How Walden Media have influenced the movies.

[RolacolaandAslansmane]

Hello there!
My name is Alex and i'm busy doing a small research project for college. The question I am trying to answer is 'How the Christian based institution "Walden Media" has influenced the projects which they have been involved in'. I need to collect some primary research, so it would be lovely if you could answer these questions:

Do you think the adaption of the movies so far have honored the books well?

Do you feel Walden Media had much input with the foundations, message and values of the movies?

What morals do you think the movies are trying to convey?

Are you pleased with the marketting towards the Christian community with VDT? And do you think they should have also targetted them when marketting PC?


It would be lovely if you could answer some of these questions, and just generally discuss Walden Media's input with all three movies.

[starkat]

Alex, are you sure that using a Narnia fan site as a research source is a good idea? All we can offer here is opinions not fact. We can't offer a source like a journal article or anything more legitimate than that.

[RolacolaandAslansmane]

I need personal opinions aswell as fact, so any kind of reply would be amazing. I've been collecting journals, books etc myself anyway

[Ithilwen]

I'm not exactly sure how much influence Walden Media has on the messages... Probably most of it is due to the decisions of the director, and the guidance of Douglas Gresham.

I do think they did an amazing job in certain ways -- especially the Lucy/Aslan relationship. Complete example of the relationship we, as Christians, should have with God.

Other things I'm not so fond of. The sticking in of more worldly messages to make it more "appealing", isn't strictly accurate to the spirit of the book, plus it makes the films more stereotypical. One example of this is when Father Christmas says the winter is lessening because of the "hope the Pevensies brought", instead of the coming of Aslan. Typical "Let's make a hero" instead of "Let's follow God".

But I must commend them and Andrew Adamson for pushing such a blatently obvious Christian message into the secular mainstream audience.

By the way, is Walden Media a Christian based institution? I hadn't heard that before...


~Riella

[Dr Elwin Ransom]

'How the Christian based institution "Walden Media" has influenced the projects which they have been involved in'.

(I)s Walden Media a Christian based institution? I hadn't heard that before...

That was my thought as well, Rola. I'm unsure if it was you or a teacher/professor who proposed the subject of the research project you mentioned, but I strongly suggest questioning its basic premise on at least that point. Walden Media may have been started by a Christian, or have Christian employees, but it is not a "Christian based institution." It says its goals are to provide family entertainment, and it does a lot of tie-in books/curriculum, etc., between their movies and public schools.

A Christian nonprofit organization like, say, Answers in Genesis or Samaritan Ministries, with specifically Christian goals and actions, is much different from a for-profit business that happens to be run by Christians.

I am of course not saying that a nonprofit organization is more spiritual or superior to a business. All things should be done to God's glory (Colossians 3:23) and that includes business and employer/employee relationships (later in Colossians 3). Christians have different gifts in the Spirit and different callings, both "secular" and "sacred," which are really all "sacred" if done for God's glory, according to His Word.

But perhaps you might consider not over-Christianizing something, in a way opposite from those who tend to ignore Christian worldviews that influence a company or practice. And methinks you can still conduct the research -- though I'd certainly suggest using more than NarniaWeb responders as part of your survey group.

[StarAsterisk]

Do you think the adaption of the movies so far have honored the books well?
Of course I would have made them MORE similar to the books but i know they made the changes for a reason an overall i think it was and excellent adaption. Walden Media seems to be good at that.



Do you feel Walden Media had much input with the foundations, message and values of the movies?
Yes, they made the movies! Besides, you would have to change a lot to do away with the messages and values of Narnia.



What morals do you think the movies are trying to convey?
The same ones that are in the books.



Are you pleased with the marketting towards the Christian community with VDT?
What marketing towards the Christian community? All I see is marketing towards the general community but that's just me, I assume they've marketed in places I haven't seen. So the answer is... idk.

And do you think they should have also targetted them when marketting PC?
Of course.

[RolacolaandAslansmane]

Thank you all for commenting, I didn't need many replies for my project so this is excellent! Thanks!
I have changed my project title since and made it kind of broader, so I could research the christian elements of the movie aswell as look at other peices of marketting for the movie.

_Lilliandil_, they have done a lot tbh, I know they've got a whole 'Christian tie-in' book range which I suppose is only right since it is influenced a lot by the bible etc

Ithilwen and Dr Elwin Ransom, you were very helpful. Thank you

[Pepper]

It would be interesting to see Rola's finished project, don't you all think?

[RolacolaandAslansmane]

You serious? If you want to see it you can

I split the project into three films with four sub-headings.
Marketing, pre-production, casting and response.
It was actual hard to find anything about Walden Media. Has anyone ever tried to contact them before? I sent them a few emails asking for a mission statement but they said I should phone the office (which I obviously couldn't do because I like in the UK and the office is somewhere in American.)
Their mission statement on the website just seems to be something like "We make childrens movies and here are the those we have been involved in"
I wouldn't of minded something more to write about!

x