The Lion, the Witch, and kids during wartime

[dotsomething]

The non-spoilery comments: overall, a joy to watch. They tweaked and fine tuned, cutting some things from the book, adding things that weren't there. All of it was in service to the story and greatly enhanced the character story arcs. I couldn't find any scene that struck a false note or was maudlin or sentimental, which was a big danger in

Comments

[anirien]

Having just reread LWW, I don't think that the book implies that the "deep magic" is guiding the destinies of the children. The only place in which I think it's really referred to is a) by the Witch when she points out it's her right to kill traitors (they leave out Mr. Beaver's mention that she was the executioner for the Emperor Over the Sea) and b) in reference to the Deeper Magic from before the dawn of time which dictates that an innocent taking the place of a traitor on the stone table would cause said table to crack and "death itself to run backward." Or something like that. So I think the only destiny the Deep Magic really implies is that of Aslan's death and rebirth. There is of course the prophecy about the children and the other one about Aslan returning, but the source for those prophecies is never sited. Actually the prophecy about the children is a very messianic prophecy, in the Jewish sense, since it involves the arrival of a king or 4 monarchs in this case, who bring a golden age.

They did play up the adversarial relationship between Peter and Edmund more than in the book, there are seeds of it there but they still talk to and rely on eachother in the book more than in the beginning of the movie. (Ie. Peter actually listens to Edmund when he point out that they don't know how to get back when they're following the Robin, etc.) However like the other embellishments they made to the children for the movie this also worked well because it amped up the tension and made the characters, especially Edmund more easy to understand. In from the book all you can really draw about Edmund's character is that he's been in a bad school, he resents Peter and Susan bossing him around and therefore tends to get a bit nasty towards Lucy who is the only one younger than him, and that we are told the Witch's food puts him under an enchantment. Since it's not that easy to explain the first and last of those on film, the choice to play up his conflict with Peter was a good way of creating a character arc for both of them throughout the film. I particularly liked the moment with the fox where it hails calls him "your Majesty." That was a nice addition, it was changed from the feasting animals who have seen Father Christmas, but it tied the two plot lines of the Beavers and the other children and of Edmund and the Witch together nicely.

[dotsomething]

Actually the prophecy about the children is a very messianic prophecy, in the Jewish sense, since it involves the arrival of a king or 4 monarchs in this case, who bring a golden age.

That's very interesting.

Lewis also works in a lot of pagan myth--Bachanalian kind of stuff, and some Greek and Roman maybe as well. He was devoutly Christian but it seems he had interest in all kinds of legends, which maybe helps explain its universal quality despite the fact that it is also specifically Christian in many ways.

So that destiny stuff was put in by the filmmakers. So out of left field. It's not even a Christian idea (I already checked with a friend of mine who's Catholic and she was puzzled by it too). But that's really the only flubbed note in the entire movie, to me.