Sea Serpent Battle

[[wrath]]

A guy in my sisters university class (gold coast Aust.), was an extra in VDT. My sister likes Narnia too (not as much as me, though!), so she asked him about the scenes he did.

(Click to read what he told my sister)

SHOW SPOILER

He told her that he was in the last scene they filmed, and he was a rower on the Dawn Treader, and he had to row the boat into a pretend sea serpent, crushing it into a rock.

Crushing it into a rock??

Definitely different to in the book, where the pushed a loop of the serpents tail off the back of the boat.

Not sure if this information is entirely correct, but what are your thoughts on it anyway?

[icarus]

Compared to some of the other known/rumoured changes made from book to movie, that one doesn't sound too bad at all. Certainly better than the reports of a Dragon battling the sea serpent, which just sounds wildly over-the-top to me (and most people i'd wager). As long as they retain the same general concept as the book, and don't allow it to alter the story too much, i'm not particularly concerned about the specifics of the Sea Serpent scene in terms of how they go about defeating him.

Interestingly enough, we've have had a casting detail for a "Narnian Rower" before - which i might assume to be the same role title as your sister's friend had - so it seems like a credible rumour to me.

If you know the guy's name and don't think he mind you posting it, feel free to add his credit to the VDT Extras Thread: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=371

We've basically been compiling a list of all the known extras-casting details we find into one thread - getting on for 4 pages now. Some very intriguing role titles in there already, and you never know when some of the others might prove to be revealing (i.e. like now! )

[Liberty Hoffman]

wow! that's certainly different from the book! this should be very interesting to see on screen!

I wonder where in the movie this scene will be.....

[redeemedqueen]

I think it would def be more epic the way they did it in the books, but I don't have a huge problem if they change this detail

[fantasia]

Compared to some of the other known/rumoured changes made from book to movie, that one doesn't sound too bad at all. Certainly better than the reports of a Dragon battling the sea serpent, which just sounds wildly over-the-top to me (and most people i'd wager).

I'm going to have to disagree. While a dragon battling a sea serpent is over-the-top for sure, at least it makes sense...

The idea of a rowboat running a sea serpent that's big enough to destroy the Dawn Treader into a rock sounds absolutely... ridiculous. In my mind the rowboat would just bounce right off the serpent. Maybe it will make sense if I actually see it, but hearing about it sounds insane.

[icarus]

Oh, i got the impression they would be rowing the Dawn Treader itself, not just one of the smaller rowboats. A couple of the set reports mentioned about visiting the Dawn Treader's galley deck from which the boat would be rowed, using the giant oars seen below.

Narnia_200px.jpg (45.83 KiB) Viewed 17639 times

I wouldn't of thought they would of incorporated such things into the Dawn Treader's design if they weren't going to be used for a significant reason.

[fantasia]

You know, I read through that post twice thinking "I must be missing something." Thanks icarus, that makes a LOT more sense. I guess seeing those small rowboats is what made me think that.

[IloveFauns]

That doens't seem to bad to me, so i am not worried.

[Glenstorm the Great]

I don't care how they do the fight as long as they have it in there, and at the right place in the movie. So I'm okay with this bit of news .

[icarus]

I have been thinking about this piece of information recently in light of new knowledge and a few bits and pieces crossed my mind:

Firstly, i am going to take the initial report here has being accurate - that they defeat the Sea Serpent by using the oars of the Dawn Treader to manoeuvre the ship and crush the monster up against the side of a large rock. Secondly i am going to take the quote from Michael Flaherty as being accurate - that they long abandoned the idea of having DragonEustace defeat the Sea Monster to "earn" his undragoning. And thirdly i am going to take the quote from the onset interview with Michael Apted where he said there was a "huge battle at the end with a sea serpent and a dragon" as being slightly misquoted, and that the "huge battle at the end with a sea serpent" part is a seperate and distinct point to the "and a dragon" statement, though im not ruling out Eustace possibly being a Dragon in the movie for much longer than in the book, possibly till much nearer the end, but thats a whole different debate.

So anyway, i think i have a basic idea of the general direction they are going with the narrative for this movie, but one thing im still not sure how it will fit in is the Sea Serpent. Since they are clearly trying to make it so that every episodic event from the book is now either part of the character-driven narrative (the various "temptation" moments experienced by each of the main characters) or part of a story-driven narrative (finding the seven lords/swords, defeating the darkness, saving Narnia etc) then i would have to believe that the Sea Monster, given it is going to be "at the end" would have to be part of the story driven narrative, and that it could not possibly be just an entirely "random" attack by a Sea Monster. It just wouldn't have any sort of emotional resonance with the audience if it was entirely random.

As stated by Michael Apted, the Sea Monster battle comes at the end. I believe however there are two further clues as to the placement of this scene. The first was one of the castings for a "Narnian Rower" which i mentioned in my first post - since that casting was a female, and the Dawn Treader crew contains no females besides Lucy and Gael, then i might have to conclude that she, and perhaps also the other rowers, are part of the rescued slaves. The second clue i might perhaps look to was a quote from one of the set reports which mentioned the below decks of the Dawn Treader as being "where the slaves would row". At first we all assumed this was simply a mistake on the part of the reporter, assuming as with real-world historical ships that slaves would perform the duties of rowing the vessel. But what if he was actually correct and that the people who will be rowing the ship are as i believe the rescued Narnian Slaves?

With all that in mind you would assume that the Sea Monster battle is going to be after they have resuced the slaves, which in turn you would assume is going to be right at the end, and not just "near" the end. I have stated numerous pieces of information over in this thread which i believe suggest the Dark Island will be the main dramatic finale of the movie and that this is where the Lost Narnian Slaves will require rescuing from.

So if you have managed to follow my logic so far - im basically saying that i dont believe the sea monster attack will be just a random thing, that i do believe it will be related to the plot somehow, and that it will occur after they have rescued the slaves from the Dark Island. So unless in the very unlikely event there is someone controlling the Sea Monster in a Davy Jones style manner, i might have to assume that the Sea Monster will in fact be merely a "nightmare", a product of the Dark Island, and not a real Sea Monster. I would find that to be pretty disappointing in a way, but can't really see how else they could make the Sea Monster relevant to the plot otherwise.

[coracle]

Regarding "where the slaves would row"- in the book Lewis talks about it "Caspian's ship was not that horrible thing, a galley rowed by slaves", - but that the crew (everyone in fact except Reep) would take a turn on the oars as needed.

Sailing ships had to have another means of movement, for when there was no wind, too much wind, or the need to move within a small space.

[Dinode]

That's a real brain wave icarus. But where do you think the dragon battle will be?

[Trufflehunter]

And if you think about it, if the Sea Serpent is defeated because it is smashed against a rock, it's still using logic. It's not the crew members using their swords and firing crossbows at the Sea Serpent, it's well thought-out logic, just like Reepicheep's logic in the book!

[Liberty Hoffman]

I don't think there's a fight with Dragons.....but I may be wrong. it could be a the sea serpent......

[Linden]

Maybe I'm the only one, but this method of defeating the Sea Serpent seems ridiculous (although, frankly in the book, I was never convinced by how they defeated it). I don't know too much about ships, but it seems like the Dawn Treader wouldn't be fast enough.

[Dinode]

^Perhaps if a dragon helped push the Dawn Treader? Or perhaps they crush it but they only injure it, if that, and they need to defeat it some other way?