On Board the Dawn Treader
We have received a report from ‘myartismylife’ who has been aboard the Dawn Treader on the Movie World tour. There’s a lot of interesting description of the carvings and details found aboard the ship. Here’s the report:
Hi, I have been to Movie World and have been on the tour. It is of the Dawn Treader herself!
The main body of the ship is in a huge hanger. The tail sits to one side (the left of it) and the head to the right. The mast is in three pieces, one on the ship and two sections standing on the floor next to it. The ship is so big they just couldn’t get it all in in one piece.
People are allowed to go up onto the actual deck and walk around. The front and back (sorry don’t know the proper names for that part of the ship) are roped off.
You can see by the photos the level of detail that has gone into the craftsmanship. There are just empty rooms in the body of the ship. Other sets were made for those rooms. Interestingly, around the main mast (the one on the ship) are the following words “All Narnians, with grateful hearts may we give thanks to the crew of the mighty Dawn Treader for their strong minds and artisan hands.” There is a date (I think in roman numerals) but it did not come out well on the photo. Under this banner are three large bands of many, many names which I am assuming are the names of the people who have worked on the creating of the Dawn Treader.
In the middle of the ship’s deck are two statues of a faun with two beavers at its feet. They are holding a large stick on their shoulders and suspended from that is a large golden bell that has carvings of the seven lords that are lost with their names above their heads. Real lead light has been used on the glass doors and windows. You can see by the detail of the little soldiers that have been carved (resin) to hold the ropes that this type of detail is everywhere on the ship.
I was allowed to spend as much time as I liked looking around and taking photos and asking questions of the tour guides. At the moment it seems that the Dawn Treader is on show for four weeks at Movie World and then she shall be scrapped! They said that companies shall probably purchase bits of her for other shows or museums etc; and the rest shall be dumped. What an absolute disgrace!
On the floor of the hanger besides the head, tail and the two sections of the mast there are five round rocks, two tv screens showing a time lapse film of the building of the Dawn Treader. I asked if they would have a copy of this film for sale but the guides did not know. It just would be so interesting to see. Anyway there are sections of railings at one end of the hanger and three VERY tall statues of kings, holding their heads, and six very large bells are hanging in the air with one bell crashed on the floor of the tiles. They come from the “Bell Tower”.
The whole ship is situated on stilts so that you can see the construction underneath with is just amazing.
Thanks to ‘myartismylife’ for the great report.
UPDATE: Here are a few pictures from the Flickr account of Jin-Tao. You can see them here.
DUMPED?!?!?!?! thats horrible!
My dreams of being able to stand onboard the DAWN Treader are crushed!!!!!! If only they would keep it there a little longer I may have been able to go to Movie World some how! That is just sad, I wish they would at least sell it to someone.
Well, well, well, they sure did up the Dawn Treader to the nines. It seems to me that so much detail, so much color, and so much symbolism are all displayed in the beauty. The symbolism part is not exactly what I imagined. Instead, I imagined the Dawn Treader speaking for itself, if you know what I mean? Maybe you didn't understand what I just said, but I thought it had to be said, so I said it. However, even though I have a slight rejection to her, I still give the Dawn Treader a BIG thumbs up!
why dont they have the Dawn Treader at movieworld as a permanent attraction it seems such a waste to dump it….it is such an amazing boat can't wait to see it up close yay 🙂
man, i wish i could get a piece of the ship before they waste her. :[
What a shame. If I were one of the craftsman I would be devastated.
they dont need to dump her…if they do they are just losing all the money that they spent to build her.
Too bad. But we will always have the movie itself to enjoy, and we can remember articles like this that describe the work put into such things.
what a beautilful ship! I can't believe it will be torn apart and used for other stuff and some it is getting scrapped!
Thank you "myartismylife" for the great report! It's sad to hear that the Dawn Treader will be torn apart though… I wonder if they'll sell little tiny parts to die hard fans… I hope so! lol.
Awsome
Thank you so much for the report, myartismylife! While distressing, I can understand why the Dawn Treader set will be disassembled – it is only a set and would not withstand rigors of time. Pieces of the Millenium Falcon (The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi) full-size mockup were retrieved before the whole of it was sold as scrap; it looked rather sad before that happened.
Thanks for the report, myartismylife! She sounds beautiful! It's too bad they're scrapping her. They could at least sell off the parts they're not using to the fans…an "Own a piece of the Dawn Treader!" sort of thing. I'd buy! 😀
there was as report somewhere (wasnt it here on NW?) that the ship has been purchased by an industry insider, so anybody else who wanted to make a bid for it, or for city officials wanting to use it for tourist attraction, didnt have a chance to get it. if it was just gonna be trashed then i'm pretty sure the Gold Coast officials would've kept that from happening since they even went on record that they wanted to keep it for the tourists.
Gee thanks movie producers!!! Or whoever makes big decisions about dumping things!!!!! You guys Stink!!!!! If I had a million dollars I would buy the Dawn Treader!!! Its not fair that she should be scrapped!!! I think that she should be put on exhibit in a museum for people to go look at!! Its not fair! This movie is really starting to stink to no end!!! They are really ruining all of my dreams!:(:(:(:(
DUMPED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is AWFUL!!!! How…HOW RUDE!!! Jk It is sad thouhg.
Wonderful report! When do we get to see more photographs? I also am skeptical of them "scrapping" the ship. I refuse to believe that's the fate of the Dawn Treader.
They should save the whole ship and give or start a Narnia Museum or even The National History Museum in NYC. That's so sad there just giving parts of the Dawn Treader away. They need a Museum like The Harry Potter films got.
ooo i like the faun and beavers on the deck that is soooo cool! i like how they keep putting in things from Lion, Witch, and Wardrobe in the other movies, like how in PC they had the carvings of the kids as kings and queens, and even a picture of tumnus at the lampost, and now we have statues on the ship. that is so cool! i wonder if they'll have a scene of Lucy when she first gets on the ship, and she sees the faun, and she just stares at it, remembering her first narnian friend, and the others stand around her, and its almost like a bittersweet scene, like in PC when they're in the treasure chamber and she realizes things have changed. that would be a very touching scene. they just HAVE to do that, it would make me enjoy the movie even more when i know there's some of LWW on there.
So where are the rest of the photos?
I still want to know what the bells are for! Thanks for the post! Great details. Quite sad that the left over pieces of the Dawn Treader will be dumped. 🙁
I can NOT wait until this movie!
Seems like all the hard work for nothing, it is such a waste, but I guess they have to do what they have to do. It looks so cool!
A while back I wondered what those faun statues were for. Now I know. The Dawn Treader sounds beautiful, but I hope that with all the carvings and figures it won't be too "loud".
AND WHAT'S WITH THE BELL TOWER??!! I sure hope it fits into the story well enough.
there are some on flickr from another visitor:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/45742025@N02/sets/72157623034826192/
doubtless there will be more on flickr from other people soon.
they should make a world tour where they show the dawn treader. to all the fans on all the world!!!! that could be so good for the promocional for the movie. It will be sooooo good.
cant WAIT till i get to visit the set!!!!!! I drove past today and saw the studios on my way to a rock and roll party on the gold coast and I cannot freaking WAIT until I get to stand on the dawn treader!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! omg OMG i NEVER EVER thought that would ever happen!!!!!!! HOLY **** I AM SOOOO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!
Yeah. Rub it in. Thought of flying to Brisbane from the US. – this is NOT going to happen of course. Take a breath, Emma. Take some pictures! Enjoy!
Can myartismylife post other pictures taken? I would love to see them!
Second time we're hearing about bells… I really wonder where they're going with this stuff. It sounds like they could have merged parts of VDT and MN and included Charn bells in the story, somehow. I sincerely hope they didn't though, because it would spoil a lot of the mystery from a MN movie, should it be made. But the description of the ship as a whole is awesome. She's a beauty, for sure.
I know there's not much reason to believe of a connection between the bells thing and the lost lords until now (It could just be a random bell for the ship) but I'd keep an eye on that…
Thank you for your report Mytartismylife, the ship sounds great (and authentic) much to beatiful to destroy. Even if Movie World couldnt keep it as a permanent attraction they could dismantle it and auction off all the little pieces. Theyd makes tons of money.
-Katana
very cool report! i can't believe they're going to dump it! they should auction the pieces off. i'm sure a lot of people would want to buy something (me included).
I just can't believe that they're going to scrap it! Absolutely disgraceful! I thought I had heard that someone bought it.
Awesome idea! They should do that!
If you people love the ship that much why don't you personally tell whoever is in charge of it?
I agree. It seems a shame that they would go to all that exquisite work and then just tear the ship apart! I had visions of the 'Dawn Treader' being the ship that Caspian sails away in at the beginning of "The Silver Chair". I think that would be cool.
It's such a shame they dumped the Dawn Treader,you would have thought that after all that work they would do something useful with it!Instead they dump it and it's such a waste!Never mind though because the description of it sounds amzing and I can't wait to see it in the film!!!
I feel excactly like you,I think they should auction the parts imagine how much money thay could get for the films,it's such a waste dumping it!
Me to, they should just give pieces of her away or sell them instead of ruining their marvelous creation
Wow, that ship is incredible! And the Dragon prow is much better than we thought it would be.
They should absolutely NOT dump the ship! I could, and would store it in my backyard (which is big enough for it) until it could be fully appreciated!
Just think, if you had a 18-wheeler you could set the ship on top of it and drive it all over the country! It would be great publicity for the movie!
Or you could set it up in a mall somewhere and have kids crawl all over it and get excited about the movie!
You could use it to show what life on a ship would have been like!
Any summer camp would absolutely LOVE to have it on their campgrounds!
*laughs* when i read what emma said, I thought the exact same thing. I did wonder if secretly catching a plane there would be plausable, but then reality hit me fast. Hope you did enjoy the tour.
okay, when i read this my jaw dropped to the table and i just gazed at the word "scrapped!" for a whole 2 minutes before I finally took in what they mean't. figures, not a single thought about what us Narnia-nutbags want humph!.
if i had enough money i would buy her myself. but seeing as that idea is just mildly out of the realm of possiblity, I'm hoping that they will at least sell pieces of it for us fanatics in memory of her. either way, i'm starting a "death of the dawn treader" day to commemorate =).
your's truly,
Nbh..
Wow! It looks so detailed and it's absolutely beautiful. When I first read the book, I imagined the Dawn Treader to look differently, but I'm pretty satisfied with the results. I can't wait to see it sailing through the Narnian waters in the movie!!!