So with the first of the new Narnia movies impending, I thought I might ask a question that I have been playing with for nearly a week.

Last Friday, a very interesting article was brought to my attention that contained information from old interviews with C.S. Lewis. In the said interviews, Lewis stated that, while supporting any endeavors to create radio adaptations of his work, he was against making movies based on his books.

His main reasoning for this is that one of, if not the primary player in his work is a talking, magical lion. As Lewis put it, any attempt to extract an anthropomorphic animal from the narrative detracts from its impact, leaving it nothing more than a comical farce in most cases.

Now, given: Lewis made this statement at a time when a character such as this would most likely have been played by a man in a lion suit. Nowadays, we can create such spectacular computer generated special effects as to almost make us believe that things such as a talking lion are quite real. It is quite possible to bring his works to life using todays technology without reducing it to a "farce".

However, I still see where he was going with this. Pulling a creature such as Aslan out of text can and will detract from his image simply because he cannot be captured so perfectly or seamlessly as in the imagination. It is a fact that stands true to nearly all literary characters, but I believe especially to one so fanciful. While other characters might have a different face or outfit applied to them in your mind's eye, with a character like Aslan, it is deeper. There is no element of "realism" when imagined, and yet it will become the primary factor of judgment upon physically viewing him.

Thus, my question: if we were to use some bad juju and bring C.S. Lewis back from the dead to watch his movie, do you think that he would approve? Based on the trailers I have seen, I think that there is definately a chance that he would be quite happy with it. Yet, there is still the possibility that he would stand by his statement on the principle. He, Tolkien and the rest of those Oxford guys always could be a bit idealistic...

Well, being one of the many to hit up the midnight showing, I think he would like it. Of cource, the dual weilding White Witch was a nice touch.

With a caffeine induced sense of being awake, the CG was good, and it even looks like they had sets to interact with instead of some other movies that cg everything because they can. Aslan is a big lion and has a voice you could easly think of when reading the book.


Overall, I think my $7 was better spent on this movie than a lot of the other movies I've seen recently.

I have read quite a bit about Lewis, Tolkien, and "The Inklings," (I'm that much of a nerd!) and my guess would be that as long as Hollywood didn't take too much license with the crux of the story (which, at it's base, is a straight-up Christophany) Lewis would approve. I remember the old BBC version, where Aslan had as much feeling as a Disney animatronic puppet! Hard to convey a lot of feeling with that bad boy, but with today's extraordinary CG I think we could get past that.

I have heard nothing but good things about the movie from my friends who have seen it. I'm really looking forward to getting to the theater.

I'm really looking forward to seeing it. I wonder what order they're going to release the movies in though, since they changed it with the books.

I just saw it today, and I must say (even though it has been years since I read the book) that I was quite pleased with it. The CG flowed so well as if they really were there, and the children were, truly, adorable. Ok, Lucy was. I think they were chosen perfectly for there parts. And the White Witch was hawt, and scary as hell.

And I really agree, well worth the $7.

(Oh yes, and hi, n00bishness going on here. *raises the roof*)

I believe that if you brought C.S. Lewis back from the dead, he would call you a demon.

Bret

Nah... without Tolkien watching over his shoulder, I bet ol' C.S. would think it was pretty darn cool.

well the witch was hot that was the shining point of the movie in fact the only reason to watch *shudder*