two things with big cats
Some thoughts on the book, "Life of Pi", and the movie "Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe". Cut for spoilers.
An interesting read, definitely. I loved reading about the way animals thinks/behaves, about the main character's thoughts on zoos and animals in captivity... and, well, I enjoyed the couple references to the Toronto Zoo.
At the beginning of the book, someone claims that it is a story that "will make you believe in God". Well, it didn't acheive that in me, but the religious anecdotes in the story were interesting.
One part of the book that stands out for me a lot if the carnivorous island. It's both fascinating and frightening. It's almost like a mini-Gaia theory (the idea that the Earth is just one giant intricate organism). Because it did seem as though the island was a kind of self-contained organism, with the meercats having a commensalism-type relationship with it.
It's been a loooonnnng time since I read Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe. In fact, I may have not even read it all the way through, as I have no memory of the Aslan dying and coming back to life.
It was a good movie, special effects were nice (I was especially impressed by the minotaur-like creatures...they looked very real), the actors performed well, and it had some good suspense moments, some good tear-jerker moments, and a couple jump-out-of-your-seat moments.
In short, it has all the elements of a good movie, and I did enjoy it, but it's not really outstanding, I'm a little inclined to say "meh".
But I feel that since in the past few years we've been saturated with fantasy movies (mostly just Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter), that overall it doesn't have as great an impact as it maybe could have had otherwise.
Sometime soon I'll reread the book, perhaps that would spark some enthusiasm about it.
I was told beforehand that the books were sort of meant as a Christian allegory, but it didn't really come across in the movie, too much. The only thing that made me think of it was the issue of faith: it's utterly impossible that there's a world inside a wardrobe, but the other kids should have believed in Lucy anyway. But of course, there was the whole dying and coming back to life part of it, which may have been the more obvious bit, although I didn't think of it until Lesley pointed it out.
An interesting read, definitely. I loved reading about the way animals thinks/behaves, about the main character's thoughts on zoos and animals in captivity... and, well, I enjoyed the couple references to the Toronto Zoo.
At the beginning of the book, someone claims that it is a story that "will make you believe in God". Well, it didn't acheive that in me, but the religious anecdotes in the story were interesting.
One part of the book that stands out for me a lot if the carnivorous island. It's both fascinating and frightening. It's almost like a mini-Gaia theory (the idea that the Earth is just one giant intricate organism). Because it did seem as though the island was a kind of self-contained organism, with the meercats having a commensalism-type relationship with it.
It's been a loooonnnng time since I read Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe. In fact, I may have not even read it all the way through, as I have no memory of the Aslan dying and coming back to life.
It was a good movie, special effects were nice (I was especially impressed by the minotaur-like creatures...they looked very real), the actors performed well, and it had some good suspense moments, some good tear-jerker moments, and a couple jump-out-of-your-seat moments.
In short, it has all the elements of a good movie, and I did enjoy it, but it's not really outstanding, I'm a little inclined to say "meh".
But I feel that since in the past few years we've been saturated with fantasy movies (mostly just Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter), that overall it doesn't have as great an impact as it maybe could have had otherwise.
Sometime soon I'll reread the book, perhaps that would spark some enthusiasm about it.
I was told beforehand that the books were sort of meant as a Christian allegory, but it didn't really come across in the movie, too much. The only thing that made me think of it was the issue of faith: it's utterly impossible that there's a world inside a wardrobe, but the other kids should have believed in Lucy anyway. But of course, there was the whole dying and coming back to life part of it, which may have been the more obvious bit, although I didn't think of it until Lesley pointed it out.