don't think I want to understand." The thing is, they have been older. So my thought is that the two are mocking Susan and her various suitors: they already know that being older doesn't help them understand their sister's relationships with the opposite sex.

* Reading previous posts, others mentioned how Peter beheading Sopespian/random Telmarine was not necessarily noted when reading the book. That actually happened to my family. My mother read Prince Caspian for the first time around the same time I was rereading it for, like, the 5th time. I never once noticed that Peter beheaded Sopespian, or at least it never made an impression on me. Yet one of the first things my mother noted when leaving the theatre was that she was surprised they kept the beheading in the movie. Her first reading and she noticed it, but I never did.

* I loved that Edmund and Lucy's characters were so well done. While I understand the changes to Peter and Susan and accept them, I am sooo glad Lucy and especially Edmund were so well portrayed. Of course, I said before I even saw the movie that as long as Edmund was portrayed right, I would be happy no matter what they changed in the movie, because Edmund is my favorite character. And Skandar did a wonderful job, stealing almost every scene he was in, and managing to radiate "Edmund" even when he had no lines and instead just acted with his eyes.

* I may have read too much into this, but when Edmund was presenting the challenge to Miraz I really saw the diplomat the I always pictured King Edmund the Just as. To me the whole "It's King Edmund, actually. Just king though. Peter's the High King. I know, it's confusing" was actually Edmund subtly mocking Miraz and his not knowing the history of Narnia. Even more of a stretch, probably, but I also thought maybe Edmund was subtly throwing in his title: he's not just a king, he's the Just King. Maybe it's just me though.

* One of my favorite moments was Lucy standing on the bridge and drawing her dagger. She just has this sweet little girl smile on her face, but you can also see a hint of "bring it on, if you dare". To me, that is Queen Lucy the Valiant returned. She knows she will win against the entire army, even with just her dagger, because she knows Aslan is beside her.

Overall I really enjoyed the movie and hope to see it at least one more time before it leaves theatres. Then I'm getting the DVD and making an icon of the three mice on a rock, watching the Telmarine army marching out of the forest. Because that was adorable (shhh, don't tell Reepicheep I called him adorable ).