One of my birthday presents my family gave me was to take me to see the newest Narnia movie, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.I became a fan of this series as a young boy and have been thrilled with the undertaking of turning the books into big-budget movies. Of course as a life-long fan I have tried to adjust my expectations of the story-telling of these books. The first one was fabulous and Walden Media and Disney did an amazing job with putting the story to film. I knew the next two in the series would be harder to bring to the big screen because the stories do not follow as straight of a story line, so I had a bit of "realistic" look at how the movies were going to come out.
That said I was happier with the way they treated the story line of the Dawn Treader than they did Prince Caspian. The only objection I had was that each island felt rushed and quick, but in the end I suspect a two or two and half hour movie would have put it way over budget. As it is the making of the fourth book, the Silver Chair, is in doubt due to budget concerns and the monetary performance of the Dawn Treader. So as fans we have to put up with small parts for interesting characters in the book because this is Hollywood after all and big budget entertainment is the goal, not minor character development. Still, a little more of the Dufflepuds would have given the film some more comic relief, in my humble opinion.
I really appreciated the makers of the movie brought out the Christian themes that were in the book. In fact they were more direct than the subtle CS Lewis put in the book. I especially loved the pointed lessons Lucy learned on appreciating who God made you to be, and not envying others and who God made them to be.
All in all I encourage you to
go and see this movie and to take your kids (our four year old was great with the movie). The more people who go an
d see the movie, the more likely they will bring the fourth one unto the big screen!!
