Into the Wardrobe

I just read that the film adaptation of Prince Caspian will have minotaurs again, fighting on the side of the "old Narnians".

Hi, Dan. Would you please cite your source?

It's the official movie blog:

Yes, several weeks ago, it was announced that there would be a new minotaur character named Asterius in the PC film. That was interesting enough. But the real uproar began when it said he would be fighting on Caspian's side.

I thought it was possible that the minotaurs turn bad in the end along with the hag and the werewolf. But Berger makes it sound like they are good, and stay good.

When NarniaWeb asked Douglas Gresham about it, he said: "Firstly, we felt that we needed to show that in Narnia as here, old foes can be forgiven and can reconcile and work together, given the will to do so. Secondly, that in Narnia as also it is here, a common adversary will bring even the worst of enemies together and unite them. Also, that the shapes and colours of a species’ body do not necessarily denote their character, that just because someone is a Minotaur does not have to mean that they are all bad. Finally, we kind of like Minotaurs."

I don't really see any of those themes in the book, so I wonder why he wants to show them.

You can see all my thoughts on my video blog (link on signature).

Here's what comes to mind for me...

The scene where Nikabrik suggests that they ask a Hag and a Werewolf to join their army. Notice that Caspian does not ask "well, are they nice?" Their response is swift and firm: "We wouldn't have Aslan for a friend if we brought in that rabble."

So, the idea that species does matter is in there. They just want to make a more politically correct version of the story I guess, haha.

Hopefully, the minotaurs will turn bad in the end.

I wonder if Lewis wouldn't more associate the good or bad species with categories of people with different outlooks on life? Thus hags, werewolves, robins, etc. wouldn't coincide so much with races as with ideologies and/or personality types. Not suggesting a one-to-one relationship, just a general diversity represented. I'm thinking this because in Lewis' non-fiction writings he speaks a lot about, for instance, the annoying materialist woman, the insider elitist, and such.