Originally Posted By kennect Hey I am out of the loop on this film...Some how I was raised without being aware of these books even though I am at the age I should have been...But for all of you fans of Narnia and Disney how important is this film? Is it truly something to rival the Lord of the Rings if done right? I keep hearing comparisions to it so I had to ask....The trailers look great but still I am clueless to the long term charm of the series....I would love to hear what any of you think about the whole thing....
Originally Posted By Mrs ElderP I personally adore the series. There are 6 books, and each is much shorter than any book in the LOTR series, about a third of the length. Also aimed at a much younger audience, about the same audience as the first Harry Potter. (Not the later HP, which are also good, but longer and aimed at an audience about 5 years older.) Also, each book stands on it's own fairly well, they are not as tightly connected as LOTR or HP. One thing which contributes greatly to their popularity is that on one level sections can be read as Christian stories. C.S. Lewis, the author, is a well-loved Christian appoligist, and this is deliberate. However, this is only one level of meaning. If you're not looking for it you won't see it and it shouldn't ruin your enjoyment of a good children's fairytale if that isn't your thing. I myself am looking forward to them. The BBC did a version years ago, but with much lower production values. It's nice to see someone do it "right." If you enjoy reading stop by your local library and pick up the copy, every library I've ever been in has had several copies, and like I said, they are individually, not that long.
Originally Posted By TALL Disney Guy 7, *7* books! ;-) "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" "Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia" "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" "The Silver Chair" "The Horse and His Boy" "The Magician's Nephew" "The Last Battle" Ken, if you read them, PLEASE do yourself a favor and read them in the above order, the ORIGINAL PUBLISHED ORDER---MUCH better than how the idiotic publishers of today have renumbered them...*sigh*... I agree with Mrs ElderP, Ken...they are *wonderful* stories, "children's tales" on the surface, but really with so many interesting touches, characters, and situations along the way that we adults can enjoy them just as well---even *moreso* I say, at least with me, because I can understand everything I didn't as a kid (remember Lewis was British, lol), and it's *so* much fun making the connections between the different books in little links along the way. Stories of adventure, loyalty, good and black magic, subtle humor, juicy character interactions...well I could go on and on, but the bottom line is, they are my favorite 7 books I've ever read.
Originally Posted By vbdad55 As pure literature I don't think anything is in the class of Lord of the Rings......the adventure portion will draw people to try and compare, but C S Eliot's works not in range of a book that was voted more than once the most important book of the 20th century. Now that being said, I think the book series much better than Lemony Snicket and for pure writing style better than Potter-- however the impact of Potter is hard to argue with. I would compare it favorably with Lewis Caroll ( Alice series) - and that certainly is not bad. Interestingly enough, Caroll ( real name Dodgeson) - was the son of an Anglican clergyman an studied for religious orders himself - so parallel to C S Lewis is even tighter.
Originally Posted By MissCandice They are a perfect blend of adventure, fantasy, and good story telling. I never even picked up on the religious overtones when I was a kid, and as an atheist now, I am not bothered by it at all. I am very excited about the movie, and so is my 10 year old niece.
Originally Posted By Mrs ElderP <There are 6 books> <<7,*7* books>> shame on me, I wonder which one I was leaving out? One of my personal favorite one liners, (The opening line of _The Voyage of the "Dawn Treader"_) "There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it."
Originally Posted By mickeymeg I have a set printed in 1980, and they are ordered The Magician's Nephew The lion, the witch and the Wardrobe The horse and his boy Prince Caspian The Voyage of the dawn treader The Silver Chair The last Battle I didnt know this was not the correct order, now I will have to go back and re read them properly. Do you know why they were re numbered ? Its been years since I have read them so its about time I go through again.
Originally Posted By DouglasDubh CS Lewis made an off-hand remark that it might be better to read them in order they happen in Narnia's chronology, rather than the order he wrote them. I agree with Tall Disney Guy, that they should be read in the order they were written.
Originally Posted By TALL Disney Guy Yes mickeymeg, this is an issue I am HOT about. The order I posted was the original published order. The order you have, which I believe almost all present-day-made sets are, is the chronological order in Narnian time. This whole thing stems from one little letter Lewis wrote in response to a child who said he put together this order, and he liked it that way. Lewis told him he saw what he meant, and he would perhaps change the order in the future---AFTER EXTENSIVE RE-EDITING---which he never got to do, due to his death. However, we have to keep in mind that A) he was telling this to one kid who had *already* read the books, and B), as an author, he might have liked the idea of "straightening up the series" with chronology. But, like Deems Taylor says of Tchiakovsky in "Fantasia", "It's funny how wrong an artist can be about his own work" (in regards to T. hating his own "Nutcracker Suite", which is of course his most popular composition)...and we staunch "Narnian traditionalists" feel this way about the Chronicles. For us, reading "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" is *the* gateway to Narnia...just think of the images you have...a magical wardrobe, a lamppost in a snowy wood, Lucy's first experience upon entering Narnia..it's a sense of wonderful fantasy that you can only get by reading this book first, the book that Lewis himself wrote first...so by reading it, you are experiencing Narnia the first time in the original way---since this is the first Lewis *wrote* of Narnia. Yet if you read the "prequel" book first, all that sense of wonderment, mysticism, and fantasy is gone---you already know answers to questions you may ask yourself in LWW, everything is spelled out for you, so when you get to LWW you already know a few characters and reasons for why some things are the way they are; much more unimaginative, unfun, and "textbooky" in my opinion. I (and many others) *much* prefer to discover Narnia through the books the way Lewis did himself, and it gives you such a great "A*ha!*" feeling when you make little connections between the books and put some puzzle pieces together. It sure beats "readin' a map", which is basically the chronological way. So that's a synopsis of my take on the issue, lol. Byron
Originally Posted By mickeymeg wow. Thanks ! What great information. I will re read the series in this (correct) order. It seems so strange that the publishers would rearange a whole series based on a letter written to a child ?!
Originally Posted By TALL Disney Guy I'm tellin' ya, ya don't wanna get me started...again, anyway. Lol And you're very welcome for the info!
Originally Posted By smeeeko Oh! I was noticing other differences SeanYoda & I were looking at our boxed sets. Mine was gifted to me by my mom.. It's a Colliers boxed set (mass market sized vs the larger trade paperback newer editions) The pub date for the Colliers is 1978 but not sure if that is the year I got them for Christmas. 1978 or 1979 they're old, (but well cared for). I have always read them with Lion the Witch & the Wardrobe first and agree with Tall Disney Guy.. It lets you have that magical spoiler reveal when reading Magicians Nephew.. which is numbered 1 in SeanYoda's 1994 box set. He also has a Horse and His Boy #3 which is weird as mine is like number #5, which is after the Prince Caspian 'trilogy' I can't imagine reading it any other way.. I'm sure there are some folks (like Sean) who likes his books in chronological order rather than how they were originally published. =)
Originally Posted By TALL Disney Guy There are also some text differences between the original British versions and later American versions---the largest difference being how the chapter, "The Dark Island", ends in "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader".
Originally Posted By DDMAN26 I have one giant Chronicles of Narnia book that contains all seven books, but The Magicians Nephew is listed first. Of course I'll never read it first. Concerning Lord of the Rings and Narnia, Tolkien and Lewis were very good friends and each influenced the other to write their respective stories.
Originally Posted By DDMAN26 One other thing concerning the length of the movie. I've read anywhere from 2hrs 5 min to 2 hrs 51 minutes. But I'm guessing it will be somewhere in between that.
Originally Posted By seanyoda << There are also some text differences between the original British versions and later American versions---the largest difference being how the chapter, "The Dark Island", ends in "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader". >> I'm curious as to what's different. The alt.boooks.cs-lewis FAQ at <a href="http://www.aslan.demon.co.uk/cslfaq.htm" target="_blank">http://www.aslan.demon.co.uk/c slfaq.htm</a> makes no mention of this... << 3.25 Is it true that there are differences in the British and American editions of the Narnia books? Some very minor changes were made to The Lion... and The Voyage... for their American publication. For example, the name of the witch's agent is changed from 'Maugrim' to 'Fenris Ulf' and Peter's title from 'Sir Peter Wolfs-Bane' to 'Sir Peter Fenris-Bane.' In the English edition, Aslan says that the Emperor's magic is written 'in letters as deep as a spear is long on the fire-stones of the Secret Hill'. In the American he says 'in letters as deep as a spear is long on the trunk of the world ash-tree.' The current (1994) Harper Collins American editions have been standardised with the English versions. >>
Originally Posted By seanyoda There's one more order in which you could read the books -- the order in which C. S. Lewis wrote them: _The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe_ _Prince Caspian_ _The Voyage of the Dawn Trader_ _The Horse and His Boy_ _The Silver Chair_ _The Magician's Nephew_ (1st draft) _The Last Battle_ Since _The Silver Chair_ involves Caspian (like _Prince Caspian_ and _The Voyage of the Dawn Trader_), it was published before _The Horse and His Boy_ Paul F Ford, in his _Companion to Narnia_ suggests this order.
Originally Posted By TALL Disney Guy That's interesting that you have Ford's book seanyoda, cause he compares the differences between the 2 different "Dark Island" endings in Appendix 4. I can type it up for ya if yours doesn't have it.
Originally Posted By smeeeko we don't have it.. we were at a B&N at the Spectrum last night.. for a last minute run to see "Chicken Little" when we realized Amazing Race wasn't on. heh. he does however, have a pretty good memory for stuff when he *does* see it. =)
Originally Posted By basil fan I might read the books in some of these other orders for a 2nd or 3rd perusal. But for the first time, the published order is best, IMHO. The Tarzan Equation <a href="http://www.whatsitsgalore.com/disney/tarzan.html" target="_blank">http://www.whatsitsgalore.com/ disney/tarzan.html</a>
