Spoiler: The Sea Serpent is Defeated During the Opening Credits | Talking Beasts
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Episode 3 of BBC’s The Voyage of the Dawn Treader television mini-series is packed to the brim! In just 30 minutes, the Dawn Treader crew evades the Sea Serpent and discovers Deathwater, Dufflepuds, and the Dark Island. Listen to our discussion and then post a comment!
Watch Part 2 of this discussion.
In the Dawn Treader movie Lucy actually changes into Susan, which is not in the book. Why does she become Susan instead of just wishing for her beauty? I think the BBC version got it right in having Lucy see a picture of Susan and wanting to be “the beautiful one”. Her sin was jealousy, which is what the book implies. I liked the appearance of Aslan in the scene and his stern rebuke of her jealousy. It is better than the movie version, in which he merely tells her to believe in herself. Lucy needed some correction after all.
I liked the sea serpent, which may surprise people since I’m one of those who feels like you can’t do an adaptation which captures the spirit of the books without talking animals who look like animals and not humans in costume. But just because I think photorealistic animation is better for Narnia on the whole doesn’t mean I see no value in more old-fashioned special effects. Hey, puppets can be scary! While you can tell it’s not really alive in the scenes with the model of the ship, but the fact that it’s solid makes it frightening in a way you often can’t get with computer animation. (These days anyway. I feel like filmmakers used to try to make computer animated things look like they were really there and now they’ve just given up.) And the design is great. I have to agree about the sea serpent scene being bizarrely quick though. The title of this podcast episode really says it all.
I found Sophie Wilcox to be OK. Not as great as you might wish, but I like her better than the actors of any of the other BBC Pevensies. And it’s worth noting that while Lucy is a major character in LWW and PC, she’s more a supporting character in this story. This episode is the only one where she’s really the focus. I didn’t like Preston Lockwood because…frankly, he sounds like he’s stoned. LOL. I feel that Coriakin should be genuinely friendly and down to earth, but with an undercurrent of impatience. Aslan didn’t punish him for nothing after all. This guy just feels really flaky and spaced out. (Heh. Spaced out. Star.) I can’t imagine him getting mad at the duffers enough to turn them into monopods. So I guess I’m the opposite of Rilian. I will agree that this Coriakin is better than the one in the VDT movie.
Now I want there to be a parody version of this story where our heroes use Siri. LOL.
I don’t really have a problem with the content of what Aslan says to Lucy. Chastising her for vices, acknowledging her good points and still loving her is pretty much what he does to her and the other main characters in the books. That being said, it’s a lot less quotable and memorable than his dialogue from the book. I guess that’s another reason why they should have done the eavesdropping spell. (I really agree with what the podcasters said about that adaptation change. Hopefully, someday there’ll be a visual adaptation that includes that little scene.) It wouldn’t have required them to write new lines for him. That’s not to say the writing on this miniseries is always bad when it goes off book. I love Lucy’s snarky line when she’s reading the magician’s cure for warts. “Well, really! How many people have a basin made out of silver?”
You know this is the second episode where Drinian had a moment that the podcasters felt came across as evil. Maybe in the fourth episode, he’ll turn out to be the villain. 😉 I actually liked Drinian’s emotional meltdown since it was based on him having had an anxious day and not liking advice from landsmen in the corresponding scene from the book. It’s fun when adaptations can include little details like that, though I can see the podcasters’ point too. It’s a funny thing. I feel like most of the actors in this are good or at least OK, but they all have at least one really bad line reading. Were they not able to do multiple takes?
I think I enjoyed this episode (of the BBC VDT) more than the podcasters did because I felt like it was only the sea serpent scene and the magician’s book scene that were too fast paced, unfortunate as they were. The rest of the pacing I thought was perfect. And I love the dufflepuds’ dialogue, so anything with that in it can’t be too bad IMO. Something I feel this podcast isn’t giving this adaptation enough credit for is how they keep the fact that they’re voyaging into the unknown in your mind. In the movie adaptation, there’s a scene that mentions this near the beginning and one when we’re almost to the climax. Here they spread conversations about it throughout. In the movie, I feel like you forget about that aspect of the story with all the green mist drama.
I would have liked Drinian’s meltdown line if it had better setup, maybe a brief scene early in the story where Drinian’s advice is interrupted by Lucy or Edmund. Then a subtle reaction shot of Drinian’s annoyance. The way it appears is too abrupt which makes it seem rushed and out of place.
I think the sea serpent in the Walden adaptation is actually how I would picture it. The BBC, not quite so scary. But I guess in both versions, it would scare kids.
I think the sea serpent could be on the top list of the darkest moments or scariest monsters.
Coriakin is one of my favorite characters, though doesn’t have a very good role. They kind of want you to think that he’s a bad guy, but he actually turns out to be a good guy.
Or a very big role is what I meant to say.