Chronicles of Narnia Movie - The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe

***RÃan*** · 12-09-2005, 04:51 PM

I just got back from seeing CoN:LWW - wow, I need to process it a bit, but basically excellent! I've read the books for so long and know them so well that I kind of need to get one movie screening out of the way before I can really relax and enjoy the movie. It was like that with the LoTR movies, too.

Anyway, here's some first impressions:

Casting of the 4 kids was great! Lucy is adorable, Peter is brave/good without being annoying (I just wanted to pinch his cute little cheeks and introduce him to my daughter!), Susan was realistically ambivilant, and Edmund was convincing as traitor turned brave because of Aslan's sacrifice for him.

CG pretty good, but still a bit stiff at times. They're good at wind/hair effects, but it's still hard to get weight down good. The fauns (the first CG thing you see) were a bit awkward IMO, but overall very good, considering the number of CG creatures they had to do.

Death scene very moving.

Fight w/ Peter and the witch great!

V. well-imagined and interesting concept of the dryads.

The river section in the middle was an addition, and I found it very awkward and contrived - basically a set-up to show Peter "afraid" to use his sword so that it will be "better" when he uses it later

Kind of an Aragorn-afraid-of-his-heritage fake thing. Stupid Hollywood!

Witch was creepy - I loved the little snowflaky-things at the tips of her eyelashes - kind of gave you a dirty-eyes type of feeling, like it was eye-crud stuck on her lashes. Dresses and hair were very good, kind of creepily organic and twisted, until you got a long shot and saw how it stuck out at the back behind her neck.

Warning - they show some credits at the end, then another minute of movie! So stay seated.

Interesting beginning - showing the blitz in London, and a bit of tension between Edmund and Peter.

They even showed the bluebottle fly in the window in the wardrobe room, altho it wasn't dead. Lots of attention to details in the book like that.

I"ll prob. see it again Sunday with the rest of the family (I went with my girlfriend whose hubby works in the theater industry - free passes!) and will be able to report more. But overall very good - I think ... (need to process!)

(mods - I started a new thread because the other threads were kind of pre-movie things - merge it in one of those if you want to

)

rohirrim TR · 12-09-2005, 05:03 PM

I'm goin to see it in about 2 hours i'll check in tomorrow.

sun-star · 12-09-2005, 06:14 PM

I saw it yesterday... it was so, so, so good! Loved it from the first scene, because I liked the idea of showing more about the children's background than you get in the book. I've always thought their relationships with each other make more sense when you remember they're evacuees. All the children were great, managing to be childish but grown up at the same time - difficult to explain, but they all got it exactly right. The White Witch and Mr Tumnus were excellent. I expected Liam Neeson as Aslan to be annoying, but he wasn't, and the battle scene was also well-done. The landscape of Narnia was less wild and epic than LOTR, which is what I was hoping for. Only two things I didn't like - the beavers (too much like comic relief and a bit too modern) and the dryads (nice idea, but not like the books or the legends Lewis took them from). I agree with you about the river scene, RÃ*an - it was odd and rather unnecessary.

But otherwise I loved everything. Narnia beats Harry Potter into a cocked hat, as usual!

***RÃan*** · 12-09-2005, 06:53 PM

yeah, Disney absolutely cannot refrain from having "funny" sidekicks, and the beavers took that role this time ...

rohirrim TR · 12-09-2005, 10:47 PM

it was awesome, amazing, stupendacular, Liam Neesom was surprisingly a great aslan, i thought the beavers were okay,not great but okay, and the actors were surpassing all expectations, last but not least the centaurs totally owned! i thing they're my favorite creature now.the fauns were awesome totally real. the wolves were cool, the witch was not all that scary but as soon as she killed aslan she was villified enough that a scary costume wasn't necessary, but dang was her and peter's fight cool

my only beefs:
the professor was over the top and looked too much like Jim Carrey i think it would have been cooler if they had had Doug Gresham play the professor, but alas. the witche's dwarf being the comic relief was kind of annoying to me. the waterfall scene wasn't so much bad, but uncharacteristic of the wolves, i mean, the kids/beavers were outnumbered fairly helpless the wolves wouldn't have stood there talking they woud have slaughtered them and rolled. the floating on ice thing was a bit unreal too. I wish they hadn't cut the beaver's house scene short. and I wish they had shone Aslan freeing the stoned guys in the witches castle, i.e. Rumblebuffin et.al. theres more but thats all i can think of now, i'm gonna have to see it again. its that good.

rohirrim TR · 12-09-2005, 10:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RÃ*an

yeah, Disney absolutely cannot refrain from having "funny" sidekicks, and the beavers took that role this time ...

actually what was worse was the witches little sidekick being funny, i mean come on he's supposed to be a villain here.

***azalea*** · 12-10-2005, 12:17 AM

Hi, guys! I was going to wait and go Sunday, but I couldn't! I had just finished reading the book to my kids (I mean, like, today!) and just had to go. I thought it was excellent! Very well done!

Yes, the prof isn't quite as I imagine him, and his line at the end (the REAL end) about "I tried myself" to get back into Narnia through the wardrobe -- I understood why they put that, but I felt it to be a small thing that didn't jibe with the "real" story.

I REALLY enjoyed seeing all of the beasts and mythical beings! I thought they did a great job of hags, etc. (all the many "bad" creatures listed in the book -- my son kept asking "what's a...?" and I was having a hard time giving him a concise answer); they basically created looks for those things, and I liked it.

I liked Aslan, and his voice, but the only thing I would have changed is to have him BIGGER. I always imagine ALL of the kids looking UP to him, but Peter was taller than Aslan in the movie. That was the only real issue I had with it.

The casting was great for all of the kids and Mr. Tumnus. Great scene where he and Lucy meet. Great battle scenes. Yes, that added thing with the river was unnecessary, and I too thought that the wolf would have just killed Mr. Beaver, but it was okay. I liked Jadis, and her battle chariot was pretty cool. I like how they did the turning to stone. I kind of teared up when Father Christmas came. I liked how they did that scene, too, nicely building up the tension when they think it's the White Witch. I like how the wardrobe looked.

[AND I liked the preview for Pirates of the Caribbean 2!

]

Now I'm looking forward to Prince Caspian!

me9996 · 12-18-2005, 08:54 AM

I saw the new movie yesterday and I think they lord-of-the-ringsed it... but not as much

***Tessar*** · 12-18-2005, 10:47 AM

No--I have to agree with him, Rian!

Peter should have dropped his british notion of being a gentleman and just kicked her butt

.

***RÃan*** · 12-19-2005, 02:39 AM

yeah, there were lots of moments that seemed to be copied from LOTR.

me9996 · 12-19-2005, 09:56 AM

what I mean is they messed around with the little detales that drive me crazy, just like they did to LOTR

inked · 12-19-2005, 12:42 PM

Yes, minor muddling is annoying, and they did get in bit much beaver gab (but within the parameters of the text, it was acceptable - just a bit much), and the fights were a bit long, and the river scene was pure Hollywood.

Peter's ambivalence about the sword was consistent with the text though much over-emphasized, IMHO.

On the whole, I'd say it was more faithful than LOTR.

The Blitz scene was accurately done according to a survivor who was 4 - 5 yrs old at the time (only a year younger than Lucy!). She said she had to look away because of the intensity of the memories it engendered. But she agreed that it was essential for the audiences of today who had not experienced it to understand the evacuation policy.

more later ... duty calls me away!

edit: http://www.narniafans.com/?id=678 NOMINATIONS, London Film Critics

http://www.narniafans.com/?id=680 Nominations, Academy Awards "Achievement in Visual Effects"

So, some folks are looking at this as a noteworthy production. I would have to agree!

I have only been to see it three times so far and it has held up well !

***RÃan*** · 12-19-2005, 04:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by me9996

what I mean is they messed around with the little detales that drive me crazy, just like they did to LOTR

oh, I see.

But they also seemed to copy how some moments were staged from LOTR, too - there were at least 4 or 5 that looked exactly like LOTR, such as the bad bull guy

standing up on the rock while you can't see the rest of the army, etc.

12-09-2005, 04:51 PM	#1
*RÃan* Half-Elven Princess of Rabbit Trails and Harp-Wielding Administrator (beware the Rubber Chicken of Doom!) Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Not where I want to be ... Posts: 15,254	Chronicles of Narnia Movie - The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe I just got back from seeing CoN:LWW - wow, I need to process it a bit, but basically excellent! I've read the books for so long and know them so well that I kind of need to get one movie screening out of the way before I can really relax and enjoy the movie. It was like that with the LoTR movies, too. Anyway, here's some first impressions: Casting of the 4 kids was great! Lucy is adorable, Peter is brave/good without being annoying (I just wanted to pinch his cute little cheeks and introduce him to my daughter!), Susan was realistically ambivilant, and Edmund was convincing as traitor turned brave because of Aslan's sacrifice for him. CG pretty good, but still a bit stiff at times. They're good at wind/hair effects, but it's still hard to get weight down good. The fauns (the first CG thing you see) were a bit awkward IMO, but overall very good, considering the number of CG creatures they had to do. Death scene very moving. Fight w/ Peter and the witch great! V. well-imagined and interesting concept of the dryads. The river section in the middle was an addition, and I found it very awkward and contrived - basically a set-up to show Peter "afraid" to use his sword so that it will be "better" when he uses it later Kind of an Aragorn-afraid-of-his-heritage fake thing. Stupid Hollywood! Witch was creepy - I loved the little snowflaky-things at the tips of her eyelashes - kind of gave you a dirty-eyes type of feeling, like it was eye-crud stuck on her lashes. Dresses and hair were very good, kind of creepily organic and twisted, until you got a long shot and saw how it stuck out at the back behind her neck. Warning - they show some credits at the end, then another minute of movie! So stay seated. Interesting beginning - showing the blitz in London, and a bit of tension between Edmund and Peter. They even showed the bluebottle fly in the window in the wardrobe room, altho it wasn't dead. Lots of attention to details in the book like that. I"ll prob. see it again Sunday with the rest of the family (I went with my girlfriend whose hubby works in the theater industry - free passes!) and will be able to report more. But overall very good - I think ... (need to process!) (mods - I started a new thread because the other threads were kind of pre-movie things - merge it in one of those if you want to ) __________________ . I should be doing the laundry, but this is MUCH more fun! Ã‘Ã¡ Ã«?* Ã³Ãº Ã©Ã¤ Ã¯Ã¶Ã¼ Ã–Ã± Ã‰ Ãž Ã° ÃŸ Â® Ã§ Ã¥ â„¢ Ã¦ ♪ ?* "How lovely are Thy dwelling places, O Lord of hosts! ... For a day in Thy courts is better than a thousand outside." (from Psalm 84) * * * God rocks! Entmoot : Veni, vidi, velcro - I came, I saw, I got hooked! Ego numquam pronunciare mendacium, sed ego sum homo indomitus! Run the earth and watch the sky ... Auta i lÃ³mÃ«! AurÃ« entuluva!

12-09-2005, 06:14 PM	#3
sun-star Lady of Letters Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Either Oxford or Kent, England Posts: 2,476	I saw it yesterday... it was so, so, so good! Loved it from the first scene, because I liked the idea of showing more about the children's background than you get in the book. I've always thought their relationships with each other make more sense when you remember they're evacuees. All the children were great, managing to be childish but grown up at the same time - difficult to explain, but they all got it exactly right. The White Witch and Mr Tumnus were excellent. I expected Liam Neeson as Aslan to be annoying, but he wasn't, and the battle scene was also well-done. The landscape of Narnia was less wild and epic than LOTR, which is what I was hoping for. Only two things I didn't like - the beavers (too much like comic relief and a bit too modern) and the dryads (nice idea, but not like the books or the legends Lewis took them from). I agree with you about the river scene, RÃ*an - it was odd and rather unnecessary. But otherwise I loved everything. Narnia beats Harry Potter into a cocked hat, as usual! __________________ And all the time the waves, the waves, the waves Chase, intersect and flatten on the sand As they have done for centuries, as they will For centuries to come, when not a soul Is left to picnic on the blazing rocks, When England is not England, when mankind Has blown himself to pieces. Still the sea, Consolingly disastrous, will return While the strange starfish, hugely magnified, Waits in the jewelled basin of a pool.

12-09-2005, 06:53 PM	#4
*RÃan* Half-Elven Princess of Rabbit Trails and Harp-Wielding Administrator (beware the Rubber Chicken of Doom!) Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Not where I want to be ... Posts: 15,254	yeah, Disney absolutely cannot refrain from having "funny" sidekicks, and the beavers took that role this time ... __________________ . I should be doing the laundry, but this is MUCH more fun! Ã‘Ã¡ Ã«?* Ã³Ãº Ã©Ã¤ Ã¯Ã¶Ã¼ Ã–Ã± Ã‰ Ãž Ã° ÃŸ Â® Ã§ Ã¥ â„¢ Ã¦ ♪ ?* "How lovely are Thy dwelling places, O Lord of hosts! ... For a day in Thy courts is better than a thousand outside." (from Psalm 84) * * * God rocks! Entmoot : Veni, vidi, velcro - I came, I saw, I got hooked! Ego numquam pronunciare mendacium, sed ego sum homo indomitus! Run the earth and watch the sky ... Auta i lÃ³mÃ«! AurÃ« entuluva!

12-19-2005, 02:39 AM	#10
*RÃan* Half-Elven Princess of Rabbit Trails and Harp-Wielding Administrator (beware the Rubber Chicken of Doom!) Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Not where I want to be ... Posts: 15,254	yeah, there were lots of moments that seemed to be copied from LOTR. __________________ . I should be doing the laundry, but this is MUCH more fun! Ã‘Ã¡ Ã«?* Ã³Ãº Ã©Ã¤ Ã¯Ã¶Ã¼ Ã–Ã± Ã‰ Ãž Ã° ÃŸ Â® Ã§ Ã¥ â„¢ Ã¦ ♪ ?* "How lovely are Thy dwelling places, O Lord of hosts! ... For a day in Thy courts is better than a thousand outside." (from Psalm 84) * * * God rocks! Entmoot : Veni, vidi, velcro - I came, I saw, I got hooked! Ego numquam pronunciare mendacium, sed ego sum homo indomitus! Run the earth and watch the sky ... Auta i lÃ³mÃ«! AurÃ« entuluva!

12-19-2005, 12:42 PM	#12
inked Elf Lord Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: sikeston, MO, usa, earth, sol Posts: 3,114	Yes, minor muddling is annoying, and they did get in bit much beaver gab (but within the parameters of the text, it was acceptable - just a bit much), and the fights were a bit long, and the river scene was pure Hollywood. Peter's ambivalence about the sword was consistent with the text though much over-emphasized, IMHO. On the whole, I'd say it was more faithful than LOTR. The Blitz scene was accurately done according to a survivor who was 4 - 5 yrs old at the time (only a year younger than Lucy!). She said she had to look away because of the intensity of the memories it engendered. But she agreed that it was essential for the audiences of today who had not experienced it to understand the evacuation policy. more later ... duty calls me away! edit: http://www.narniafans.com/?id=678 NOMINATIONS, London Film Critics http://www.narniafans.com/?id=680 Nominations, Academy Awards "Achievement in Visual Effects" So, some folks are looking at this as a noteworthy production. I would have to agree! I have only been to see it three times so far and it has held up well ! __________________ Inked "Aslan is not a tame lion." CSL/LWW "The new school [acts] as if it required...courage to say a blasphemy. There is only one thing that requires real courage to say, and that is a truism." GK Chesterton "And there is always the danger of allowing people to suppose that our modern times are so wholly unlike any other times that the fundamental facts about man's nature have wholly changed with changing circumstances." Dorothy L. Sayers, 1 Sept. 1941 Last edited by inked : 12-19-2005 at 12:55 PM.

12-10-2005, 12:17 AM	#7
*azalea* Long lost mooter Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Florida Posts: 3,342	Hi, guys! I was going to wait and go Sunday, but I couldn't! I had just finished reading the book to my kids (I mean, like, today!) and just had to go. I thought it was excellent! Very well done! Yes, the prof isn't quite as I imagine him, and his line at the end (the REAL end) about "I tried myself" to get back into Narnia through the wardrobe -- I understood why they put that, but I felt it to be a small thing that didn't jibe with the "real" story. I REALLY enjoyed seeing all of the beasts and mythical beings! I thought they did a great job of hags, etc. (all the many "bad" creatures listed in the book -- my son kept asking "what's a...?" and I was having a hard time giving him a concise answer); they basically created looks for those things, and I liked it. I liked Aslan, and his voice, but the only thing I would have changed is to have him BIGGER. I always imagine ALL of the kids looking UP to him, but Peter was taller than Aslan in the movie. That was the only real issue I had with it. The casting was great for all of the kids and Mr. Tumnus. Great scene where he and Lucy meet. Great battle scenes. Yes, that added thing with the river was unnecessary, and I too thought that the wolf would have just killed Mr. Beaver, but it was okay. I liked Jadis, and her battle chariot was pretty cool. I like how they did the turning to stone. I kind of teared up when Father Christmas came. I liked how they did that scene, too, nicely building up the tension when they think it's the White Witch. I like how the wardrobe looked. [AND I liked the preview for Pirates of the Caribbean 2! ] Now I'm looking forward to Prince Caspian!

12-18-2005, 10:47 AM	#9
*Tessar* Master and Wielder of the Cardboard Harp of Gondor Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: IM IN UR POSTZ, EDITIN' UR WURDZ Posts: 6,433	No--I have to agree with him, Rian! Peter should have dropped his british notion of being a gentleman and just kicked her butt .