Aslan's size in the 'Prince Caspian' movie

[glumPuddle]

In a , Bill Westenhofer (who worked on some of the effects in the LWW movie) talked about preparing for the Prince Caspian movie. He said: "Reading the books, there are some evolutions. One of the challenges is that it is described in the text that [Aslan] does increase in size. At one point, he’s referenced as the size of an elephant. So I think that’s where interpretations of the filmmakers are going to come into play and how to pull that off. In this film, he changes size slightly, but I doubt anyone would notice. He’s actually five percent bigger after he comes back to life, but even to start with, he was at the top end of the scale of average lion sizes… So, he is a big lion, even at the start. But yeah, I think that’s going to be one of the challenges... What creative licenses you carry and how believable that is to have that big a character…"

I always thougt Aslan's size was dependant on the beholder. Therefore, his changing size is ultimatley impossible to put on film. But it looks as if they are going to try and do this for the PC film. How do you feel about this?

[Messenger_of_Eden]

The books seem to say that as the children got older, Aslan became larger. As far as the furure Prince Caspian, I would have to agree with the producers to a degree. They kept Aslan (in LWW) slightly larger than a normal lion. I do think they should increase his size with each movie, although making him the size of an elephant may be a bit on the absurd size for a live-action movie. That big, he would be unbelievable and quite distracting. I think he should top out at 4 or 5 feet at the shoulder--that would be big enough to convey the awesome size of Aslan and justify the dread that many characters have for him, while at the same time, not allowing him to be unbelievable.

[King Edmund]

There are smaller breeds of elephants aren't there?

[Messenger_of_Eden]

Hmmm, perhaps it was a pygmy Forest elephant!

[A#minor]

I think that certain camera movements and shots of Aslan could make him look larger than he is.
I'm reminded of a scene in one of the Little Princess movies, where in Miss Minchin's shots the camera is moving up, therefore making her look smaller; and in the shots of Sara the camera is moving down, making her look taller.
Does that make sense?

Especially since I don't think that Aslan really changes size. He just seems bigger, b/c the children know more about Him.

[wood-maid]

[Stanley Anderson]

[Pete]