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[singeivoire]

Actually, I'll be really surprised if they do all of the books: I suspect they'll stall after Dawn Treader. Maybe they'll do The Silver Chair if everyone likes whoever they get to play Eustace. It seems hard to market a series of movies that completely changes cast every installment.

I liked the movie. It was superior to the book in that it wasn't told entirely in flashback. Prince Caspian was the least compelling of the original novels in my opinion, so the fact that it was an engaging movie made me very happy indeed.

SPOILERS

Am I the only person who was mildly bothered by the kiss at the end?

[ummmkay]

Definitely not. I went with a group of about 30 people and I can't think of a single person who didn't hate it.

Also that cheesy song.

[Ikrik]

I never read the Chronicles of Narnia as a child and so I've totally missed the bandwagon with these movies.  Harry Potter, yeah I read the books.  Redwall? Hell yes, and they would make magnificent movies.....but Narnia?  Nope.  So when I heard there was going to be a Narnia movie I didn't understand why people were so stoked.  I then watched The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe and was incredibly dissapointed.  Prince Caspian looks exactly the same to me, it seems to me like a kiddy lord of the rings but without a cast that I actually care about.

[Surgoshan]

What I can recall of my impressions of LWW was that the actors weren't very good.  Since they were supposed to be children cast from the death throes of Victorian England into a fantastical countryside, it made some sense.  They're out of their element, awkward, and uncomfortable.  Peter doesn't know how to wield a sword against the wolf-captain of the White Witch's police because he's a 12 year old boy from frickin' 1940s London.  However, I also got the feeling that the producers decided that this was going to be their budget.

Code: [Select]

    Column A                    Column B
Special Effects          Acting Coaches
---------------          --------------
     All                     None
It could be, however, that that's because they decided to hire children to play the children, and children make notoriously pitiful actors.  (See: Phantom Menace)

[Nodaisho]

I saw it, thought some of it was good, some of it annoyed me*. I haven't read the books for maybe six years now, I still have the box set unless it is in my brother's room now, but I noticed some changes between book and movie. The battle scenes were pretty good, though both my dad and I noticed that after every cut, Susan's quiver seemed to have been refilled, and I don't remember mention of the quiver being magic in LWW, but hey, that doesn't matter. It did fall victim at some points to having people sitting around after they saw an archer so he could shoot them, rather than charge him and knock him down before he could loose an arrow, but it wasn't too noticeable.

*If I ever become an author, and someone wants to buy the rights to the movie, one of the pieces of fine print is going to involve drastic punishment if a love story is added, especially between two pre-existing characters.

[WriterofAllWrongs]

What I can recall of my impressions of LWW was that the actors weren't very good.  Since they were supposed to be children cast from the death throes of Victorian England into a fantastical countryside, it made some sense.  They're out of their element, awkward, and uncomfortable. 

I can't stand the kids.  The kid who played Peter has a huge problem with yelling (See: Daniel Radcliffe), and he ends up sounding like he's trying to rally his troops through a mouth full of tuna salad.  He's reasonable good at playing the snotty ass Peter tends to be, but he's a god damned teenager.  That's like casting Samuel L. Jackson as a black man who yells a lot.  Oh wait.  I mean, Jesus.  The small girl was the worst though.  She looked like she should've been cast in a "My Pretty Pony" commercial, but her agent called up and said "Hey, want to play the exact same character, except make a million dollars?" 

Eddie Izzard was fucking ace, though.

[singeivoire]

K, don't hate me, but I think Eddie Izzard had the same problem a lot of actors/comedians who take a shake at voice acting have. He's just not as interesting when you're only listening to him voice a character. I love him, but yeah, I kinda wish they'd gotten an actual voice actor to do the job. So much of the charm of a performer like Eddie Izzard is in watching him. His performance as Reepicheep was okay, of course, but I don't think it was better than most shmoes off the street could do in a pinch.

Not that that hamstringed the movie, by any means. I just think that too often, good voice actors are passed over in hollywood these days in favor of stars with bigger names, and it's often to the detriment of the films they are in. This is one of the many reasons Pixar films (which typically use more voice actors) are so superior to Dreamworks films (which always go for big names).

But that's neither here nor there. Basically, Eddie Izzard in this film = meh.

[Orbert]

For what it's worth, one of the guys I was with thought Reepicheep was hilarious and whoever did his voice was great.  I said "You do realize it's Eddie Izzard, right?" and he had no idea.  We're both big fans, he just never recognized the voice or heard about it beforehand.  To him, it was just Reepicheep's voice.

So chalk up one non-meh for Eddie by someone who didn't even know it was him.

[Boro_Bandito]

I thought the voice had sounded familiar in theaters, and went home and IMDB'd it. I had wanted to say it was Eddie Izzard, but I wasn't sure, and didn't want to look like an ass in front of my friend who I went to it with. Turns out I was right, damnit. Also I'm pretty sure his name wasn't in the credits for some reason, and I was looking hard.

[Orbert]

It was there.  Not everyone caught that the mouse's name was Reepicheep, so you may have missed it that way, but I do remember seeing Eddie's name in the credits.

[Boro_Bandito]

I happened to know that the mouse's name was Reepicheep, being as he was one of my favorite characters from the books. I'm guessing I just passed over it, for some reason.

[OcculusExInferni]

I saw it, and while it was a decent adaptation, there were too many liberties for my tastes.  Still loved the film, don't misunderstand, but there were just a few moments that needed fleshing out and one GLARINGLY retarded moment that needed to be taken out.

[Inlander]

Also I'm pretty sure his name wasn't in the credits for some reason, and I was looking hard.

It was, but in the credits they broke the cast list into two sections: the first (major) part was people who actually physically appeared on screen, and after that was the list of all the voice-actors.

I enjoyed the film. I didn't go into it expecting or wanting it to be anything other than simple, mindless entertainment, and I got exactly what I paid for. I haven't read the books since I was very young, so I couldn't remember enough about the original text to be nit-picky about the film's faithfulness. One thing I was very impressed and pleased by was the general lack of cheesiness in the films. Contrast, for instance, the way the character of Trumpkin in Prince Caspian was written and acted, to the way character of Gimli in the films of the Lord of the Rings was portrayed: the latter was played almost entirely for laughs, which made the character incredibly one-dimensional and was to the huge detriment of the films; while the former still got plenty of laughs, but was never just the comic relief. Things like that I think the film of Prince Caspian did really well, so well done Andrew Adamson.

[chASS]

THE CHRONIC-WHAT-CLES OF NARNIA!

(i saw it...)

[Cartilage Head]

 That movie kind of sucked. Of course, Prince Caspian is my least favorite of the books.  The book itself is pretty boring, so I suppose they didn't have much to work with. Voyage should be much better.

[rynne]

Late, but....

It seems an odd choice to make the movies in the written order as opposed to the chronological order. I mean, most novel-to-screen movies have to go on the assumption that the books haven't been read.

IIRC, the chronological reordering came about from Lewis' response to a child writing him a letter: the child said he thought the right way to read them was chronologically and his mom said the right way was order of writing.  Lewis wrote back saying he agreed with the child, but it's not clear that he wasn't just being polite.  In any case, it was Lewis' son who seized on that single letter and insisted on reordering the books chronologically after Lewis died (a recent occurrence, too; my childhood set still had LWW first).  AFAIK Lewis himself never had any issues with people reading them in the written order during his lifetime.

Although the good Professor didn't work a Ragnarok into his tale

He did at one point!  The original Book of Lost Tales mythology had a sweet end-times battle where Melkor returns and battles the Valar; Turin was fated to slay Melkor and avenge the Children of Hurin.  But I think that was either deliberately abandoned or just forgotten, 'cause Tolken didn't revisit that scene when he started revising the Silmarillion post-LotR.

[Surgoshan]

My last roommate (a bitch, but that's a different story) had the Chronicles collected into a single book.  It was published some time in the last few years and was collected in the order written rather than chronological.

[Orbert]

I read the books in chronological order, because that's the order my set has them in.  I think it would be interesting to read them in the order in which they were written, because it's always fun to see how the author chose to "fill in the gaps".

As for the order in which they're making the movies, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe is the first book to most people, and had the most potential to make a good first movie anyway.  Even those with the chronological set recognize that The Magician's Nephew is really a prequel to the other Narnia stories.  Prince Caspian made the most sense to make next because it has all four Pevensies and feels the most directly like a sequel.  I don't think it necessarily has anything to do with the publishing order or the chronology; it just made more sense as a cinematic sequel.

[rynne]

Actually, I'll be really surprised if they do all of the books: I suspect they'll stall after Dawn Treader. Maybe they'll do The Silver Chair if everyone likes whoever they get to play Eustace. It seems hard to market a series of movies that completely changes cast every installment.

That's how it was done in the BBC television series.  They did the LWW, PC, VDT, and SC over three series (I think PC and VDT were combined) and then stopped.  It makes sense, 'cause you've got a linear progression of main characters.

[Lines]

Yeah, PC and VDT were combined into one movie. Which was good, because it makes Caspian more interesting.

[Jimmy the Squid]

I saw this today and I was reasonably impressed. I mean, I can't remember the books at all, or even if I read any further than LWW but I enjoyed this film. I was a little confused as to why the Telmarines were Spaniards but hey, whatever I'm not racist. I have plenty of Spanish friends! It was nice that the kids were significantly better actors than they were in the first one and the atmosphere of the whole film was much more gripping.

[MaidMarian]

I saw it, thought some of it was good, some of it annoyed me*. I haven't read the books for maybe six years now, I still have the box set unless it is in my brother's room now, but I noticed some changes between book and movie. The battle scenes were pretty good, though both my dad and I noticed that after every cut, Susan's quiver seemed to have been refilled, and I don't remember mention of the quiver being magic in LWW, but hey, that doesn't matter. It did fall victim at some points to having people sitting around after they saw an archer so he could shoot them, rather than charge him and knock him down before he could loose an arrow, but it wasn't too noticeable.

*If I ever become an author, and someone wants to buy the rights to the movie, one of the pieces of fine print is going to involve drastic punishment if a love story is added, especially between two pre-existing characters.

If you recall, St. Nick came to the kids early on in LWW and gave them special gifts, a magical bow and quiver was given to Susan.

[Nodaisho]

Like I said, I don't remember him saying the quiver was magical. Remember the horn being magical, and lucy's vial, but I don't remember the other stuff being magical.

And you know, right now is the first time I wondered just why the hell saint nick would have a sword, bow, and dagger for teenagers. I mean, sure, they would love them, but I don't think that it would be something their mother would want them to have, even with the two generation gap between now and then.

[0bsessions]

Way back when, people gave their kids weapons for holidays all the time. Not so much swords in the twentieth century, but an archery set? Yeah, that'd have been a common gift.

[rynne]

Or an official Red Ryder carbine-action two-hundred-shot range model air rifle, for that matter.

Anyway, you know, different universe.  If you’re accepting talking god-lions and witches, I don’t think Santa Claus handing out weaponry is that unbelievable.

[Orbert]

 

Excellent point.

[Nodaisho]

Or an official Red Ryder carbine-action two-hundred-shot range model air rifle, for that matter.

Anyway, you know, different universe.  If you’re accepting talking god-lions and witches, I don’t think Santa Claus handing out weaponry is that unbelievable.

Yeah, but wouldn't he have the presents that they were supposed to have gotten in England? Or maybe he only gives presents in Narnia, but knows when people will be entering Narnia, and knows that they will need presents.

These days I wouldn't be surprised if parents were horrified by hearing about their kid's friend getting so much as a pocketknife for christmas, but I think that is a big change over just one generation, when my dad was in elementary, they played Mumblety Peg during recess, now you aren't even supposed to take pocketknives to summer camp.

[Surgoshan]

Besides, it would have been kind of lame if he gave them a rocking horse or candy cane to fight with.

I dunno, watching Lucy stab the White Witch with a cane while Susan ripped her head off with a rocking horse would have been pretty damn awesome.

[Nodaisho]

Yeah, it is important that they got what they did, but I still think there is a bit of a fridge logic moment there.

[Nodaisho]

Not really, just because one thing that isn't true here is true there doesn't mean that all logic is gone.

[Nodaisho]

I don't find it odd that he knows where they are, I do find it odd that he would give them toys that they wouldn't have gotten in England.

[Liz]

If you lived in Alaska and asked for snowboots for Christmas, would you still want those boots if your family moved to Mexico suddenly? Probably not. Needs change!