Aslan is on the Move!
Well, as those of you who've been following my journal know, thanks to the generosity of a couple of my freinds, I got to see Narnia on opening night as a birthday gift.
I'm finally enough over the "SQUEE SQUEE SQUEE" factor to give a (more) coherent reveiw.
Okay so: I hadn't re-read LWW in quite a while, so I can't really vouch for how close an adaptation it is - but from what I remember pretty frelling close. I'm actually going to do a re-read as soon as I can dig out my copy from wherever the frell it's buried right now.
Okay so - it started with a scene from the bombing of London, which the book didn't, but I think it works in a film to set the scene and establish the characters - and establish the characters they did, maybe even a little better than Lewis did. The movie did a BANG-up job of immediately establishing Edmund's character, giving him depth, so he doesn't come off as completely loathsome later which he easily could. The children's father is not avoided or ignored as an issue, either - as it was in the BBC series. In fact Edmund missing his father and resenting Peter for "taking over" very much cements his characterization and motivation.
There are not words in the English language to descibe how perfect beyond all perfect things Mr Tumnus is. I want one. I want a Mr Tumnus to take home for tea. I want one to slip in my pocket. "Woobie" doesn't even cover it. He's so perfectly charming and lovely, and his scenes with Lucy are so sweet and beautiful and perfectly set up both how he could defy the White Witch for a girl he just met, and how Lucy could be so devestated by his capture and petrification.
The casting in general is amazing - just stunning. Tumnus and Lucy in particular are amazing, but there isn't a flat note in the whole cast - and the children are so perfectly in period while still resonating perfectly as children not some idiot hollywood exec's idea of what a child should act like. Changing what they were doing hiding in the wardrobe from avoiding a tour to having broken a window with a cricket ball was nothing short of genius, IMHO.
The flow of the story was very well done - it never dragged and captured everything that made me love the book in the first place. One thing they cut out that I dearly missed was the Cristmas Party the White Queen inturrpts - we only see the results of her having been there later, not the party itself. The fox is kept as a character, though, and done VERY well.
Mr and Mrs Beaver's characterization was perfectly done - they did alot of dear English couple squabbling, as well as showing a very real depth of affection for each other - this came out very strongly in the scene where Mr Beaver went out of where they're hiding to see if the white queens has left. The looks he and his wife give each other, as well as the look on her face while they're waiting for him to come back - pure love.
They did NOT cheap out or shy down from the Christian imagry - but they also didn't beat you do death with it, either. I was particularily impressed with how Father Christmas was handled - because he DOES show up, and his casting is marvelous, too. And he looks like Father Christmas - not Santa.
I've been saving a section all to itself to squee about the visual effects, and the visual look of the film in general. In a word, stunning. In another - breathtaking. Okay, the CGI was completely flawless, the animals lived and breathed and talked, and I couldn't tell which were CGI, which were real, which were animatronic, and didn't CARE. Aslan had - presence. He stepped out and you couldn't not look at him. And then he opened his mouth and tears came to my eyes. You can intellectually know Liam Neeson is playing Aslan all you like, but it doesn't quite prepare you. But I was talking about the visuals.
The brought two entire armys with not a single human between them to life perfectly. Some of the creatures were particularily imaginative, like the giant humanoid bat-things of the White Queen's, but my favourite was what was ythe most beatiful and imaginative representation of a dryad I've ever seen - a cloud of cherry blossoms and leaves that formed itself into a person - I'm failing to convery this, I know, but take my word for it, it's utterly brillaint and breathtaking.
It's not just the visual effects that blew me away, however, it's the entire visual look of the whole movie, and the care that was taken in every aspet of the production design. (Though really, would you expect anything less of WETA?) The stark beauty of the winter landscapes, somehow more cozy and inviting than the icy and pristine spires of Jadis' castle. Tumnus' house, with it's intricately made funature and dishwere, really felt like a home, not just a set, and that goes DOUBLE for the beavers' dam - which gets the Canadian's seal of approval for accuracy, too. If beavers became bipedal and sentient and lived like a fussy english couple, THAT is what it would look like. :)
It's not just the Narnia locations, either! The professor's house was perfect to every detail - having actually spent TIME in large county English houses (there's those on my mother's side who aren't short of a shilling, as they say) I just have to applaud it - not to mention the little details that I'm sure only a total book geek (who happens to have The Magician's Nephew as her favourite of the series) would notice. The wardrobe, for example, was perfectly done, with one door and not two as is so commonly depicted, as well as having the apple tree motief. There was also the fact that the professor (and oh, he is perfectly cast, I took one look at him and could SEE little Diggory there, beyond the many years) kept his tobacco in a knick knack SILVER APPLE. There were bloody apples all over the place, too - and more than one lion. I loved that little nod.
Getting back to Narnia, I have to admit, the Stone table from the BBC mini series is so engrained upon my psyche that WETA's stone table, although a brilliant creation, was a bit jarring.
Caer Paravel was glorius beyond words, however. The coronation scene was wonderfully done in every detail.
Which brings me at last to my final squee: THEY DID NOT CHEAP OUT WITH THE ENDING! They let everybody grow old, (and oh, the casting was amazing there too!) and they had them all traipsing through the woods on horseback, hunting a White Stag - and then they dismount, and follow Lucy back out...
...and the four kids fall out of the Wardrobe. And there's the professor.
Perfect. Perfect perfect. Thank you, Diseny, you pulled it off. Do this again with Prince Caspian, and I'll be impressed. Do it with the entire series, and I'll be gobsmacked.
As a parting note: STAY FOR THE CREDITS! At least a few minutes in. There's a scene with Lucy and the professor that you CANNOT miss.
If they don't do the Magician's Nephew after everythying they put into this movie, they are officially the worst cockteases in history. It doesn't have to be NEXT, it just has to be DONE, at some point.
Anyway. That's my Narnia post. Thanks for your patience.
I'll be gone for a week, but I love you all. :)
I'm finally enough over the "SQUEE SQUEE SQUEE" factor to give a (more) coherent reveiw.
Okay so: I hadn't re-read LWW in quite a while, so I can't really vouch for how close an adaptation it is - but from what I remember pretty frelling close. I'm actually going to do a re-read as soon as I can dig out my copy from wherever the frell it's buried right now.
Okay so - it started with a scene from the bombing of London, which the book didn't, but I think it works in a film to set the scene and establish the characters - and establish the characters they did, maybe even a little better than Lewis did. The movie did a BANG-up job of immediately establishing Edmund's character, giving him depth, so he doesn't come off as completely loathsome later which he easily could. The children's father is not avoided or ignored as an issue, either - as it was in the BBC series. In fact Edmund missing his father and resenting Peter for "taking over" very much cements his characterization and motivation.
There are not words in the English language to descibe how perfect beyond all perfect things Mr Tumnus is. I want one. I want a Mr Tumnus to take home for tea. I want one to slip in my pocket. "Woobie" doesn't even cover it. He's so perfectly charming and lovely, and his scenes with Lucy are so sweet and beautiful and perfectly set up both how he could defy the White Witch for a girl he just met, and how Lucy could be so devestated by his capture and petrification.
The casting in general is amazing - just stunning. Tumnus and Lucy in particular are amazing, but there isn't a flat note in the whole cast - and the children are so perfectly in period while still resonating perfectly as children not some idiot hollywood exec's idea of what a child should act like. Changing what they were doing hiding in the wardrobe from avoiding a tour to having broken a window with a cricket ball was nothing short of genius, IMHO.
The flow of the story was very well done - it never dragged and captured everything that made me love the book in the first place. One thing they cut out that I dearly missed was the Cristmas Party the White Queen inturrpts - we only see the results of her having been there later, not the party itself. The fox is kept as a character, though, and done VERY well.
Mr and Mrs Beaver's characterization was perfectly done - they did alot of dear English couple squabbling, as well as showing a very real depth of affection for each other - this came out very strongly in the scene where Mr Beaver went out of where they're hiding to see if the white queens has left. The looks he and his wife give each other, as well as the look on her face while they're waiting for him to come back - pure love.
They did NOT cheap out or shy down from the Christian imagry - but they also didn't beat you do death with it, either. I was particularily impressed with how Father Christmas was handled - because he DOES show up, and his casting is marvelous, too. And he looks like Father Christmas - not Santa.
I've been saving a section all to itself to squee about the visual effects, and the visual look of the film in general. In a word, stunning. In another - breathtaking. Okay, the CGI was completely flawless, the animals lived and breathed and talked, and I couldn't tell which were CGI, which were real, which were animatronic, and didn't CARE. Aslan had - presence. He stepped out and you couldn't not look at him. And then he opened his mouth and tears came to my eyes. You can intellectually know Liam Neeson is playing Aslan all you like, but it doesn't quite prepare you. But I was talking about the visuals.
The brought two entire armys with not a single human between them to life perfectly. Some of the creatures were particularily imaginative, like the giant humanoid bat-things of the White Queen's, but my favourite was what was ythe most beatiful and imaginative representation of a dryad I've ever seen - a cloud of cherry blossoms and leaves that formed itself into a person - I'm failing to convery this, I know, but take my word for it, it's utterly brillaint and breathtaking.
It's not just the visual effects that blew me away, however, it's the entire visual look of the whole movie, and the care that was taken in every aspet of the production design. (Though really, would you expect anything less of WETA?) The stark beauty of the winter landscapes, somehow more cozy and inviting than the icy and pristine spires of Jadis' castle. Tumnus' house, with it's intricately made funature and dishwere, really felt like a home, not just a set, and that goes DOUBLE for the beavers' dam - which gets the Canadian's seal of approval for accuracy, too. If beavers became bipedal and sentient and lived like a fussy english couple, THAT is what it would look like. :)
It's not just the Narnia locations, either! The professor's house was perfect to every detail - having actually spent TIME in large county English houses (there's those on my mother's side who aren't short of a shilling, as they say) I just have to applaud it - not to mention the little details that I'm sure only a total book geek (who happens to have The Magician's Nephew as her favourite of the series) would notice. The wardrobe, for example, was perfectly done, with one door and not two as is so commonly depicted, as well as having the apple tree motief. There was also the fact that the professor (and oh, he is perfectly cast, I took one look at him and could SEE little Diggory there, beyond the many years) kept his tobacco in a knick knack SILVER APPLE. There were bloody apples all over the place, too - and more than one lion. I loved that little nod.
Getting back to Narnia, I have to admit, the Stone table from the BBC mini series is so engrained upon my psyche that WETA's stone table, although a brilliant creation, was a bit jarring.
Caer Paravel was glorius beyond words, however. The coronation scene was wonderfully done in every detail.
Which brings me at last to my final squee: THEY DID NOT CHEAP OUT WITH THE ENDING! They let everybody grow old, (and oh, the casting was amazing there too!) and they had them all traipsing through the woods on horseback, hunting a White Stag - and then they dismount, and follow Lucy back out...
...and the four kids fall out of the Wardrobe. And there's the professor.
Perfect. Perfect perfect. Thank you, Diseny, you pulled it off. Do this again with Prince Caspian, and I'll be impressed. Do it with the entire series, and I'll be gobsmacked.
As a parting note: STAY FOR THE CREDITS! At least a few minutes in. There's a scene with Lucy and the professor that you CANNOT miss.
If they don't do the Magician's Nephew after everythying they put into this movie, they are officially the worst cockteases in history. It doesn't have to be NEXT, it just has to be DONE, at some point.
Anyway. That's my Narnia post. Thanks for your patience.
I'll be gone for a week, but I love you all. :)