Disrecommendation for new Prince Caspian
Media ·Saturday February 7, 2009 @ 19:26 EST (link)
I was recently discussing my disappointment with the new Chronicles of Narnia* first installment with someone on the Duvall list; it started with me posting the "never get out" quote in reference to the snow and then flooding, which I've used here before as it happens, which she recognized as being from The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. The conversation, which I'm recording so I have a place to point to when I tell people I dislike the new movies (the effects are pretty, the script is poor; these are reversed for the BBC versions, but they did what they could with the budget and technology they had 20 years ago). As I frequently do, the other party is identified by initials for their Internet privacy, but I don't believe they would object to the contents of the conversation being divulged; some minor edits were made.
* Contrary to popular belief, the title of the first movie (and book) isn't The Chronicles of Narnia (which legitimately refers to the series), it's The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (or perhaps more correctly for the movie, Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe; it is far more intelligent to it by identifying the work and not the whole series).
DR: "Never get out!" he yelled. "That's it. Of course. We shall never get out. What a fool I was to have thought they would let me go as easily as that. No, no, we shall never get out."
JS: Voyage of the Dawn Treader?
DR: Indeed :). They're among my favorite books-my wife berates me for nit-picking the (recent, not the old BBC) movies when they change stuff deleteriously.
JS: Me too! I love those books… my big sister started reading them out loud to me when I was 6, and they still have a special place in my heart.
I am fearful of what the upcoming Voyage of the Dawn Treader movie will be like (I'm assuming there will be one), as I was very disappointed with their take on Prince Caspian (I'm surprised [Rotten Tomatoes] gives it such a high rating… I thought it was awful.)
DR: I haven't watched the new Caspian yet, and don't have especially high hopes.
Several things disappointed me in Lion, among them the scene where the kids hit a cricket ball through the window and that's why they're running from Mrs. McReady and eventually get back to the wardrobe (in the book, as you may recall, they're just trying to get out of her way since she's showing the house). I think it goes to character; perhaps modern younger audiences would better understand running from guilt rather than running to be obedient, which is unfortunate/sad.
My cousin [Anna] back east and I used to try to stump each other with quotes from the books… given a quote identify the speaker/occasion.
I have the old BBC series (my wife got it for me as a gift a few years back); of course the special effects are nowhere near the new series, but the dialog is better (IMO, since it's closer to the books).
JS: Totally agree on your comment about the cricket ball incident. You might want to spare yourself the experience of watching the new Prince Caspian movie at all. They did even more this time that I thought was fundamentally disloyal to the characters and story…. For example at the very beginning of the movie Peter gets in a fistfight at the train station because somebody insulted him, or something like that. In the books Peter is always the calm, responsible, level-headed one… he would never get a fistfight, much less over something so petty. Plus they fabricated a romance between Caspian and Susan, complete with a kiss scene (!?!?!) C.S. Lewis must be rolling over in his grave. Also, even with all the fancy special effects, they somehow managed to make it boring.
My sister and I used to see if we could remember all the lords without looking at the books… Rhoop, Mavrimorn, etc. :)
