Narnia

[morgan]

I am going to rate the Disney movie Narnia as one of the worst movies I have seen. I always had a more or less respectful outlook toward C.S. Lewis, but that is all gone after seeing this movie. I read the books as a kid, but I didn't pick up on the Christian programing then.

If you have read much of anything about the movie Narnia, then you probably have read about the Christian overtones. It is more like Christian sledgehammers, and the worst aspects of Christianity are glorified.

The kids are good actors, I will say that much.

Rather than give a through review, I will just list some reasons why this movie is despicable and why this is one of the worst possible times this piece of propaganda could be released (Spoilers):

1. The good creatures of Narnia, just go about their business of joy and happiness, and evil just comes out of no where and overwhelms them. They have no responsibility in the scourge of evil blanketing the land - it just happens. Reminiscent of "They hate us because of our freedoms."

2. Evil is a woman ice queen. Goodness is the warm masculine lion. Surely Lewis was aware of 1 Peter 5:8, "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour." (New International Version) Just like Christianity to despise the feminine creative principle.

3. There is war, but you see very little of consequences of war. None of the cute creatures are seen dying in the climatic battle. Apparently there are no consequences to fighting holy wars. Only the bad guys are seen taking a few arrows - much to the delight of the audience. One of the main characters is injured in a big heart-tugging scene, but thanks to Santa Claus (he is the next point) there is a healing potion. The little girl goes around and heals the injured with the magic potion that has the color and viscosity of blood.

4. Santa Claus shows up half way through the movie to deliver implements of war and one tiny vial of blood-like healing potion. It is a holy war after all. Enough said.

5. Several references to just knowing that the Lion savior will return.

"How do you Know?"

"You Just Know."

That is the type of conversations before the big build up to the savior lion. Everybody knows the savior is coming, and it is time for the big battle over evil. After the lion is introduced he spends quality time getting the kids used to killing. These kids are special, and are the catalyst that brings the lion back to Narnia to fight the holy war.

6. The big emotional scenes before the final climatic battle centers around the sacrifice of the savior lion. By sacrifice, I mean put up on an alter, mocked by the grotesque and twisted villains, his mane shaved, and stabbed by the evil queen.

The lion has sacrificed himself for the sins of one of the children. Oh, how this child suffers when he realizes he has brought about the death of the savior. And why must their be a sacrifice? Those are just the rules, or something similar was stated.

Of course, the lion is resurrected due to a similar inane rule.

7. I saw this movie in the theatre. It was horrible watching the crowds reaction to this programming. They bought it, and they loved it. If you must watch it, wait for the DVD so you do not subject yourself to seeing an audience literally jerk back and begin crying when the lion is stabbed, cheer when the various villains take an arrow and the queen gets her "just desserts", and become giddy when the kids are now made kings and queens of the new Narnia.

I am for freedom of speech, so I am not saying that movies like this should be censored. But, parents beware: excessive and brutal fundamentalist indoctrination.

 

[Ben]

I completely agree and am completely astonished at the number of intelligent, discerning people who are not appalled by the transparent agenda of this film. When it finished, the audience started clapping and cheering and I was glad because I spent that whole time laughing when I realised i had just been watching this thing for over two hours! (and I too loved the books when i was a kid).

From a purely cinematic point of view, the worst thing about this film is that it is so bland. The good and evil aspects are just basic outward portrayals of these states, never is there any real sense of evil behind these cartoonish CGI clichés. The jokes are abysal, mostly, and the kids are not such great actors.

But everyone I talk to: "how could you not like this film"?

 

[Cyre2067]

hehe... i thought it was cute, but then again am not affected by propoganda within the morals of films unless im predisposed to said philosophy. IE I liked the matrix and dug into the philosophy because i had a predisposition to it. Christian/catholicism always felt "icky" to me from the start (raised catholic & went to catholic elementary school), used to get weird vibes in churches and when i was adolescent this lead me down many funky paths. But needless to say the christian thing never worked on me, and this new, CGI enhanced version of same is no different.

 

[Mark]

Chronicles of Nonsense -- aka Narnia

I watch Narnia last night. Definitely a biblical portrayal of salvation, with many of the main characters portrayed as animals.

As for special effects it was sub-standard. Compared to the special effects (and story line for that matter) of Lord of the Rings its pathetic.

The worst aspect was the portrayal of the wickedness of the world in the form of a woman as a cold witch -- that compared to the goodness of the world being in the capabilities of male figures. Save us Jebus, we who drink iced blue koolaid. LOL.

Good thing the rental was free or I'd say I wasted my money!

 

[Ben]

Chronicles of Nonsense -- aka Narnia

Yes, read the post entitled 'Narnia' on this section of the forum. I pointed out how awful it was, I don't care what people choose to believe in but this was just a bad film.

 

[anart]

Chronicles of Nonsense -- aka Narnia

"I can't be a missionary, I don't even believe in Jebus!!!"

 

[MaskedAvatar]

Chronicles of Nonsense -- aka Narnia

So, do you think the difficulties arise in the source material (Lewis vs Tolkien) or in the screenplay or in some other aspect of the adaptation?

Sometimes (not often) I despair that centuries of literary tradition are going to be lost in one generation.

 

[Hildegarda]

Chronicles of Nonsense -- aka Narnia

Ok, go ahead and throw rotten eggs at me -- I like Narnia :):) or rather I should say I like the Chronicles of Narnia books. My favorite is actually the first part of the series, The Magician's Nephew, where he goes through how Narnia was created, and how the White Witch entered it due to another kid's mistake.

CS Lewis wrote the LWW soon after he became converted to christianity, and of course the Christian symbolism is quite obvious. However, CSLewis is undisputably a great writer and a perseptive thinker, and it's the little gems here and there and his take on universal situations that are valuable for me. Consider, e.g., this little snipet from Wikipedia:

<snip>
Evidence exists that the conception of the demiurge has derivation from figures in Plato's Timaeus and Republic. In the former, the demiurge is the benevolent creator of the universe from pre-existent matter, to whose limitations he is enthralled in creating the cosmos; in the latter, the description of the leontomorphic 'desire' in Socrates' model of the psyche bears a strong resemblance to descriptions of the demiurge as being in the shape of the LION.
<snip>

I am positive that CSLewis was aware of it, hence the lionine form os Aslan, the creator of Narnia.

Tolkien' LR was mentioned as a better book. I think it is a very different book for an older audience. And also a little detail: Tolkien too was a christian, a committed Catholic, and it was he who played a major role in CSLewis's conversion to chiristianity. However, unlike Tolkien, Lewis became a Protestant; and when Narnia appeared, Tolkien was very critical of it, because in his view it was way too literally christian, in a protestant fashion :).

Knowing this and other details about these two great minds, and having some grounding in an objective wolrdview, as we strive to do here on this forum, I think it is easy enough to simply appreciate Tolkien's and CSLewis's works as pieces of fine writing and bearers of eternal truths.

I think it is the movie and not so much the book that takes the subject to obvious programming. One thing that bothered me was that the LWW movie was widely previewed at churches around the nations, and discussion groups and activities were fprmed around it. I know of an instance where it was actually incorporated into a church service, in a form reminding of a some kind of rally. Now THAT was scary.

The movie is quite different from the book in that they beefed up the plot with suspense moments, and added the whole doubting aspect to the kids' characters, how they are just not sure whether they should help the Narnians etc. A logical thing to do, since in the book the kids' characters just don't have enough individual depth, and this is quite fine for the book since it is not the point of it. But IMO in the movie it transtaled into something that is just plain average. Of course the fact that kids weren't good actors didn't help much.

"Substandard" special effects IMO have a simple explanation in that it is a CHILDREN's movie, thus by definition it should be less intense. This is also why you don't see anyone dying in the battle. Although it is certanly intense enough for me to decide against taking my then almost-a-six-year-old to see it.

 

[Hildegarda]

Chronicles of Nonsense -- aka Narnia

Sometimes (not often) I despair that centuries of literary tradition are going to be lost in one generation.

well, the verbal SAT scores in absolute measure have visibly declined in the last generation, so yeah, I am concerned too.

yet, we do have JKRowling who is a fine storyteller.

so may be not all is lost?

 

[Ben]

Chronicles of Nonsense -- aka Narnia

Ok, go ahead and throw rotten eggs at me -- I like Narnia :):) or rather I should say I like the Chronicles of Narnia books. My favorite is actually the first part of the series, The Magician's Nephew, where he goes through how Narnia was created, and how the White Witch entered it due to another kid's mistake.

I loved the books too, we're talking about the film here. That's the only reason I went to see the film, and the reason why it was so disappointing. Absolutely soul-less and bland, ironic given its 'message'.

 

[knowledge_of_self]

Chronicles of Nonsense -- aka Narnia

Hi Guys:
I also watched Narnia the other night, and was disappointed once again by Disney's latest. I have not read the book, and am very interested in reading them now because of all the "nonsense" in that movie. A few things that pop out for me were: (SPOILERS!!)

1. It was mentioned in the beginning of the movie, that the Ice Queen wanted all the humans dead. So we assume that humans once lived in Narnia. What happened to those humans? Where did they all go?
2. In a world where Jesus Christ does not exist, how could they have Christmas? I mean... essentially doesn't there have to be a birth by someone named Jesus Christ for there to be a Christmas??
3. In the movie, Christmas was not even portrayed as a religious holiday, celebrating the birth of Christ. When the little girl was first told that there was no Christmas in Narnia, she responded with, "Oh no! No presents???" So it is obvious that they are portraying corporate Christianity.
4. What the heck was up with Santa Clause, coming out of no where with presents??

It was quite disturbing to watch Narnia with our little 10 year old neighbour. I was sitting next to him, and he was gasping at the part where the lion was 'resurrected' and he was saying, "look the lion is like God." I didn't even know where to begin to explain to him about the nonsense portrayed in that movie. How can you say something like that to a 10 year old boy?

And something else that I thought about was how monarchism is being promoted through all sorts of movies. Particularly Narnia and Lord of the Rings (LOTR). The last book/movie of Lord of the Rings is called the "Return of the King" The "Return of the King" was praised and won many awards including about 11 Academy Awards. So the PTB was promoting LOTR a LOT. And what was LOTR promoting? Monorchism! And Narnia was all about some human kids becoming Kings and Queens. Makes you wonder what the PTB are hinting at anyway?

Also, it is interesting how Disney came out with the movie Chicken Little which is about Alien invasion, but it turns out that the aliens were 'good' guys at the end. So on the movie side you have hardcore promotions of Christianity and monarchism and on the cartoon side you have alien invasion who turn out to be 'good' guys.

Just some thoughts,
Nina

 

[Cyre2067]

Chronicles of Nonsense -- aka Narnia

::shrugs:: i saw the movie once in the theater, liked it, and prolly won't see it again. I thought the symbolism was obvious, but it's just not my cup of tea. I much prefer to watch the first matrix over and over and over and over again... Did that alot in college and been doing it more recently. I just like the idea that when im ready, i won't have to worry about bullets anymore

 

[Tigersoap]

Chronicles of Nonsense -- aka Narnia

Pfff saw it yesterday.
What a waste of time.

That movie seems to promote the return of Christ because if they deliver Narnia from the witch, there will be Christmas.
And what is Christmas if not the birth/return of Jesus ? correct me if i am wrong.

Santa Claus giving Weapons to the kids was pretty funny in a way.
We should call himw Father War-mas or something.
"Kids, it's cool to have weapons and use them for the good cause :!!"

This movie is full of the resurrection/sacrifice theme (Narnia itself from Winter to Summer, The lion, Edmund...)

Don't you think weird how the Faun is always looking at the little girl, that was weird to me and my wife as well.

And the kids, they are virgins, unspoiled that's why they inherit the kingdom (even when they do grow old they still are...unless....brrrrr...)


I liked the beavers though.

 

[Mark]

Chronicles of Nonsense -- aka Narnia

yet, we do have JKRowling who is a fine storyteller.

so may be not all is lost?

Do a search on "Harry Potter" +plagarism and see what pops up. One heck of a 'coincidence' there...

 

[Mark]

Chronicles of Nonsense -- aka Narnia

So, do you think the difficulties arise in the source material (Lewis vs Tolkien) or in the screenplay or in some other aspect of the adaptation?

Not sure who you're asking but I'll offer my input.

I think differences in the two writers arise from their perspectives of the universe. Lewis apparently bought into the Christian religion. Tolkien did not, at least in so far as I can determine at this point. If you notice, there is no direct savior syndrome in LOTR. There are poles, composites, and that symbolic "ring."