The Essence of Narnia
Posted: Jun 02, 2017 8:38 am
More than anything else in his Q&A video, Joe Johnston talked over and over about capturing the Essence of Narnia in The Silver Chair. So, I thought I'd start a thread to talk about what the essence of Narnia is to you?
Most kids I know that read Narnia go digging through their closets looking for Narnia, but the movie Narnia was not a place I wanted to go visit. Why? It wasn't really any more dark or dangerous than the books, but then I realized that what the movies majorly missed out on to counter the dark and danger, was joy. Even LWW which was the closest in terms of adaptation cut almost everything wonderful that was in the book, with the exception of when Lucy first walks in through the Wardrobe. Frustrating as they even filmed several scenes like Susan making snow angels and the coronation dance. No playing with Aslan after his resurrection, and my FAVORITE scene in the book where Aslan brings all of the statues to life was turned into a sob fest in the movie.
Moving onto Prince Caspian, the wonder Caspian feels when meeting the Pevensies, gone. The official romp, non-orgy with the Greek Gods, gone. Aslan freeing the Telmarine villagers, gone.
I only saw VDT once in theaters, so I barely even remember that one, though I do remember feeling some wonder of being at sea, it was overshadowed by the green mist. Ramandu's island was pretty stupid, I remember that, and that was a pretty wondrous moment in the book.
Anyways, moving onto my point. I feel like the wonder and joy of Narnia is its essence. Admittedly, SC doesn't have a lot of it, maybe that's why people consider it one of the darkest books. But there is a scene at the end, the Snowball Dance that is so inherently Narnian and I am BEGGING and PLEADING with the filmmakers to keep this scene, or at the very least, replace it with something similar. I've always wanted to see the snowball dance on screen, and I think it could be soooo cool (no pun intended).
Most kids I know that read Narnia go digging through their closets looking for Narnia, but the movie Narnia was not a place I wanted to go visit. Why? It wasn't really any more dark or dangerous than the books, but then I realized that what the movies majorly missed out on to counter the dark and danger, was joy. Even LWW which was the closest in terms of adaptation cut almost everything wonderful that was in the book, with the exception of when Lucy first walks in through the Wardrobe. Frustrating as they even filmed several scenes like Susan making snow angels and the coronation dance. No playing with Aslan after his resurrection, and my FAVORITE scene in the book where Aslan brings all of the statues to life was turned into a sob fest in the movie.
Moving onto Prince Caspian, the wonder Caspian feels when meeting the Pevensies, gone. The official romp, non-orgy with the Greek Gods, gone. Aslan freeing the Telmarine villagers, gone.
I only saw VDT once in theaters, so I barely even remember that one, though I do remember feeling some wonder of being at sea, it was overshadowed by the green mist. Ramandu's island was pretty stupid, I remember that, and that was a pretty wondrous moment in the book.
Anyways, moving onto my point. I feel like the wonder and joy of Narnia is its essence. Admittedly, SC doesn't have a lot of it, maybe that's why people consider it one of the darkest books. But there is a scene at the end, the Snowball Dance that is so inherently Narnian and I am BEGGING and PLEADING with the filmmakers to keep this scene, or at the very least, replace it with something similar. I've always wanted to see the snowball dance on screen, and I think it could be soooo cool (no pun intended).