[Salty]

OK, well as we know the big film this Christmas will probably be The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. When I heard they were making the books into a movie I was like hmmm maybe I should read the books first. And my room mate decided since he loved the books and what not, bought me the box set of the 7 books. As a result of that, I didn't do any papers for about a week .
First of all let me say I LOVED the books. They were amazing books. I can't say enough good things about them, in fact I'll probably regularly read them to my kids. That said, I'm a lil scared about this movie. Visually it looks even better than Lord of the Rings, potentially because there was a lot more beauty in the Narnia series than in Lord of the Rings. That said, I'm really worried after seeing the trailer that they are not going to actually stay true to the books.

For example in the trailer when Lucy finds the wardrobe in the movie, unless the trailer is different, there's a bright light inside of the Wardrobe, when in the books it plainly says that it was dark in there and smelt of mothballs and what not.
I mean yah right now that's just a small thing but if they can't even get that small thing right, is the rest of it going to be true to the books?

As well I can easily see tLtWatW being adapted to a movie fairly easily. But what about a book like Voyage of the Dawn Treader? I could also see there being a fair bit of trouble with the magicians nephew.

So anyway... uhhh discuss the movie(s)

[Kevin]

I remember the original movie back in the day...

The ice witch was such a bitch.

[brapper]

I don't remember the books well..
But I'm excited for the movie.

[JoshuaZ]

Yeah, I have very found memories of the original movies. Good stuff. Also looking forward to seeing it this xmas.

[Salty]

By the way encase anyone is thinking of reading the books, keep this in mind Jesus = Aslan.

[Kevin]

Silly, Jesus wasn't asian!

[besson3c]

There was a bit on NPR about how the lion is supposed to represent God or Jesus in this movie (can't remember), so Disney is making a statement by releasing a movie like this.

Disney won't really market this movie heavily to the Christian crowd though, which is probably wise.

[Doofy]

Meh. They're doing "Wardrobe" first? I hate it when they do stuff out of order. George Lucas.

[Teronzhul]

edit: unnecessary

Originally Posted by Doofy

Meh. They're doing "Wardrobe" first? I hate it when they do stuff out of order. George Lucas.

Normally I would agree, but for Narnia I think that The Magicians Nephew really isn't as good a starting point as Wardrobe. Wardrobe introduces us to the children, which are the central characters for several of the books. If they make the other novels into movies as well, I assume that they'll probably follow the publication order rather than the chronological order. Lewis would probably have preferred it the other way around though.

http://www.dummies.com/WileyCDA/Dumm...e/id-3205.html

[ApplCmptrDood]

I'm going to see an advanced screening on December 8 - , I got invited by one of my friends, it looks like it's gonna be great!

[DeathMan]

Wardrobe is supposed to be first.

[rickey939]

I'm excited for the movie. I need to re-read the books 1st though.

[olePigeon]

Wardrobe is what kids read when the Bible was too boring. At least, that's what I did.

[Railroader]

I reread the series my self in anticipation of the movie. The little details don't bother me as long as they don't change character development too much.

Wasn't The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe written first?

[isao bered]

if it's done decently, i'll likely enjoy it. though i'd probably like a well-produced "out of the silent planet" a bit more.

be well.

laeth

[JoshuaZ]

Originally Posted by olePigeon

Wardrobe is what kids read when the Bible gets too complicated and they realize things on their own. At least, that's what I did.

Fixed

[cjrivera]

I loved this series as a kid, and read through the series 20+ times when I was younger. When I heard the movie adaptations were coming out, I felt 10yrs old again. Rummaging through my old stuff, I found my old Narnia books.

I plan to read the The Lion, the Witch, & The Wardrobe to my kids over the next few weeks, and then take them to the movie. Hopefully they do a good job in the translation from book to movie.

(edited: Reworded so as not to sound like a 4th grader writing an essay. Man, I need some sleep.)

[Dark Helmet]

To me it looks like Lord of the Rings for kids.

Read it as a kid, don't remember more than one scene though.

[gururafiki]

Originally Posted by besson3c

There was a bit on NPR about how the lion is supposed to represent God...

I heard that this morning. I'v read the books, and never thought of it that way, but I guess its up for interpretation by the interpreter.

I thought the books were awesome, at least when I was a kid, and I am excited about the movie. I just hope its not full of too much hollywood/disney cheesiness.

[Rev-O]

Originally Posted by Salty

By the way encase anyone is thinking of reading the books, keep this in mind Jesus = Aslan.

Absolutely Jesus = Aslan. Whack you over the head obvious and intentional. Good stuff! Looking forward to the movie.

[Railroader]

Remeber, it was written by C.S. Lewis a friend of J.R.R. Tolkein.

/Quick info link.

Name at birth: Clive Staples Lewis
Lewis was a high-powered Oxford professor and perhaps the 20th century's most famous convert to Christianity. An atheist from boyhood, he converted at age 33 and devoted much of the rest of his life to writing about faith. His series of allegorical books known as The Chronicles of Narnia remains especially popular with children. Lewis and his close friend J.R.R. Tolkien were part of the casual Oxford literary group known as The Inklings.

[Salty]

They're actually getting surprisingly deep into the whole Christian aspect of it seeing as how they've asked a bunch of Christian recording artists to make a CD of songs inspired by the books. Granted I have no idea if they'll be using these in the movies but whatever. I mean getting Toby Mac, Jeremy Camp, Jars of Clay etc is pretty well setting this up as a movie that at least gives Christians a nice lil bow which is good since they really are part of modern day Christian heritage.
As well Aslan is blatantly a representation of Jesus. At the end of Dawn Treader Asland tells Lucy and Edmund that they will not be coming back to Narnia, instead they need to get to know Him in their world.

[DeathMan]

Just cashing in on our Lord and Saviour. Everyone else is doing it, why not Disney, right?

[Doofy]

Originally Posted by Railroader

Wasn't The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe written first?

Yep. But The Magician's Nephew should be read first (according to CS Lewis).

[- - e r i k - -]

From the ever reliable Wikipedia:

Numbering the books, publication order and internal chronology

The books of the series, in the order of their publication, are:

1. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950)
2. Prince Caspian (1951)
3. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952)
4. The Silver Chair (1953)
5. The Horse and His Boy (1954)
6. The Magician's Nephew (1955)
7. The Last Battle (1956)

The first American publisher, Macmillan, put numbers on the books and used the publication order. When HarperCollins took over the series, the books were renumbered using the internal chronological order, as suggested by Lewis' stepson, Douglas Gresham.

1. The Magician's Nephew (1955)
2. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950)
3. The Horse and His Boy (1954)
4. Prince Caspian (1951)
5. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952)
6. The Silver Chair (1953)
7. The Last Battle (1956)

Gresham quoted Lewis' reply to a letter from an American fan in 1957, who was having an argument with his mother about the order:

"I think I agree with your order (i.e. chronological) for reading the books more than with your mother's. The series was not planned beforehand as she thinks. When I wrote The Lion I did not know I was going to write any more. Then I wrote P. Caspian as a sequel and still didn't think there would be any more, and when I had done The Voyage I felt quite sure it would be the last. But I found as I was wrong. So perhaps it does not matter very much in which order anyone read them. I'm not even sure that all the others were written in the same order in which they were published."

Nevertheless, the reordering has angered many fans of the series, who appreciate the original order as it introduces important parts of the Narnia universe in the early part of the series and then provides explanation for them later in the prequels, in particular the creation story in The Magician's Nephew. Other arguments for the publication order include that Prince Caspian is subtitled "The Return to Narnia", and that the following fragments of text from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe support it as being the first book in the series:

None of the children knew who Aslan was, any more than you do.

That is the very end of the adventure of the wardrobe. But if the Professor was right, it was only the beginning of the adventures of Narnia.

[moonmonkey]

Magicians Nephew is a good book, but wardrobe would make a better opening film.

Most kids wont have a clue about the series so they need to start with the big exiting one.

Get the feeling they will skip some of he weaker books, can't imagine people cueing up round the block to see a dramatisation of Prince Caspian.

[- - e r i k - -]

When I read the books as a kid the christian allusions went straight over my head. But then again, messiah-themes are a common element in literature from superheroes to the matrix.

[xi_hyperon]

I'm in the process of reading the books to my daughter, who loves them. We're both looking forward to seeing the movie next month.

[Uriel]

They do a good job at portraying the wardrobe IMO.

My sister bought the xbox game yesterday and it has a lot of clips from the movie. The wardrobe scene was done quite well.

There will be some differences for sure. (Polar bears instead of reindeer) but as long as the core is kept true, I'll be ok.

I also loved Tumnus, they did a good job with him.

[Uriel]

My guess is they'll combine Prince Caspian and the Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

In the old (crappy) versions of the movies that's what they did and it worked quite well. Just make a 3 hour movie (Like LOTR) and it should be fine.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by Salty

By the way encase anyone is thinking of reading the books, keep this in mind Jesus = Aslan.

Originally Posted by Kevin

Silly, Jesus wasn't asian!

I read the first book and was bored beyond belief. Compared to LOTR, this is really kids stuff.

Yet, I'm gonna wtch the movie. Seems to have some nice action and SFX going.

-t

[greenamp]

LoTR was packed with biblical metephor as well, they just weren't very obvious or literal.

I am excited about Narnia, my only hope is that it isn't embraced and hyped up by the wacky Xtian right, b/c that will surely ruin the movie. The "WWJD" crowd seems to already be hyping up for it though, knowing nothing besides "OMG ASLAN IS JESUS!!!1111!!!"

While Aslan is clearly an allusion to Christ, as well as the Witch, children, Eustace, etc being clear biblical allusions as well, other parts of the books stories are just plain fantasy fiction. The beauty of Narnia is that Lewis was able to incorporate several of the major Christian themes without making it a religious story. The book ( narnia as a whole ) stands alone as one of the greatest pieces of literature of our time.

The chronicles of narnia shouldn't be taken as religious fiction, and CS Lewis did not intend for them to be.

Other notables by Lewis include "Mere Christianity," in which Lewis lays out a clear, logical, non preachy explanation of creationism, and "The Screwtape Letters," which is a correlation of letter correspondence between a young demon on earth and his older uncle Screwtape in hell, as Screwtape tries to guide his young nefew in his attemps to influence a young man on earth.

[RAILhead]

Lewis wrote TCON to be kid books, thus, they read like kid books. And no, Tolkein had no intention of any parallels being drawn between LoTR and the Christian themes -- he said so himself on many occasions.

[macaddict0001]

Originally Posted by Kevin

Silly, Jesus wasn't asian!

he said Aslan not Asian.

Originally Posted by besson3c

There was a bit on NPR about how the lion is supposed to represent God or Jesus in this movie (can't remember), so Disney is making a statement by releasing a movie like this.

While the lion does represent jesus those who worship him are actually worshiping aslan.

Originally Posted by Uriel

They do a good job at portraying the wardrobe IMO.

I disagree I always thought it was far deeper.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by macaddict0001

he said Aslan not Asian.

I'm pretty sure it was a joke. Gotcha !

-t