6 Scenes We Can’t Wait to See in a Narnia Movie Someday | Talking Beasts Flashback
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This episode was first published in December 2019.
But, the discussion remains just as relevant over 4 years later. We knew Netflix had the rights to The Chronicles of Narnia, but it was long before Greta Gerwig was announced as the writer/director.
Walden Media had dreams of bringing all seven Chronicles of Narnia books to the big screen, but pulled the plug after just three. The Silver Chair, The Horse and His Boy, The Magician’s Nephew, and The Last Battle have never been adapted into films. But, hope remains.
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All great picks. The actor who portrayed Tirian in FotF’s The Last Battle did an incredible job, especially with the scene where he’s crying out to Aslan. I disagree that there should be another prisoner tied up there with him so that he has a dialogue partner. The weight and despair of that scene is that he is utterly alone. Movies used to not mind having characters give dramatic monologues. I still think it can work if the actor can sell it. I too can’t wait to see Charn and the Hall of Images.
While listening to this episode I had an idea for a future episode you guys might enjoy making: Things We Don’t Want to See in a Narnia Movie. In which you can anticipate certain changes or removals that you think would negatively affect any given film adaptation.
For instance, anytime I imagine an adaptation of The Last Battle, I could see the filmmakers turning it into a big, epic, thousands (or even just hundreds) of soldiers on either side of the LAST BATTLE OF NARNIA, instead of keeping the tiny, skirmishy, desperate, sure-to-be-defeated last battle of the book. We certainly saw changes like this in the Walden films, dramatically altering the story for a beefed-up CGI battle or yet another, needless chase sequence.
But perhaps that’s too vague and negative a topic. Just a thought.
@Forrest, that voice actor for Tirian was great! Your comment inspired me to look his name up and it’s Gwynn Beech.
Talking Beasts did an episode a long time ago that was kind of what you suggest. It was called Jill and Eustace Romance-and Other Bad Ideas for The Silver Chair.
BTW, for your own sake, stay away from my blog because I’m going to publish a post this Friday arguing that the night raid scene in the Prince Caspian is not a big a change as people assume. It’d probably make you mad.
All really interesting. Though I’m not so sure about the part having someone tied up with Tirian. Though I do get there are moments in the books that wouldn’t work well for screen and would have to require some changes or tweaks.
The three scenes I can’t wait to see are The Unwelcome Fellow Traveler in HHB, the Wood Between the Worlds in MN and Emeth’s meeting with Aslan in LB.
Col Klink, agreed. The majority of the voice actors for that production were stellar, but Gwynn Beech always stood out to me. Really sounded like a king. His joy sounded like joy, his sorrow like sorrow.
Ah, thank you for bringing that previous episode to my attention. They should do one for all the books that haven’t been adapted…or even for the books that have been, come to think of it. It will be interesting to compare the differences in Gerwig’s films vs. the Walden vs. previous iterations.
While I am an unashamed purist, I will say that of all the changes in the Prince Caspian film, the Night Raid bothers me the least. I get what the filmmakers were trying to do with it, and it fits with a story beat in the book, where the Narnians lose a battle. It was quite effective showing the soldiers who were left behind, trapped at the gate. But there are several threads tied into that scene which connect to larger issues I have with the film, though I won’t get into them here. And yet, I’d still rather see an adaptation where Giant Wimbleweather ruins the battle plan, and the following evening he sheds great giant tears on unsuspecting mice at his feet.
I may check out your blog either way!
Thanks for the book collection! I liked their description, I think they will be interesting. I was recently looking for materials for my assignment and found work here some great book reviews. There is a brief description and several analyzes of the book. I really liked it, I recommend it to you too!