I just find it stupid that they are asking the stepson whose only involvement with the books was reading them as a child. Yesthere’s something in asking the author what he meant, but that doesn’t extend to the family. If Gresham had evidence that Lewis thought it was unimportant, fine. But the guy’s own personal opinions are only as relevant as the opinion of a random guy off the street. We have no indication that Gresham ever read the books with a critical or interpretive eye.
I bet Lewis would wish he turned over the books to Brown, and just the money to Gresham.
I actually had serious doubts that Voyage of the Dawn Treader could be filmed at all, because the book has no particular plot. It essentially consists of sailing from island to island, having a minor adventure on each, and then getting to the End of the World. This is an undeniably cool image, but not really much of a climax.
In short, it seemed to me, Dawn Treader works well has a book, but, with no linking plot at all, I was deeply unsure about how it could work as a film.
So, of course, they gave it an overarching plot. Oh. Okay.
Now, you may argue with the specifics of the plot – and, no, they don’t really make a lot of sense, and yes, it would have been nice to have seen some of the bits that got left out – but of all the first four books, Dawn Treader was the one that needed changes to make it filmable at all.
I didn’t think it was as good a film as The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, but I think I liked it as much as Prince Caspian. I’d give it a 70% grade.
The issue of his age bothered me more at the end than this scene in the beginning. Why are Edmund and Lucy done with Narnia when they’re so much younger than their siblings were? I suppose it might say in the books, but I finished reading the series more than 20 years ago, so my memory of the books at all is fuzzy.
When the kids protest him going on to Aslan’s lands, Aslan points out that he’s lived a very long time for a mouse. Aslan doesn’t define “a very long time” but it seems to bolster Reepicheep’s claims.
Okay…I have a question for you all…are my friend and I the only ones who wondered how they could have a dragon pull the ship if they were already down to half-rations? The dragon isn’t shown hunting sealife, and it would take a lot of energy to pull a ship, so they must have been feeding him…
Dawn Treader was always my favorite book, so I was really nervous about seeing this. And the little bit of Eustace I saw in the trailers wasn’t how I pictured him at all, so I wondered if I’d like him.
Overall I really am happy! Definitely better than PC. I could have done without the swords and green mist, and feel like searching for the 7 lords could have been enough. And I hated the changes to the Lone Islands/Lord Bern, but whatever. It also made me sad that Lord Rhoop didn’t get to sleep with the sleeping lords.
Ended up loving Eustace! He may not look like what I picture, but his acting was awesome and perfect. I also really liked Drinian, who I always had trouble picturing in the books. I really liked combining Goldwater and Dragon Islands, and was glad Eustace was a dragon longer, although I did not like the way the sea serpent was handled. Loved the Duffers and Magician. Loved the scenes with the book, and will put up with Lucy’s dream/vision of using the spell to see the Peter/Susan cameo.
Wish they’d mentioned Caspian & Ramandu’s daughter, but no way to really tack that on. Loved that Caspian saved Edmund’s torch!!
I’m sure I have more opinions on a lot more parts, but those are the things I’m thinking of right now. Overall I liked it.
Meant to comment on the 5-year-old thing. My daughter loves the books. She even said five or six times that “I hope they don’t skip my favorite part – the sea serpent!!” My daughter loves things like Harry Potter and Star Wars. But the Sea Serpent really scared her quite a bit, and she spent a big chunk of that part of the movie buried in my lap.
Now granted, once it was over she just said that she wished it had been done differently, and proceeded to describe what she would have done. And I don’t think she’ll have any nightmares or anything like that. That’s just the type of kid she is.