Thursday, August 24, 2006

On the Narnia Movie

JD: By the way, Vic, I meant to ask you: what did you think of the new "Narnia" movie? Did you think it was true to the spirit of the books? And what about the much older cartoon version (which I find absolutely magical)?

VR; I didn't think they botched the story horribly, but somehow the movie didn't excite me as much as I had hoped that it would. I think Tolkien was better served by the movies than was Lewis. I was planning on blogging on the movie, but I never actually did. By the way, Prince Caspian has gotten the green light by the studio. And yes, I do remember, I think, the Episcopal Radio and TV cartoon movie, and even had a LWW movie night when I was program director of a local church way back when. There was also a PBS WonderWorks TV-movie series that, so far as I can remember, got as far as the Silver Chair. I especially remember the Silver Chair because Tom Baker, the fourth Doctor Who, was Puddleglum the Marsh-Wiggle.

I was dismayed to see Chronicles of Narnia McNuggets sold by McDonald's when the movie came out.

Most people don't know this, but John Beversluis reviewed the Chronicles of Narnia in the Reformed Journal when they came out.

3 comments:

Jason Pratt said...

Never much cared for the Wonderworks version, but yep super-perfect choice for Puddleglum. (I think Tom Baker was always who I had in mind when I read that part in the book. {s})

I bought a used copy of the old animated TV movie several years ago (along with the animated film of Peter Beagle's _The Last Unicorn_. Own a German-produced version of the LU soundtrack, too! {g}) Fun factoid: in at least some copies of the LWW animated film, the nymphs in the final battle scene are topless. (Not in my copy; but I remember finding a copy somewhere to show at church once for a children's Wed night class... and oboy. {chuckle})

Victor Reppert said...

As a Dr. Who fan, I was dismayed to learn that Lalla Ward divorced Tom Baker and ended up married to Richard Dawkins.

Jason Pratt said...

Oh, GAAHH!!! (Lord, I didn't know _that_...)