The good folks at McSweeney's have read the Narnia books, and they've got some concerns. Hence this Letter to His Imperial Majesty Aslan, in which they suggest that employing children as his agents in Narnia was a mistake on Aslan's part. Here's their list of child-instigated grievances from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe:
- The sudden and terrible arrests of multiple Narnia residents, stemming entirely from the unauthorized visits of a small child to the forest area.
- The sudden release of multiple dangerous creatures, who, until then, had been safely imprisoned as stone animals.
- Your own bloody and demoralizing assassination.
- The destruction of a valuable ancient stone table.
- A major battle resulting in the injury and death of several Narnian citizens.
- Restoration of a nonparticipatory monarchy, headed up by four children with limited education and absolutely no civil governing experience.
Great stuff. And while we're on the topic... who's seen Prince Caspian, and what did you think of it?
Thanks to Looking Closer for the link.
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Comments (9)
I hasten to say that I'm not a C.S. Lewis expert, but I've never seen a film as good as the book on which its based. However, the issues of faith, mercy, justice and the battle against evil were strong in both.
I read one review that said Prince Caspian was "darker and funnier" than TLTWTW. I don't know about the "funnier," but it was "darker." I don't know if that's true about the book, but Caspian is not a film for toddlers...
All that said, I hope they keep making Narnia films -- so much better than most of the stuff coming out of Hollywood.
1) The point must be evident, and worthy of attention.
2) The attempt at humor must be good enough to provoke laughter, or at least crack a smile.
Sadly, both elements are lacking here. In form, this appears to be modeled after some more successful attempts at sarcasm, maybe something from the Smothers Brothers (yeah, I'm showing my age, and to think when I was young, people older than me said "Don't trust anyone over 30." I knew there had to be a flaw in that.) Anyway, this is nothing to take seriously, or humorously, it just kind of fell flat, and now it has to be swept up off the floor and tossed in a trash bin.
I took my son (15) to see Prince Caspian on opening day. We both enjoyed it very much and liked it even better than The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. The books are better, of course, but they did a good job with it.
As to the movie Prince Caspian, now that I've taken my little brother to see it, I found it all right, but the departures from the story line were not improvements. It was made too much like Lord of the Rings. Narnia is not a place where massive armies, even of Telmarines, march across the landscape, it is a small place. Telmarines are not Greeks. On the other hand, Aslan, or King Peter, would have organized a better line of battle than the scattered anarchy visible on screen. In real life, the good guys would have been creamed with that approach. Like the producers of Return of the King, the Narnia crew just can't get the trees right -- yes, these are trees, but trees with very human characteristics. Maybe only the human imagination can visualize that properly. As said already, the attack on the castle was terrible, and I might add, the castle was much too large and elaborate and imposing -- another import from Tolkien-on-screen. The rivalry between Peter and Caspian was gratuitous. But, I thought the abortive love between Caspian and Susan was kind of cute, and did no damage to the story line. Considering how Susan comes out in The Last Battle, she might have done better to marry Caspian and stay in Narnia.