I realized after seeing the recent Narnia movie that they skipped The Horse and His Boy. Does anyone know if they will come back and make it later? Thanks.
Posted by Sean Monahan (Member # 9334) on :
If I remember correctly, the next one planned is Voyage of the Dawn Treader. That would make it appear that they are making them in their publication order instead of their internal chronological order (in which case, The Magician's Nephew would have been first).
Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
They're going by the original publication order, not the revised order.
Whether or not any Narnia movie gets made beyond Dawn Treader remains uncertain. Due to Caspian having a very soft and slow box office performance (if it weren't for international box office, it wouldn't have broken even yet!), I'm assuming the performance of Narnia 3 will be the deciding factor. That and DVD/merchandise sales.
(Personally, I'm thinking Disney's insistence that it had to be their May tentpole in an already over-crowded month is to blame. That, and people aren't as familiar with PC as they are with LWW.)
[ June 15, 2008, 01:00 AM: Message edited by: Puffy Treat ]
Posted by Sachiko (Member # 6139) on :
Dangit, I really, really want to see MN and LB in film form.
Maybe they can do some straight-to-DVD stuff? *sigh* Probably not. Too much $$$.
Posted by Rodger Brown (Member # 11476) on :
Horse and His Boy feature the Pevensie (sp) children as young kings and queens in Narnia. I doubt they will revisit it mostly due to aging nature of the children actors. Also Horse is a little too obscure and not very action packed.
I would love to see Magicians Nephew as a cap to all of the Narnia movies but doubt that will happen again because of lack of action but o man it would be beautiful
Posted by rollainm (Member # 8318) on :
I think the movies would have been much more successful if they were released in the revised order. Magician's Nephew, filmed and publicized properly, would have had enough intrigue and familiarity to draw in fans and newcomers. Then the added familiarity of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe would have only further hooked moviegoers. They'd be going crazy waiting for the next installment, and I think it would have increased awareness of the books, too.
Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
Horse and His Boy feature the Pevensie (sp) children as young kings and queens in Narnia.
Not quite. HHB takes place in the middle of Narnia's Golden Age, by which point the Pevensies were all adults.
Also Horse is a little too obscure and not very action packed.
Having recently reread it, I have to say it has more swashbuckling action and battles than most of the other books. The stumbling blocks I see are 1) No kids from Earth 2) Time period may be confusing and 3) Most of the major Calormen characters we meet are evil, with the exception of Aravis.
Plus, so many people who haven't read the books (or not read them in many years) tell me confidently that HHB is "Anti-Islam", even though there's absolutely zero similarity between the Calormen's pantheon of animal-headed deities and Allah, as far as I can tell.
Yeah, it might be a difficult sell.
Posted by TL (Member # 8124) on :
I admit to not having read any of the Narnia books since lion, witch, etc, as a young tiny child, but after watching Prince Caspian, I vowed not to watch anymore of these movies; there's only so much I can take from a film. Jesus eating the bad guy pretty much sealed the deal for me. I haven't been so baffled by the wretchedness of a movie in a while. Are these films accurate to the books? Because the moral message of this last one was a bit sickening to me. The answers to their problems were very morally easy, and the answer was usually: murder somebody. When Jesus arrived, I thought, aha, here's where we will see some forgiveness, some redemption, the opportunity for second chances -- in a movie that badly needed these things. I had this little glimmer of hope.
But then, instead of that, Jesus ate the guy. Did that happen in the novel?
I don't know. Sometimes I look around at what other people will accept, and I feel very alone. Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
Jesus ate a guy? If you mean Aslan, he didn't eat anybody.
Miraz was killed by his own men.
Edit to add: Lucy (both in the books and the films the Pevensie closest to Aslan) condemned Peter and the Old Narnian's choosing of bloodshed as the solution to regaining Narnia. When given the chance to kill Miraz, Caspian chose not to do so. I'm still not sure what incident you refer to as "Jesus eating the guy", but the film did not condone murder. Telmarines who surrendered after Aslan woke up the trees and freed the River God were shown instant mercy, even given the chance to start again in a brand new world if they couldn't deal with a re-magical Narnia. With the exception of the raid on Miraz's castle (which the film makers rather hammered home was a BIG wrong move for the protagonists' part), the Old Narnians fought the Telmarines to prevent the invaders from finishing the genocide their ancestors started. Protecting one's species from genocide doesn't equal "solving things with murder" to me. Your mileage obviously varies.
[ June 15, 2008, 05:05 AM: Message edited by: Puffy Treat ]
Posted by TL (Member # 8124) on :
quote:With the exception of the raid on Miraz's castle
No fair, excepting that.
quote:I'm still not sure what incident you refer to as "Jesus eating the guy".
Well, I haven't read the book. Having only the film to go by limits my understanding of the events, I suppose. Honestly, the good guys killed so many defenseless people in the film, I'm not sure why they suddenly drew the line at the character you called Miraz. But I thought it was interesting that no redemption was offered for the other gentleman, who was eaten by the special effect I have called Jesus, and you have called the River God. (Again, forgive my ignorance of the books.) I don't recall anybody being given the chance to start again; I don't recall that coming up. The slaughter did stop at a certain point, I'll grant you. Maybe the filmmakers just did a poor job of conveying all of these points.
quote:Protecting one's species from genocide doesn't equal "solving things with murder" to me.
That's an interesting point. When I refer to the moral ease with which the kids kill all those people, I guess what really bothers me is that the righteousness of their side is assumed, unquestioned, and their opponents just go out like lights. I wonder, what if a band of warrior-Navajo (I'm not sure there is such a thing) time-traveled to modern-day America through some magic portal, and used their special relationship with the creator to righteously slay, with impossible ease, our soldiers and police officers, our national guard, what-have-you.
I mean, the genocide referred to in the film happened generations previous. Those dudes getting stabbed in the back and arrowed in the back and thrown off the tops of signal towers had nothing to do with it. They probably have families. They probably live in a culture where to act in the defense of their countrymen is a noble sacrifice.
To be thrown over the sides of cliffs by twelve years olds seems an ignoble way to go. Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :
I never understood the allegory of Prince Caspian, though I guess Card reads it as the Protestant Reformation, which often entailed violence and fighting. But, yeah, Jesus is always Aslan.
May is the wrong time for a Narnia movie to open. They should be holiday movies. Also, movie tickets are too expensive to take your kids. I don't know. It's not that I've stayed away, the ambivalent reviews notwithstanding. It just hasn't reached a priority status.
Back to the original question, Horse and His Boy has tons of action. It was always my favorite story. I don't think the Calormenes need to be all so evil, but the particular situations Sasha and Aravis find themselves in need to be bad enough that they leave. I think rather than his foster father offering to sell him, Sasha just needs a look in a proper mirror (which the travelers bring and the father tells them to hide, so naturally Sasha digs it out at night and looks at it, which the visitors could bring- just one way that part could be fixed).
I think what I liked about the Horse and His Boy was it had a real love story and diguise and talking horses. I guess it tied in, to my mind, with The King of the Wind.
Posted by Fyfe (Member # 937) on :
I love The Horse and His Boy. I know they couldn't do it straight away because they have to knock out all the ones with the Pevensie kids before those actors get too old, but I'm going to be way sad if they don't go back and do it. And it's very actiony! They run from lions, Aravis has a good flashback story, Shasta gets switched for another kid, they have a battle and Shasta saves the day --
*sigh*
Anyway, they have to do a film of it because Lazaraleen! Lazaraleen, how I love her. I can still hear my mother's voice doing Lazaraleen.
Posted by Samprimary (Member # 8561) on :
quote:Plus, so many people who haven't read the books (or not read them in many years) tell me confidently that HHB is "Anti-Islam", even though there's absolutely zero similarity between the Calormen's pantheon of animal-headed deities and Allah, as far as I can tell.
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