#the voyage of the dawn treader movie

[queen-lucy-the-valiant]

Each of the seven Narnia books has a moral message or theme at its foundation. Every major beat of the story is centered on and refers back to this theme, so if you take away or alter the theme, you alter the entire foundation of the story. Obviously these themes/messages align with Christian principles because this is Lewis we’re talking about. So, my interpretations of the themes are the following:

 Magician’s Nephew is about taking responsibilities for your actions, LWW is about being selfless but also about forgiveness, Horse and His Boy is about the golden rule, Prince Caspian is about belief without proof, Voyage is about conquering temptation/evil within yourself, and Silver Chair is about trusting in God’s plan even when it doesn’t make sense, and Last Battle is about hope and doing what you think is good even when it seems hopeless. 

Which I think is one of the reasons the Voyage movie falls flat when compared to the other two. One explanation is that it changes many things from the book, but Prince Caspian does that too. Both movies make drastic changes from their source material, but Prince Caspian doesn’t feel (at least to me) as drastically changed as Voyage, because Voyage’s changes go down to the very foundation of the book’s theme. Lewis is saying that there is ‘evil’ in everyone that we all have to repeatedly overcome while the movie is saying that evil is outside of us and that we can overcome it once and be done with it, which drastically changes the central theme of the story. Prince Caspian on the other hand adds a lot of the story but all of the changes stay true to the central theme of belief without proof (or they correct some of Lewis’ inconsistencies). You can change the details all you want for the most part, but the core theme of the story has to remain the same otherwise it’s just not the same story so it won’t feel the same.

So there’s this really big essay I want to write detailing all the changes and how they alter the theme or go along with the theme etc.

[rainintheevening]

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader movie is so much better when I put it in the context of Peter being just about to turn 18, and Edmund is wrestling with that, trying to prepare himself to let Peter go (even though he's already done one term at school without him), and trying to stand on his own without Peter, figure out just who he is without his brother.

I think the implication in the movie is that Peter went to America too, but forget that. Peter's visiting Professor Kirke for the summer, at his little cottage in the country, and working on a farm as well as getting tutoring for university entrance exams, even though he knows he's not going to be going in for a few years, or however long the war lasts.

Ed hates the idea of Peter going off to war without him. Lucy is feeling left behind by everyone (parents and Su in America, Peter on the verge of becoming a soldier, and Ed wanting to join him).

Ed by turns latching onto and getting annoyed at Caspian, because he's not Peter, but it's like having Peter there, and Caspian doesn't understand what he and Peter have, but Ed can see how much Caspian wishes for a brother, and they do become that for each other in the end.

Ed wielding Rhindon at the end, Peter's sword in his hand, like Peter hasn't left him after all, and Peter's love and Aslan’s promise are louder and brighter than any ghost or sea serpent ever could be.

Lucy shooting with Susan's bow, because she doesn't have to be Susan (or Peter or Ed) to be like her in protecting the people she loves, she just has to use what Aslan has given her.

Ed knowing he's gonna go back to England and Peter's going to come celebrate his birthday with them before he signs up, so he hugs Caspian extra hard, because Caspian's going to have to go on alone too.

(But not alone, no. They have the Lion's promise. They all do.)

[jessmalia]

Don't know if this take is controversial or not, but I think Edmund is genuinely the best person of the siblings and I think that him making the biggest mistake so young is the main if not sole reason why.

Because his misdeed was so big (in consequences not intent) he went through all that turmoil and learned all those lessons that the majority of people have spread out over their entire lives all at once. He deals with all his flaws right away, while his siblings, who are viewed as good and well behaved people from a young age, have their flaws slowly start to show themselves and cause problems as they get older, leaving them unprepared for how to handle them.

[fairmerthefarmer]

Retired Star and his daughter who live at the last island on the eastern ocean.

Also here’s Ramandu with and without his cloak that I decided he has.

I will draw every single character from this book

[luceherms]

You doubt your worth. Do not run from who you are.

~Aslan, The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

[applesandpavenders]

Voyage of the Dawntreader film thoughts:

I do get why they changed it in the movie, because really the book doesn’t play out in a film friendly way. It’s all mini adventures with an objectively pointless goal (sailing really far East just because you can doesn’t have the same weight as trying to save a kingdom.) Its such a different book from any of the others.

In essence, the directors were faced with selling a story of explorer shenanigans to an audience that was expecting epic battles and big bad villains. It was never going to work. I don’t really like how they changed the adaptation but I do see where they were coming from.

What they should have done was make a TV show.

The book would have fit so much better into a tv show format. The story is mainly a series of small adventures tacked together anyway. And by changing the format from film to tv show they would have already communicated that this story is going to be different from the previous two.

We could have had 6-10 episodes of Lucy and Edmund sailing around with Caspian finding cool islands to name. One swashbuckling adventure after the other (which Ben Barnes would have been great at) while Eustace trails after them complaining that he wants his lawyer.

Yes they probably would have had to add stuff into the show, but it would have been world building stuff not wrecking major plot points. I would love to see more weird and wonderful flora and fauna of Narnia, or hear about one of Reepercheep’s adventures, none of which would have ruined the overall point of the story.

[measuresderepo]

If I had a nickel for every time Will Poulter played a secondary antagonist that became a better person by the end I’d have THREE NICKELS!!!

GUARDIANS 3 BABY!!!

[queen-lucy-the-valiant]

So my dad's been re reading all the narnia books and he just re read voyage of the dawn treader and had the audacity to say that the movie was a well done movie. So I suppose a re watch is in order, to dissuade him of this ridiculus notion.

[rainintheevening]

five sentence fic asks: Narnia + broken

The silence was broken by Eustace's soft question. "But who exactly is Aslan? Do you know him?"

Edmund looked away over the mossy rocks, and the murmuring stream flashing white through the grey early light, looked out to the sea, to the west, back, back, looking back to the cliffs above the cove, and the shining towers that were no longer, and the great stone slab cracked in two, and he smiled softly to himself.

"Well, he knows me."

[aesthetic--mood]

Peter Pevensie Aesthetic

[fairmerthefarmer]

My obsession with designing characters specifically for voyage of the dawn treader is definitely because of my deep history of beef with the 2010 movie.

Anyone who knew me in middle school was in danger of ranting about that movie. (Wtf was the green mist also awkward writing in general. Visually the movie looked alright though. And will poulter killed it.)

The last time I rewatched with my sister we just sat there discussing everything we would do better. Despite not being writers. (Also the Drinian in that movie is SO opposite on how I ever pictured him.)

Also I feel like the best way to adapt that book in particular is a series.

I feel like the director of that movie really just didn’t care that much about the source material. In contrast to like Andrew adamson, those two movies are HIS Narnia in the best way. Like his version.

(Also why I actually am so excited to see Greta gerwigs take. Give this series to people with imaginations and can give us their version! The way c.s. Lewis writes invites the reader to fill in the gaps.)

[artist-issues]

“You doubt your value. Don’t run from who you are.” - is absolute modern Disney hogwash, Aslan never says that phrase in the books and it’s totally out of character for him to say it. Aslan actively discourages characters from thinking of themselves, in any capacity.

He tells Repicheep that he thinks too much of his honor. When Bree the horse calls himself a fool, Aslan doesn’t say “no, don’t say that, you’re valuable!” He says, “Happy is the Horse who knows that. Or the Human either.”

Don’t put that self-love crap in the mouth of Aslan. It’s totally out-of-character, and unChristian (which is the same thing, for him.)

I’m not here to ruin everyone’s good time. But if your good time is founded on something false, it’s not a good time at all.

[data-reel]

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader - (1989) dir. Paul Stone  

[livvyofthelake]

getting the feeling that no one believes me anymore about how every time ben barnes is on one of my screens it causes like twenty hits of psychic damage. no that’s still true i’ve just had a horrible time for many months at this point

[beaststhattalk]

Reepicheep & The Wave

I was inspired by this gifset, and I wanted to make my own post just in case the gifmaker (@scottmalloy) wouldn't appreciate a bunch of meta in their notifications 😅

Honestly I think the movie did really well in translating this moment to the screen. The scene in the book grounds you in the perspective of the human characters: Reepicheep disappears over the edge of the wave. This emphasizes that he's going to a beautiful place, but one that the kids aren't able to understand yet. However, the book has the advantage of 3rd person narration. When C.S. Lewis presents the image to his reader, he can give mood and the visuals as one: "[the wave] was a smooth green slope. The coracle went more and more quickly, and beautifully it rushed up the wave's side" (Voyage of the Dawn Treader [VotDT], chapter 16). Lewis can tell us the motion was 'beautiful,' but the movie has to convince us to find it beautiful.

However, the movie has the advantage of being able to take us along with Reepicheep without needing to describe what he's seeing. The water rushing under his boat & towards the screen (4th gif) gives that sense of "more and more quickly...it rushed up the wave," but our ability to empathize with his sweet little Mouse face facial expression (5th gif) is what really solidifies that poignant 'beauty' from the book.

That visual of the Pevensies and Caspian in the background (gifs 4 & 5) achieves the same effect of the book's final image of Reepicheep. There's a feeling of mounting adventure & happiness, and then a moment of quiet wonder when he disappears into a place the reader/viewer can't go. The movie gets this feeling by having the audience rise up the wave with Reep, then come to a slow stop as he passes us by. We see the humans through the spray and realize we're still in their shoes. Meanwhile, the book utilizes the power of 3rd person narration by having Reepicheep slip beyond the reach of the story: "For one split second they saw [the coracle's] shape and Reepicheep's on the very top. Then it vanished, and since that moment no one can truly claim to have seen Reepicheep the Mouse" (VotDT, ch. 16).

In the movie, the mist from the wave, the faint rainbow inside, the vibrant colors of the water, & the image of Reepicheep's smile give us that "moment of quiet wonder" that I mentioned before. Lewis, on the other hand, tells us: "...since that moment no one can truly claim to have seen Reepicheep the Mouse. But my belief is that he came safe to Aslan's country and is alive there to this day" (ch. 16).

PS. The thing that got me excited about this gifset in the first place is the sword in gif 1! This visual appears in the book: "Then [Reepicheep] took off his sword ('I shall need it no more,' he said) and flung it far...Where it fell it stood upright with the hilt above the surface" (ch. 16). The sword-in-the-ground symbol pops up across history and can have various meanings. However, one meaning is that the sword alludes to the Christian cross (✝️). I bet this sword/cross symbol is what Lewis (and the VotDT movie) were referencing. This symbol can be interpreted as a sign of peace, since a sword in the ground is a weapon with its dangerous side 'buried'/set aside.

Again, I like how the movie translates this image. The poignance of this moment in the book comes from the chapter's overall tone. For example, here's a line that precedes Reep throwing the sword: "everything now felt as if it had been fated or had happened before" (ch. 16). Meanwhile, the movie emphasizes the poignance by contrasting Reep's casual discarding of the weapon ("I won't be needing this," gif 1) with the hugeness of the scene overall.