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I am also enthralled!
I borrowed the Chronicles of Narnia from my boyfriend's brother last year, and read about 3 of the books before admitting I was bored by them. It's true, my interest in the books arose from watching the 2005 The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. The movie exceeded my expectations. Where my friends saw plot devices, I saw a contemplation on the themes and constructs of fantasy, and of storytelling in general. How everything came together neatly in the end (sort of!, which I will address under the cut). It was almost meta in its tidiness. The movie's more enjoyable if you think of archetypes rather than stereotypes.
But, I gave up reading about two-thirds of the way through Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which is ironic now because that's the book I'm thirsting to read, what with it being in pre-production. I watched Prince Caspian a couple days ago and the thought I had most often was, "There's probably going to be shit-tons of Caspian/Peter fanfic."
+ It's quite dark for a children's movie. The scene where Peter realizes he's fucked up the castle raid and has to let half his troops die? Brilliant. Tugs heartstrings! I love it in stories when kids are for some reason or another in a fucked up non-kid situation viz. Lord of the Flies, The Professional, The Client, The Good Son. (Not Home Alone.) I love this trend of darkness in children's movies. I hope it continues.
+ Also the scene where Miraz pretty much tells the general to kill three of his men. My reaction is a combination of WTF, geez, and admiration at the size of the storytellers' balls.
+ When someone was like, "What now, Your Highness?" and both Caspian and Peter start talking at the same time, and then look at each other awkwardly. Definitely an "ooh shit-tons of Caspian/Peter fanfic!" moment.
+ Also when they fight after the castle battle. Caspian's anguished, angered cry when Peter mentions his father. Guh.
+ Edmund has become rather something of a badass. He saves Peter's ass twice (at the station, against the White Witch) and just kind of goes back to business without making a hoo-hah about it. Very classy. AND HOW MUCH DO I LOVE THE SCENE WHERE HE'S CONVINCING MIRAZ TO FIGHT PETER. SO MUCH. SO VERY MUCH. But that aside, Edmund doesn't receive very much character development in this movie. Well, this wasn't his movie after all, not the way LWW was. We'll have to wait for VDT!
+ Yes, yes, the jury has agreed that Reepicheep is Adorable. But it's also kind of creepy how much he wants to kill people.
+ Maybe I'm out of line because I haven't read the whole series, or if I'm not then I'm sure this issue has been addressed in Narnia fandom before. Also, this is more of an LWW quibble but as a newcomer it still needles me: those kids grew up in Narnia, killed people in Narnia, probably fell in and out of love in Narnia, and then the closet spits them back out and they're KIDS AGAIN and the movie ends. That's it? That's IT!? What about the psychological trauma? The kids do all those things as powerful rulers of a nation and suddenly they're kids in England in the middle of a world war, don't TELL me that doesn't fuck a head up, unless there's some sort of magical explanation for it.
THIS is what I want to see more of. I want them confused and confounded and missing Narnia so much it throws them into spirals! I want to see the boys mired in alcoholism! More of Peter smelling like booze and more of Edmund smelling like perfume and stealing from his parents' booze cabinet! Yes! Brood, boys, brood! While you drink! After you have sex with women (or men!) you don't care about! More of the Susan from here and here though please, where we see the wisdom that tempers her regular bitchiness. I'm not so much for the superbitch!Susan thing.
SEKRIT RECS LOL
It's difficult reconciling the children's ages between movieverse and bookverse. I reckon I prefer movieverse with the older Pevensies in their late teens, 'cos I haven't read the books and don't have a complete idea of what that can offer. But of course the good fic around is bookverse fic. It's little surprise that fic for books are generally of better quality than fic for movies or TV. And lots of bandfic reads like a description for a music video.
So yeah, I'm totally swiping boyf's bro's Chronicles of Narnia again as soon as I'm back in the country, and until then I'm going to content myself with discreetly tearing the cellophane off books and reading them in the bookstore.
But, I gave up reading about two-thirds of the way through Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which is ironic now because that's the book I'm thirsting to read, what with it being in pre-production. I watched Prince Caspian a couple days ago and the thought I had most often was, "There's probably going to be shit-tons of Caspian/Peter fanfic."
+ It's quite dark for a children's movie. The scene where Peter realizes he's fucked up the castle raid and has to let half his troops die? Brilliant. Tugs heartstrings! I love it in stories when kids are for some reason or another in a fucked up non-kid situation viz. Lord of the Flies, The Professional, The Client, The Good Son. (Not Home Alone.) I love this trend of darkness in children's movies. I hope it continues.
+ Also the scene where Miraz pretty much tells the general to kill three of his men. My reaction is a combination of WTF, geez, and admiration at the size of the storytellers' balls.
+ When someone was like, "What now, Your Highness?" and both Caspian and Peter start talking at the same time, and then look at each other awkwardly. Definitely an "ooh shit-tons of Caspian/Peter fanfic!" moment.
+ Also when they fight after the castle battle. Caspian's anguished, angered cry when Peter mentions his father. Guh.
+ Edmund has become rather something of a badass. He saves Peter's ass twice (at the station, against the White Witch) and just kind of goes back to business without making a hoo-hah about it. Very classy. AND HOW MUCH DO I LOVE THE SCENE WHERE HE'S CONVINCING MIRAZ TO FIGHT PETER. SO MUCH. SO VERY MUCH. But that aside, Edmund doesn't receive very much character development in this movie. Well, this wasn't his movie after all, not the way LWW was. We'll have to wait for VDT!
+ Yes, yes, the jury has agreed that Reepicheep is Adorable. But it's also kind of creepy how much he wants to kill people.
+ Maybe I'm out of line because I haven't read the whole series, or if I'm not then I'm sure this issue has been addressed in Narnia fandom before. Also, this is more of an LWW quibble but as a newcomer it still needles me: those kids grew up in Narnia, killed people in Narnia, probably fell in and out of love in Narnia, and then the closet spits them back out and they're KIDS AGAIN and the movie ends. That's it? That's IT!? What about the psychological trauma? The kids do all those things as powerful rulers of a nation and suddenly they're kids in England in the middle of a world war, don't TELL me that doesn't fuck a head up, unless there's some sort of magical explanation for it.
THIS is what I want to see more of. I want them confused and confounded and missing Narnia so much it throws them into spirals! I want to see the boys mired in alcoholism! More of Peter smelling like booze and more of Edmund smelling like perfume and stealing from his parents' booze cabinet! Yes! Brood, boys, brood! While you drink! After you have sex with women (or men!) you don't care about! More of the Susan from here and here though please, where we see the wisdom that tempers her regular bitchiness. I'm not so much for the superbitch!Susan thing.
SEKRIT RECS LOL
It's difficult reconciling the children's ages between movieverse and bookverse. I reckon I prefer movieverse with the older Pevensies in their late teens, 'cos I haven't read the books and don't have a complete idea of what that can offer. But of course the good fic around is bookverse fic. It's little surprise that fic for books are generally of better quality than fic for movies or TV. And lots of bandfic reads like a description for a music video.
So yeah, I'm totally swiping boyf's bro's Chronicles of Narnia again as soon as I'm back in the country, and until then I'm going to content myself with discreetly tearing the cellophane off books and reading them in the bookstore.
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