The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader - Page 3

That looks pretty good.  Were Peter and Susan in the original book though (in the Narnia bit that is)?  It's been 20+ years since I read it...

Interesting trailer. It's amazing how much older that actress playing Lucy is. She sounds incredibly like the girl who played Susan now that her voice has changed.

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlexF 

That looks pretty good.  Were Peter and Susan in the original book though (in the Narnia bit that is)?  It's been 20+ years since I read it...

Nope, and they aren't in the movie either. The trailer is purposefully deceptive on that point.

Main characters by book:

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy Pevensie

Prince Caspian: Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy Pevensie

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader: Edmund and Lucy Pevensie, Eustace Scrubb

The Silver Chair: Eustace Scrubb and Jill Pole

The Horse and His Boy: Shasta; the Pevensie children cameo

The Magician's Nephew: Digory Kirke and Polly Plummer

The Last Battle: Eustace Scrubb and Jill Pole; Pevensie children as adults supporting

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adam Lenhardt 

 

Nope, and they aren't in the movie either. The trailer is purposefully deceptive on that point.

Well, looks like they're at least in it for a little bit. I'm guessing cameo at the end. Trailer also shows the White Witch, who was not in the book at all.

3D might be the worst thing to ever happen to fantasy filmmaking. It seems like every fantasy film going forward is going to have some stock, unimaginative shot where a character tosses something toward the camera. In "Alice in Wonderland" it is the Mad Hatter tossing fabric rolls and in this one it is a Wizard tossing a rug or scroll. The show looks promising, but I'm beginning to wish that 3D would go back in the closet.

And it wasn't even shot in 3D...

Looking good. Kind of a marketing hoodwink to pull footage of Peter and Susan from Prince Caspian and put it in the trailer, but I don't care as long as the actual movie is good and it gets butts in the seats.

Same deal with the White Witch. Her cameo is probably entirely what we saw in the trailer, amongst the several dreams/nightmares of Dark Island before they turn course.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brandon Conway 

Looking good. Kind of a marketing hoodwink to pull footage of Peter and Susan from Prince Caspian and put it in the trailer, but I don't care as long as the actual movie is good and it gets butts in the seats.

It's not from Prince Caspian. Pretty sure it's actually from the movie, but I have no idea what the context will be.

Looks a lot like B-roll shots from right before they return to Earth in Prince Caspian to me. But even if it's new footage I doubt it'll be Susan/Peter in the main story. Flashback to time on the Lonely Islands during their reign is most likely.

I think Anna Popplewell came back to shoot the mirror scene, but the shots at the end with all four in hero poses is probably b-roll from Caspian, like Brandon said.

It could also be that the shots of Skandar and Georgie are new, but the shots of Anna and William are from unused shots in PC. The latter certainly look identical (age, hair) as they did two years ago.

Looks good. Still not keen on the score, and it's too bad the girl is getting a bit of a pig-nose, but, the painting scene looked great!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Will_B 

Looks good. Still not keen on the score, and it's too bad the girl is getting a bit of a pig-nose, but, the painting scene looked great!

What score are you referring to? The music in the trailer (which obviously won't be in the film) or the score in the first two movies?

New trailer.

Certainly a much better trailer than the first one, IMO, although as a lifelong fan of the book it's worrying to see this kind of drastic re-write of the basic plot.

I wouldn't go quite that far before having seen the result, but yeah; it's a bit disheartening to see that the people in charge of these adaptions apparently have so little faith in the source material. One of the things that make the Narnia books the classics they are, is that each of them did something very different from the rest, making each book unique. And yet, now they seem to be doing their darndest to fit each story into the Hollywood cookie cutter. I like both of the first two movies quite a bit, but I'm starting to wish now that the series was being adapted by someone with the ambitions and guts to embrace the unconventional nature of the stories rather than treating it as an obstacle to overcome in the adaption process.

It's hard to imagine how a movie that sets pretty much all of its Narnia scenes on board a boat can be considered more of the same. And while the trailers try very hard to suggest an epic overarching story, the footage showcases most of the episodic beats I remember from the book.

And nothing in the trailers screams drastic rewrite of the plot to me.

The core story the trailer is referencing is invented from whole cloth...unless I'm misremembering a major part of the book.

It could be like Coraline, where an entirely new character was created and major plotting changes made for the movie translation...but in doing so they preserved the spirit and themes of the book.

It could be like Bridge to Terabithia, where the trailer looked like "Harry Potter" ripoff ...while the actual film was a marvelous and faithful adaptation. 

I fear it's more like Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy where the episodic beats, to borrow Adam's phrase, appear, but the whole of it is grossly missing the feel and heart of the book.

My interpretation of the trailer as it relates to the book:

It's worth noting that this third Narnia movie was independently produced by Walden Media, the same company behind Bridge to Terebithia. Perhaps more importantly, the sense of magic and whimsy that was sorely missing from Prince Caspian is clearly evident here.

While 'Prince Caspian' wasn't nearly the hit that 'Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe' was, I'm still surprised that Disney opted out of their deal with Walden Media.  The two sides clashed over budget issues from what I understand.  The first 'Narnia' flick cost $180 mil and earned $745 million worldwide, while the $225 million budgeted 'Prince Caspian' pulled in just under $420 million globally.  Granted the numbers weren't as gaudy as those on the first movie, but $420 mil is nothing to balk at.  Add in the film's performance on home video and it ended up being a very profitable sequel despite its massive budget. 

I could be wrong, but I think 'Dawn Treader' will be a huge hit over the holidays and Disney may come to regret their decision.  As Adam mentioned, the trailers have done a great job in illustrating that 'Dawn Treader' will be much more like the first 'Narnia' flick in terms of tone.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adam Lenhardt 

It's hard to imagine how a movie that sets pretty much all of its Narnia scenes on board a boat can be considered more of the same.

Not "more of the same", no, but clearly they've gone to great lengths to work around the episodic nature of the book and in doing so it appears they have re-written the basic plot (while keeping many of the actual events the same or similar to the book). The whole "we must save Narnia from a horrible fate" rubbish is not in the book at all, yet here it seems to be the driving force of the mission. One of the things that made the book so great is the almost complete absence of any villains or any "battle between good and evil" plot. It's all about the adventure that comes with the exploration of the unknown and the fantastical places and creatures they encounter. It is one of the most beloved books of the series. So yeah, I'm disappointed that they feel that is not "good enough" for a Hollywood movie and feel the need to, yet again, make the story all about "the fate of Narnia rests in your hands". Groan.

It's to be expected when putting up $100+ million. A series of vignettes with small problems and small solutions (rinse, repeat) works great in novel form, but is especially difficult to achieve in film.

That said, my primary concern is that this one feels a bit more child-ish rather than child-like in its tone, but I'm hopeful that its just the cheesiness of the trailers.

New trailer...