# Disney jumps ship from "Dawn Treader," Narnia in peril **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 24, 2008, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disney-jumps-ship-from-dawn-treader-narnia-in-peril/478583 "2008-12-24T19:21:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2008, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disney-jumps-ship-from-dawn-treader-narnia-in-peril/478583/1 "2008-12-24T19:21:36Z")
The Hollywood Reporter [reports](http://www.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idUSTRE4BN0M520081224) that the Walt Disney Company has decided to no longer partner with Walden Media on the franchise of films based on C.S. Lewis’s _Chronicles of Narnia_ series due to the high budget involved (and possibly because _Prince Caspian_ failed to do as well at the box-office as its first installment). Walden Media, who specializes in inspiring, family-friendly films inspired by well-known books, is now searching for another partner for the high-cost franchise, with 20th Century Fox possibly being a most likely distributor. _The Voyage of the Dawn Treader_, the third installment, was originally supposed to film in Spring 2009 for a 2010 release. With the less-than-expected results of _Caspian_ and _The Golden Compass_ at the box office (the latter’s poor results due in part to a campaign against it waged by religious groups), some in Hollywood are wondering if the fantasy genre is worth the large amount put into it. If Warner’s delayed sixth _Harry Potter_ film- delayed in order to avoid competition with _Twilight_- does as well as the studio hopes it does in its new competition-free opening slot, perhaps studios will be more willing to take the risk. ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2008, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disney-jumps-ship-from-dawn-treader-narnia-in-peril/478583/2 "2008-12-24T19:29:15Z")
Myself, I’ve been wondering if they could ever possibly do a ‘Dawn Treader’ movie decently. Compared with LWW and Prince Caspian, the text isn’t great for adaptation. Of course, if they wanted to leverage a proven recent blockbuster formula, they could make it about Captain Caspian Sparrow. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2008, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disney-jumps-ship-from-dawn-treader-narnia-in-peril/478583/3 "2008-12-24T19:32:10Z")
> [@chrisk](#): > > Of course, if they wanted to leverage a proven recent blockbuster formula, they could make it about Captain Caspian Sparrow. 😃 Any Dawn Treader film has to focus on the real star of the story…Reepicheep! ---
**Author:** ![GilaB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@GilaB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GilaB)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2008, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disney-jumps-ship-from-dawn-treader-narnia-in-peril/478583/4 "2008-12-24T19:39:30Z")
> [@chrisk](#): > > Myself, I’ve been wondering if they could ever possibly do a ‘Dawn Treader’ movie decently. Compared with LWW and Prince Caspian, the text isn’t great for adaptation. Ditto. ‘Dawn Treader’ is pretty episodic - the crew sails to various islands, and has a discrete adventure in each place - the island where there’s the pool of water that turns everything to gold, the island with the wizard and the invisible hopping beings, the place where Eustace turns into a dragon, etc. There’s not so much to connect each incident to the next, other than the over-arching quest to find the seven (?) lords who sailed from Narnia, which I’ve never found all that compelling. ‘The Silver Chair’ is a reasonably straightforward narrative, and could totally work. ‘A Horse and His Boy’ is very filmable, and pretty stand-alone, although you’d have to modify the parody-Muslim Telmarines. I’m skeptical of the ‘The Last Battle,’ ever working as a movie, probably because I don’t think the last book works particularly well as a book, but I doubt the film series will get that far. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2008, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disney-jumps-ship-from-dawn-treader-narnia-in-peril/478583/5 "2008-12-24T19:45:15Z")
Yeah, I never thought this was a really good idea to begin with. I saw the first one and it was okay…but I doubt seeing that movie would have given a kid the magical feeling that reading the books did for me. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2008, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disney-jumps-ship-from-dawn-treader-narnia-in-peril/478583/6 "2008-12-24T19:47:25Z")
> [@GilaB](#): > > Ditto. ‘Dawn Treader’ is pretty episodic - the crew sails to various islands, and has a discrete adventure in each place… Why does that make it not translate to the screen? What’s wrong with episodes? In other tales of this sort, the screen treatments just leave some of the episodes out for time reasons, although I hope they wouldn’t do that here. ---
**Author:** ![sciurophobic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@sciurophobic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciurophobic)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2008, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disney-jumps-ship-from-dawn-treader-narnia-in-peril/478583/7 "2008-12-24T19:53:40Z")
> [@mobo85](#): > > The Hollywood Reporter With the less-than-expected results of _Caspian_ and _The Golden Compass_ at the box office (the latter’s poor results due in part to a campaign against it waged by religious groups), some in Hollywood are wondering if the fantasy genre is worth the large amount put into it. If Warner’s delayed sixth _Harry Potter_ film- delayed in order to avoid competition with _Twilight_- does as well as the studio hopes it does in its new competition-free opening slot, perhaps studios will be more willing to take the risk. Other than Harry Potter, has any fantasy series been made into a successful series? His Dark Materials, A Series of Unfortunate Events, Eragon, Spiderwick Chronicles, The Dark is Rising, none of these did well enough for even one sequel. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2008, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disney-jumps-ship-from-dawn-treader-narnia-in-peril/478583/8 "2008-12-24T19:56:26Z")
> [@sciurophobic](#): > > Other than Harry Potter, has any fantasy series been made into a successful series? His Dark Materials, A Series of Unfortunate Events, Eragon, Spiderwick Chronicles, The Dark is Rising, none of these did well enough for even one sequel. There was one franchise that _lord_ed over its competition and kept _ring_ing in the dough. Damn if I knew what it was called, though. ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2008, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disney-jumps-ship-from-dawn-treader-narnia-in-peril/478583/9 "2008-12-24T20:07:09Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > Why does that make it not translate to the screen? What’s wrong with episodes? > > In other tales of this sort, the screen treatments just leave some of the episodes out for time reasons, although I hope they wouldn’t do that here. I’m not sure, but I think part of what I was thinking of is that there’s no great sense of urgency to the plot or the motivations of the characters, which helps a lot in creating a fantasy movie that a lot of people can relate to. Both ‘Lion, the witch, and the wardrobe’ and Prince Caspian are about fighting to free the kingdom from a great tyrant who’s taken over. The Last Battle is, for most of its length, about a reverse of this, trying to save Narnia from a dastardly plot to doom it without even letting its inhabitants defend themselves. The silver chair is a quest to save somebody who’s being held hostage, essentially. Horse and his boy takes a storyline about a group of misfits and prisoners trying to escape a hostile land and reach freedom, and mixes in a bit of the ‘fighting against invaders’ stuff halfway in. Try to boil down ‘Dawn treader’ to an essential conflict the same way, and what do you get? They’re sailing through unexplored territory, trying to track down a bunch of exiles who went this same way decades ago, and also hoping to sail to the edge of the world, or get to Aslans’ country, which is somewhere around here according to legend. 😃 Somehow, to me, it doesn’t have the same punch as any of the others. ---
**Author:** ![sciurophobic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@sciurophobic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciurophobic)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2008, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disney-jumps-ship-from-dawn-treader-narnia-in-peril/478583/10 "2008-12-24T20:42:11Z")
> [@mobo85](#): > > There was one franchise that _lord_ed over its competition and kept _ring_ing in the dough. Damn if I knew what it was called, though. Forgot about that one, but that’s because I was thinking more of the children’s fantasy genre. ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2008, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disney-jumps-ship-from-dawn-treader-narnia-in-peril/478583/11 "2008-12-24T20:46:25Z")
> [@sciurophobic](#): > > Other than Harry Potter, has any fantasy series been made into a successful series? His Dark Materials, A Series of Unfortunate Events, Eragon, Spiderwick Chronicles, The Dark is Rising, none of these did well enough for even one sequel. > [@mobo85](#): > > There was one franchise that _lord_ed over its competition and kept _ring_ing in the dough. Damn if I knew what it was called, though. DQed on a technicality. **The Lord of the Rings** was written as a novel, not a series. Although it was originally published in three parts for economic reasons, the author always considered it a single work. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2008, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disney-jumps-ship-from-dawn-treader-narnia-in-peril/478583/12 "2008-12-24T20:52:28Z")
> [@mobo85](#): > > With the less-than-expected results of _Caspian_ and _The Golden Compass_ at the box office (the latter’s poor results due in part to a campaign against it waged by religious groups I’d say the golden compass did poorly because it sucked not because of any religious campaign. In fact usually a religious campaign against a movie or TV show results in massive popularity, like the southpark episode were the virgin mary statue has her period that had about 9 times as many viewers as any other episode in some country (i wanna say australia) after a massive campaign against it. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2008, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disney-jumps-ship-from-dawn-treader-narnia-in-peril/478583/13 "2008-12-24T21:39:22Z")
For that matter, Prince Caspian really wasn’t that hot, either. They really glommed up the plot and by the end it was barely recognizable. ---
**Author:** ![Vox\_Imperatoris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Vox\_Imperatoris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vox_Imperatoris)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2008, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disney-jumps-ship-from-dawn-treader-narnia-in-peril/478583/14 "2008-12-24T22:20:04Z")
I agree that _The Voyage of the Dawn Treader_ doesn’t seem like a good candidate for movie adaptation, but I hope they don’t stop because they haven’t gotten around to _The Magician’s Nephew_ (which was always the most “magical” to me) and _The Horse and His Boy_, which were my favorites. And I think making _The Horse and His Boy_ not about Muslims and either making the Calormen completely evil “baddies” or (worse IMO) a completely misunderstood culture equal to Narnia would kind of defeat the purpose of their existence. Valete, Vox Imperatoris ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2008, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disney-jumps-ship-from-dawn-treader-narnia-in-peril/478583/15 "2008-12-25T00:59:09Z")
> [@TWDuke](#): > > DQed on a technicality. **The Lord of the Rings** was written as a novel, not a series. Although it was originally published in three parts for economic reasons, the author always considered it a single work. Harry Potter was also planned as a series, with events building as it went on. Narnia was one book, with others more or less randomly added. I’m only surprised it only made it to two books, but times are tough and Disney can’t afford to spend a lot on an almost certain bomb. ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2008, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disney-jumps-ship-from-dawn-treader-narnia-in-peril/478583/16 "2008-12-25T01:27:10Z")
> [@sciurophobic](#): > > Other than Harry Potter, has any fantasy series been made into a successful series? “Twilight” seems to be off to a running start… ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2008, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disney-jumps-ship-from-dawn-treader-narnia-in-peril/478583/17 "2008-12-25T01:38:32Z")
> [@chrisk](#): > > Try to boil down ‘Dawn treader’ to an essential conflict the same way, and what do you get? They’re sailing through unexplored territory, trying to track down a bunch of exiles who went this same way decades ago, and also hoping to sail to the edge of the world, or get to Aslans’ country, which is somewhere around here according to legend. 😃 Somehow, to me, it doesn’t have the same punch as any of the others. I’m tempted to ask, does that mean it wouldn’t work as well as a movie, or that it wouldn’t fit the standard Hollywood Movie Formula? Because frankly, I’m getting a little tired of movies that fit the formula. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2008, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disney-jumps-ship-from-dawn-treader-narnia-in-peril/478583/18 "2008-12-25T02:54:08Z")
I wept in sorrow & joy during Lion. I didn’t expect to at Caspian or for any other except perhaps Silver Chair until The Last Battle. Then I expect to cry like a baby. (I have an epilogue idea involving Susan I would love to see.) Can’t say I’m surprised by Disney’s decision, but I’m still disappointed. Still, I’m sure someone will pick up the mantle. ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2008, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disney-jumps-ship-from-dawn-treader-narnia-in-peril/478583/19 "2008-12-25T04:34:07Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > I’m tempted to ask, does that mean it wouldn’t work as well as a movie, or that it wouldn’t fit the standard Hollywood Movie Formula? Because frankly, I’m getting a little tired of movies that fit the formula. More or less. I still don’t know that much about the Hollywood business, but I’ve been getting interested in screenwriting, and I understand a bit about the rules of hollywood features. You can make a movie that doesn’t follow the rules and is wildly popular. Pulp Fiction seems to fit into that category to me. 😉 But you need to be **good** to do that, and I don’t think that starting with a book that doesn’t follow the Hollywood Movie Formula is the best way of doing that. Of course, that gets us into the question of whether it’s worthwhile making a movie that isn’t going to be ‘wildly popular’… ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2008, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disney-jumps-ship-from-dawn-treader-narnia-in-peril/478583/20 "2008-12-25T05:00:58Z")
I think _Dawn Treader_ would work just fine as a movie, and yes, I’m quite familiar with all the books in the Narnia series. They each have their special charm. The only thing that bothers me about _Dawn Treader_ is the book’s ending, which never felt satisfying, but since a sequel is likely in the movie world, maybe that doesn’t matter anymore. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disney-jumps-ship-from-dawn-treader-narnia-in-peril/478583.md?page=2)