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Disney pulls out of VDT

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Re: Disney pulls out of VDT

Postby Messenger_of_Eden » December 31st, 2008, 2:25 am

(if they every make it...) :lipssealed:
"If you believe what you like in the Gospel, and reject what you don't like, it is not the Gospel you believe, but yourself."--St. Augustine of Hippo
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Re: Disney pulls out of VDT

Postby Zattara08 » January 1st, 2009, 6:59 am

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

What I would like to know is do the contracts for the actors create a problem for a new studio?

I agree with most of you that PC was a tad bit over-the-top but I still enjoyed it a lot. I did not like the portrayals of Susan or Peter but loved the development of Edmund and the spot on acting of Lucy. If I could not have the latter two actors in a movie, I do not know if I would want VODT. Either way, I wonder if with the way the economy is going people are just "fantasy fatigued".

It just would be sad if Harry Potter gets all of his movies (and an additional one it sounds like) and all we get is two, possibly three. I'm crossing my fingers though. What is better? Leaving it up to my imagination or putting something on screen that causes me to pause but has some awesome moments? I am not to sure!
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Re: Disney pulls out of VDT

Postby Messenger_of_Eden » January 1st, 2009, 7:31 am

All the problems with changes etc. aside, I have to admit I really hope they get the movies done, and in far better time than they have shown so far. But I will say that the Focus on the Family production (not film but audio only) is (mostly) incredible, and in quality equal with any film made of Narnia. It allows your imagination to take control of all your mind's eye 'sees', and yet it contains sufficient sound effects to steer your imagination where they want you to go. Plot-wise they are very faithful to the books, and all seven are available. The acting is mostly very good, though Aslan takes some getting used to. I hated his portrayal at first, but somewhere in the middle of the series, I noticed I had started to get used to him, and by the second time I heard the series, I found it much easier to get used to it.

Yes I want the movies to go forward, even though I am increasingly skeptical about their quality or faithfulness to the originals--but thankfully we have our imaginations and I think a love of the books themselves marks a true Wardrobian after all! Along with a geekish ability to quote intricate passages, spout trivia, and become a Narnian in public. :wink:
"If you believe what you like in the Gospel, and reject what you don't like, it is not the Gospel you believe, but yourself."--St. Augustine of Hippo
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Re: Disney pulls out of VDT

Postby Larry W. » January 1st, 2009, 11:54 am

The Focus on the Family Narnia radio dramas certainly are the best. They are even more faithful to the books than the old BBC programs. I wish that any movies made based on the stories would be as accurate as the radio programs.

Walden might not be doing too well financially to take on the project by themselves. I'm not sure if their book stores are directly linked with Walden Media, but one of them closed in our area a couple of years ago. The bad economy was at least partially to blame.

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Re: Disney pulls out of VDT

Postby john » January 1st, 2009, 3:02 pm

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Re: Disney pulls out of VDT

Postby Larry W. » January 1st, 2009, 4:03 pm

I don't care much for Aslan's voice in the Focus on the Family version, either. He doesn't seem to sound much like a lion. Michael Dorn would have been much better since he has a deep commanding voice. The other Aslans weren't too bad (the BBC and Disney movies), but not so many actors have a deep feline voice so I guess it's hard to get it exactly right. Someone who sounds like a whining cat (which Focus on the Family's did) doesn't work for the voice of a king. I have a set of old LP records in which the stories are read by Ian Richardson and he does a fairly good imitation of Aslan's voice. But it isn't deep and rich as I pictured it in the stories (he does better with the other characters).

I wonder if they will use a real ship for the Dawn Treader in the upcoming film if it is made. They build miniatures for certain scenes, but real ships are sometimes made if they aren't too expensive. I love old fashioned ships with sails, although I have never sailed on one. I have traveled on a ferry boat (the Beaver Island, Mich. ferry), and I also visited a replica of the Nina when it was docked in a nearby harbor. That replica ship was a kind of floating museum. It was well worth seeing just for the history.

Anyone else here have any interesting nautical adventures? I collect miniature lighthouses, but unfortunately there aren't any real ones in the Dawn Treader story. :sad:

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Re: Disney pulls out of VDT

Postby Stanley Anderson » January 1st, 2009, 7:11 pm

…on a night of rain Frodo smelled a sweet fragrance on the air and heard the sound of singing that came over the water. And then it seemed to him that as in his dream in the house of Bombadil, the grey rain-curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a fair green country under a swift sunrise.
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Re: Disney pulls out of VDT

Postby Larry W. » January 1st, 2009, 7:32 pm

Thanks for posting the photo, Stanley. :smile:

It looks like a medieval tower. Although I don't remember any lighthouses in the Narnia books, there were towers mentioned in the stories.

There must have something like that watching over the Narnian seas! :grin:

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Re: Disney pulls out of VDT

Postby Danman » January 1st, 2009, 11:58 pm

The tower is in Ireland. The country is dotted with them. They were built back in the heyday of Irish monasticism and were typically accessible only by ladder to a small door several feet up off the ground. This made them quite important in terms of keeping the relics and valuables safe from marauding Vikings.

I'm kind of excited that no one else posted a reply to that pic and I got to. Wierd, I know. I learned that information from a book called "The Irish in Ireland". In depth look at Irish history from pre-celtic time to present, though it gets thin the closer to present it gets.

I can imagine this is the kind of tower that housed the parliament of owls.
"And this is the marvel of marvels, that he called me, Beloved, me who am but as a dog---" Emeth.
And as He spoke He no longer looked to them like a lion; But the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them.
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Re: Disney pulls out of VDT

Postby Sir Linus the True » January 2nd, 2009, 4:48 am

Wow. Such a difference between this site and NarniaWeb! Most people are having heart attacks over there. (And I say that with affection.) :smile:

They do kind of have a point. Until Walden gets a new distributor, VoDT simply isn't going to be made. One might hope that Fox would pick it up due to their close association with Walden, or some other company, but there's no guarantee of that.

I actually kind of preferred PC the movie to LWW the movie (though I like LWW the book better than PC the book). LWW the movie was more accurate to the "facts" of the story, but I have never seen an Aslan that was less of a Christ type. Andrew Adamson (the director) flatly said that Aslan is not Christ (as opposed to just leaving it open to viewers' interpretations).

And the script contained such cringe-worthy moments as Mr. Beaver calling Aslan the "top geezer" (!!), and all references to him being "the son of the Emperor Over the Sea" have been removed. Also, Aslan shows how "much" he knows about Peter by mentioning what Peter said earlier to Mr. Beaver (which Mr. Beaver clearly told him). In other words, this Aslan has no idea who the children are, or why they were called. That's a far cry from the Aslan who, in The Silver Chair, would tell Jill, "My child, you could have not called me unless I was calling you first."

Meanwhile, while PC the movie wreaks havoc with the story and continuity (and I didn't care for this version of Reepicheep), one theme of the story came through loud and clear: Everything is a mess when the characters don't believe in Aslan or trust in him for help; everything turns around when they do. I won't attempt to defend PC as a whole, but in this regard at least, PC was superior to LWW the movie.

Whew. All of this to say, I'm not entirely broken up about the possibility of no more Narnia movies, because I haven't felt that Hollywood has gotten them right so far. On the other hand, I would like to see the series completed on film at some point. And a world where adorable little Georgie Henley doesn't get to keep playing Lucy would be a sad one by far.
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Re: Disney pulls out of VDT

Postby john » January 2nd, 2009, 3:33 pm

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Re: Disney pulls out of VDT

Postby Zattara08 » January 3rd, 2009, 2:50 am

Sir Linus, thank you for such an excellent post! I agree with you completely. It would have been interesting to see what they will/would do with VODT towards the end when Aslan tells them they must get to know Him in their land cause He exists there as well. HHhhmmm....good food for thought!
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Re: Disney pulls out of VDT

Postby Larry W. » January 3rd, 2009, 1:47 pm

If the movie doesn't show Aslan as Christ it misses so much of the story. But there aren't many movies today that are really Christian. It isn't like it was back in the 1950's when religious films like Ben Hur and The Robe were very popular. Today a Christlike figure is placed in the background because they don't want religion to dominate the film. If there is a movie based on a Christian book they won't emphasize the religious view. So it's really not surprising that Mr. Beaver calls Aslan "top geezer" instead of having more respect for him as his character does in the book. "Aslan, he's the Lord of the whole wood." I don't remember hearing that in the LWW movie, either.

I have recommended the film to others, but I always say the book is better.

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Re: Disney pulls out of VDT

Postby Messenger_of_Eden » January 3rd, 2009, 5:03 pm

"If you believe what you like in the Gospel, and reject what you don't like, it is not the Gospel you believe, but yourself."--St. Augustine of Hippo
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Re: Disney pulls out of VDT

Postby Tumnus's Books » January 4th, 2009, 10:44 pm

"You are, in fact, Human?"
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