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VDT Trailer

PostPosted: June 17th, 2010, 1:51 pm
by Dan65802
I've just seen the Voyage of the Dawn Treader trailer on Facebook. I'm sure it's other places on the internet by now. Any thoughts?

- Dan -

Re: VDT Trailer

PostPosted: June 18th, 2010, 7:28 am
by Puddleglee
Looove the ship. Very happy that the Dufflepuds are there.

But the White Witch AGAIN?!?! And has Edmund morphed into Peter, whinging about how he's a king?

Re: VDT Trailer

PostPosted: June 18th, 2010, 1:28 pm
by Dan65802
I put a spoiler on this in case anyone has not or does not want to see the trailer before the movie.



- Dan -

Re: VDT Trailer

PostPosted: June 18th, 2010, 3:21 pm
by galion
Without wishing to spoil, I just want to pick up one point. The enlistment bit as it stands looks a bit unhistorical. In WW2, as distinct from WW1, there was no great enlistment campaign, since conscription of able-bodied males aged between 18 and (I think) 37 had already been introduced in 1938, and you just had to wait for your call-up papers to arrive (which in practice didn't usually happen till you were 20 or nearly so). I presume this is supposed to be 1942 or thereabouts, by which time conscription for war-related worked had been extended to "mobile females", i.e. unmarried and / or childless women. Becoming a regular soldier was of course a different matter, but that too tended to be done once you had been called up.

I mention this because it's unusual - from what I've seen the films have made a remarkably good job of recreating glimpses of wartime London. Perhaps it will be made clearer when we see a context.

Re: VDT Trailer

PostPosted: June 18th, 2010, 3:46 pm
by Dan65802
Perhaps it was for the R.A.F. I know there were recruiting centers for the air force.

- Dan -

Re: VDT Trailer

PostPosted: June 18th, 2010, 4:27 pm
by galion
Could be (though the soldier standing by the recruitment poster is in army khaki, not RAF blue).

Anyway, at the sort of school that I presume Edmund attended there would have been an OTC; and if you were waiting for yur call up, you could always join the Home Guard, which by this time was pretty well organised. Unless this is set much later, and he was trying to avoid becoming a "Bevin boy", i.e. being called up not for military service but for work in the coal mines. There was a lottery for those posts, and it was the losers that went down the pit!

Re: VDT Trailer

PostPosted: June 18th, 2010, 4:38 pm
by Dan65802
Of course, it could also just be a thematic devise that requires us to suspend our disbelief a little in order to move a plot point along.

- Dan -

Re: VDT Trailer

PostPosted: June 18th, 2010, 4:50 pm
by Tumnus's Books
The producers perhaps rely a little too much on adding their own ideas (staying "true to Lewis' vision" of course, or other line to that effect) and counting on the Narnia fans to just say "Well, ok, at least the movie is even coming out..." VDT seems to be the book in the series which you have to alter the LEAST. It has the proper balance of action, characters (new and old), and each character and the group have specific goals to achieve (re: Eustace needs to "transform," Reepicheep is fulfilling a prophecy, and the whole group is out to find the lost lords of Narnia). These little deviations from script confuse the narrative...not enough to elicit a sense of total dismay ("it's nothing like the book"), but enough to be irritating...

But, oh well.

At least the movie is even coming out.

Re: VDT Trailer

PostPosted: June 20th, 2010, 3:04 am
by Matthew Whaley
The trailer doesn't really show much... but I think the movie just might be better than what I dare to hope. The special effects are very good from what I can see... but nothing can ever beat what I imagine by reading the book. It's still the only movie I've been looking forward to seeing all year and I don't think I'll be disappointed. I can't wait until December!

Re: VDT Trailer

PostPosted: June 20th, 2010, 4:28 am
by carol
Re Edmund and army recruitment - it could be that the others in the queue have been sent their call-ups, and Edmund is just trying his luck?
In terms of waiting until 20, not so - my dad turned 18 at end of 1942, was called up partway into 1943. I did think men could actually volunteer before being called up?
Until he turned 18 Dad was in the Home Guard (Manchester).

Edmund is supposed to be still at boarding school (in the book he's only 12, in the film he has reached about 15).
[Lucy is now looking 12/13, so we have to do a suspension of disbelief in its being only 2 years since she was a little 8/9 year old - maybe we accept that she was 9 for LWW, nearly 10.Then for PC she was 11? so maybe we can accept she's 12?]

Re: VDT Trailer

PostPosted: June 20th, 2010, 6:38 am
by galion
Yes, that seems like a distinct possibility. I just had the impression that it only really happened at age 19 or 20. My own family experience was that of two uncles , who were over 18 in 1938 (my father was just too old). And of course the Home Guard was always there.

Re: VDT Trailer

PostPosted: June 21st, 2010, 4:34 pm
by Dan65802
Carol,

Just in using the same actors through the series, I think we're going to have to throw out the ages of the characters as described by Lewis. I think for modern audiences, their current ages are more "believable" anyway.

- Dan -

Re: VDT Trailer

PostPosted: June 25th, 2010, 11:25 am
by Larry W.
What was the purpose of the White Witch's cameo appearance to Edmund after he, Lucy, and Eustace have come aboard the ship? :??: They got the picture right, but they are drawn into the sea first when entering Narnia. As I remember from the book they all land on the deck of the Dawn Treader and don't swim in the water first. I don't remember any direct quotes from the book in the trailer, although it does look like there's some faithfulness to the plot of the story. I think the old BBC specials were better for accuracy (preserving the plot and dialogue) in spite of their low budget.

Larry W.

Re: VDT Trailer

PostPosted: June 25th, 2010, 1:10 pm
by Dan65802
Don't you remember that Lucy had taken swimming lessons during the summer term and had kicked off her shoes when plunged in the sea from the painting "as everyone ought to do who falls into deep water in their clothes."?

And

- Dan -

Re: VDT Trailer

PostPosted: June 26th, 2010, 10:57 am
by Larry W.
My memory on some details seems to escape me. I'll have to reread the book again soon.

I wonder if the albatross will be in the movie after the crew escapes from the Dark Island. It was in the BBC specials and in the book,although I didn't see it in this movie's trailer. The bird is sailors' good luck, but would Lewis have believed in luck as a Christian? Perhaps it was in the book as another reference to folklore or mythology.

Larry W.