Dawn Treader 10th Anniversary Audio Commentary | Talking Beasts
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The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader was released in December 2010. In this episode, two NarniaWeb podcasters watch the movie and analyze the adaptation from book to film.
This episode can be synchronized with your movie at home, but can also be enjoyed on its own.
Most NarniaWebbers consider the movie to be a poor adaptation, but are mixed on whether it works on its own terms. In their post-commentary chat, the podcasters debate this issue and more.
There is much to like in this movie with its visual appearance. I loved the ship and its antique style design. Some things were poorly done. I wished for Ramandu’s appearance, and we only saw his daughter. That was my main disappointment with this movie. However, most of the film was quite enjoyable except that the story adaptation could have been better. The technology could have been used for something that Lewis would have intended in his original story. The Dark Island would have been much more interesting than the Green Mist. 🙂
I have to make another comment. I think that the Dark Island could have been made much more interesting— especially in its transferring nightmares into reality. The albatross saying “Courage Dear Heart” in the book was not there—. this was an unfortunate omission. The island was there, but it was just a part of the Green Mist. This was another disappointment. I liked the music at the end when the children go back into our world. 🙁
I wasn’t bothered by Edmund and Peter’s mannerisms in Lucy’s vision because they were posing for a picture and trying to maintain their smiles while simultaneously talking to their sister who was acting crazy. It’s hard to do that without looking and sounding weird. LOL.
I love Glumpuddle’s comment that Lucy’s advice to the MLG sounds like what nonreligious people think religious people would say. There’s a lot of that in this movie unfortunately. It feels like they wanted to appeal Christian fans of the books but they really didn’t know how and couldn’t be bothered to learn. Lucy’s subplot feels the same way to me. It’s like they heard that a lot of young women struggle with negative feelings towards their bodies and they wanted to address that issue, but they didn’t actually have anything to say on the subject.
To be fair though, the Prince Caspian movie, which both I and Glumpuddle enjoy, myself more than he does, also has a lot of generic “have faith” talk. But I feel like that movie kind of sells it, or at least the actors do, mainly Georgie Henley and Ken Stott. It may be generic Hollywood spirituality but at least it’s quality generic Hollywood spirituality. LOL. You kind of feel like there’s some conviction behind it.
Anyway, fun commentary. If fans are worried that it’s going to be too negative, I’d say that the first 10 or 15 minutes or so are pretty upbeat. After that, it’s mostly downhill. But I appreciate that they made an effort.
I remember watching this in 3D in the theater and being very excited about it. The book had a Pilgrim’s Progress quality to it and was very faith base. More than SC, HHB, MN, and PC books. And that is lost in this movie. If you remember the movie The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe came out shortly after The Passion of the Christ so you knew the faith message it which is lost in this movie.
Thanks GlumPuddle, Movie Aristotle for taking the time to make a great commentary for a not-so-great movie adaptation of a great Narnia book. I had thought you guys would want to skip it’s 10th anniversary altogether. Maybe you did. But you still did it. I commend you both for making it through.
Though they changed the script in the movie but it’s still favourite to me.I think favourite to all of us. If they use the real script from the book the movie can contribute / get responsed from viewers better.
By the way do you know about any upcoming news for any new movie from narnia series? Like the hose and boy! Will it be made? From disnep or Fox or Netflix or any other distribution?
Sorry for using weak English.
Netflix currently owns the film/tv rights, and is supposedly working on the series and films (although Narnia is very much on their backburner)
I loved this commentary, it was hilarious and I never noticed some of the stuff you guys pointed out (like Aslan’s face in the stars).
A few notes:
Ramandu’s daughter character design is… okay. I wish she had scorched the ground a bit when she descended, and I never knew the story behind her name.
The end credits song is alright. I am a big Carrie Underwood fan, but honestly I think her song “See you Again” would have better fit the book. The lyrics are about loved ones in Heaven and uses the line “Where the water meets the sky.” Heck, I think “How Far I Go” would’ve worked pretty well too, seems like something Reepicheep could sing.
I totally forgot Markus and McFeely wrote the screenplays because they’re mostly known for their Marvel work now.
The soundtrack and a lot of the sets were prettier than I remembered, but also a lot of stuff was sillier than I remembered. However, at the end I was kinda sad the series is getting a reboot, I kinda wish Disney/Fox would recast Eustace (for age reasons, not performance issues) and start up a Disney+ series for the remaining books.
Note: would you guys ever make a Narnia Netflix dreamcast?
I remember having such fond memories of this movie when I was younger, so you could probably imagine how blown away I was by the book when I first read it a couple of years back. After that, yea, the movie aged just about as well as a moldy container of tuna. I will say though, it could DEFINITELY be worse. Don’t believe me? Just look at what Mattel did with Thomas & Friends! (I personally recommend watching The Unlucky Tug’s rant about BWBA in case you want to look into it.)
So yea, this movie is a guilty pleasure for me. There are aspects of the book it gets completely wrong, but it’s at least visually appealing for the most part and the scenes they get right from the book are some of the best ones. I hope and pray that Netflix will be more faithful when they do their own adaptation. Cheers!