Greta Gerwig “Loved” Animated Narnia Movie
Apparently, Director Greta Gerwig is a fan of the 1979 animated adaptation of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. That’s according to Dr. Ted Baehr, then-president of the studio that produced the animated version.
Dr. Baehr’s comment came in a video and article reacting to the Aslan casting controversy surrounding Gerwig’s upcoming Narnia movie. He mentioned a brief meeting with Gerwig at the Critics Choice Awards:
“I talked with Greta Gerwig about a year and a half ago. She said she loved this animated version that we did.”
Ted Baehr (2:37)
Baehr also says that, at one point, the Children’s Television Workshop suggested that Lucy and Susan could pour anointing oil on Aslan to bring him back to life. The final version of the scene is close to the book.
Listen to NarniaWeb’s review of the animated movie.
Writer/Director Greta Gerwig’s Narnia movie, which appears to be an adaptation of The Magician’s Nephew, hits IMAX screens Thanksgiving 2026.
Listening to this, I found I had a silly hope (which is almost certainly not what’s happening).
What if the rumors that Greta Gerwig was writing a Musical could be true? (I liked the idea that it’s an animated musical rather than a Live Action musical AKA something like “The Lion King”.) This would make sense that they were looking to cast a pop singer (Charli XCX) as Jadis for a while.
It may also make the discussions for Meryl Streep make some sense too (I know some have suggested that she might be one of many voices who collectively bring Aslan to life). Given Streep has shown herself to be a capable singer (she’s sung in some of her movies – ‘Mama Mia’ and even ‘Death becomes Her’ come to mind), so if she helped with the singing parts, but Aslan was still a male character, I would not have any objections.
Making it a musical would not mean it would necessarily be animated, but I love the animated styles of “The Wingfeather Saga”, The “Spider-verse” movies, the latest “Puss in boots” movie, etc. How cool would it be if they mimicked Pauline Baynes’ drawing style for the images on screen!
I can definitely see with Greta being an American, rather than a Brit, that she is much more likely to have grown up with the 1979 animated version of Narnia than the live-action BBC versions of Narnia from the late 80s.
Its cool though to hear that she really enjoyed this version… hopefully one of the things she loved about it was Aslan’s somewhat over-the-top deep booming voice!
I wonder though if there are any other influences or inspirations she could have taken from this version?
I was kind of disappointed when I read this that it wasn’t an entire interview with Gerwig about Narnia, just something someone had heard her say. Oh well. Still a fun little tidbit, I guess.
That’s weird about the Children’s Television wanting them to bring Aslan back by anointing him with oil. Glad they didn’t do that.
@icarus, I agree! I think this might be my favorite Aslan in any version: he’s huge, for one, he seems so magnificent and I love the scene of him playing with the girls.