(no subject)

[labellementeuse]

I was linked to this a few days ago, but haven't seen it elsewhere on f-list, so for those who care: New Narnia Trailer!



This made me very, very, very happy, as did the other trailer. *makes ecstatic noises* Thoughts in order of screen shot:
-Seeing the house: I really hope they get Diggory right. I know most people hate the BBC versions with a passion, but I kind of liked them- and I really liked their Professor.
-The Wardrobe: It has a TREE on it. Oh. Em. Gee. Actually, in the Embassy theatre at home, there's been a cardboard model of the Wardrobe for about two years now, and it actually has a lot of great detail.
-They're SO BRITISH. WITH THE ACCENTS. HEART.
-I would have liked a few more shots of Edmund, who I adore. He looks so wee, though! Although not as small as Lucy, who looks absolutely miniscule in that shot of Peter, Susan and Lucy.
-WOLF! WOLF! I am ashamed to admit I cannot remember his name, but WOLF. If he and Peter do not have an Epic Facedown, I might cry.
-The right Penvesies are at the Beavers'. I know this is kind of a big canon detail, but it's always nice to notice.
-PETER. OH GOD. Now, Peter's not my favourite character, but it is certainly possible that he might have been my first-ever fandom crush. He's so with the SWORDS and the COMPETENT and I swear to god I am NOT perving on a fourteen year old but I just ADORE Peter. I want him to kick ass in a really British Public Schools kind of way. Yeah.
-Edmund all alone at the White Witch's Castle! They just better get him right. My favourite scene in The Horse and His Boy is still the bit where Edmund mentions forgiveness/second chances.
-I'm going to go re-read LWW ASAP, but it's kind of annoying me that Jadis is blonde because I am almost 100% positive that she is not supposed to be. I have that illustration from TMN in my head where she's stalking down the street in London and her hair is long and free and black. So.
-Is 100-year winter canonical? And if they don't say "Always winter and never Christmas" at some point I will cry.
-"We're not heroes"- I want to know if that's canonical, too.
-Beavers looking like actual beavers, just bigger! Mmm, canon. (I mean, remembering the BBC...)
-RED AND GOLD PAVILIONS OH OH OH OH PETER'S SHIELD- okay, all this visual imagery is what's really going straight to my heart and squeezing. It's what Weta did really well for LOTR as well- sorry for comparison- that they really made an effort with recreating the world, even when they couldn't get the plot right.
-Polar bears: still annoying. WTF?
-A LAMP-POST. IN THE MIDDLE OF THE WOOD.
-TUMNUS.
-The shot at the train station. I am really impressed with the way they've gone direct from fantasy to slightly stylised mid-war Britain. And happy, because I think this is one of the most important things about LWW, that like LOTR it was conceived of during war and it is kind of about those wars and Britain as well- it's not just the fantasy. And the train station scene is fabulous and I'm glad they're keeping it.
-Susan! Arrow!
-Um. That bird. Flaming? What?
-I'm pretty sure canon-Peter didn't say "No, but I bet they help." But... it's funny.
-Susan and Lucy on Aslan
-In conclusion: FOR NARNIA AND THE LION.



Watching it reminded me of something that sixth_light talked about a lot when we watched the Buffy season finale: when LOTR made epic fantasy marketable and popular, while in some ways it did a great service to fantasy, it also kind of did it a disservice. Because now, watching any fantasy film, especially book-based, made after (or sometimes before...) LOTR, you can't help thinking "Oh, they're ripping off LOTR." As a long-time epic fantasy fan, of course, I know that some stuff is simply ubiquitous in epic fantasy: trekking (note the absence of capital ;)), battles, swordfights, showdowns, ultimate evil, ultimate good. But to someone who's come into a movie theatre and watching the Narnia trailer and has only really seen LOTR and so forth- they can easily be deceived into thinking that some stuff is copied, because they don't have that awareness of stuff that is simply constant to the fantasy genre.* Narnia is particularly subject to this because it's book-based, made in New Zealand- and Weta did the designs for both films.

*I mean, it can be argued that a lot of these constants come from LOTR anyway, I guess, but I haven't exactly made a study of the origins of fantasy literature, so I'll skip it. :P

Comments

[deutscheami.livejournal.com]

FOR NARNIA AND THE LION EEEE.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

That's the keyword for this icon, and every time I use it I just go EEEEEEEEEEEE in my heart. EE.

[eavanmoore.livejournal.com]

Oh, damn. Must stop reading your posts. Watching that trailer sent me off into another unproductive round of squee. I love the way the train station scene cuts to a Narnia scene with trajectory; it conveys the plunging journey into fantasy so well. :-) And Peter. Uh. So public school I don't know whether to crush or hate. Because really, the prototypical english public school boy is awful, and he defnitely has that tendency. We shall see what happens with his character in the movie.

I think that when I do reread the books, though, they will be creepier than I remember them in the cozy mists of nostalgia. You can see that in the trailer, too.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

>:D My powers of linkage shall never be defeated!

Heh, see, Peter, public schools... I know it's bad. But it's so... crushable. *loves on*

Absolutely. Especially all the Christian/written fifty (or is it 80?) years ago stuff, which can really get to me. But...

[miriamus.livejournal.com]

Hahah. Juliet was talking about Tumnus in chem the other day...I wish I actually knew the books, lol. We just had one of them read in class at primary school, and we have the books on tape but I dont remember anything from them *blush*

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

I wish I actually knew the books, lol.

This is one of those wishes that makes me eye you bemusedly, because... it's not like they're difficult to get hold of. If you want to know the canon? Read the books! They're short, I promise...

[miriamus.livejournal.com]

I know I'd have no problem getting hold of them. Durr! I'm just lazy :P

[miriamus.livejournal.com]

I know exactly what they are etc etc. I really am just too lazy to get off my butt and read them. Maybe I'll listen to the tapes again :P

[miriamus.livejournal.com]

hahaha dammit now I feel dumb. Guess who's off to the library tomorrow in study....

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

I mean, LWW is really short, and that's the only one you'd have to read for this... ;)

[miriamus.livejournal.com]

yup yup

[gabbysun.livejournal.com]

HOLY CRAP HOLY CRAP HOLY CRAP I JUST EXPERIENCED A MOMENT OF ECTASY I AM SO PSYCHED :DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

[gabbysun.livejournal.com]

. . . ECSTASY?

ECSTACY? *loses*

[gabbysun.livejournal.com]

Also, CS Lewis and JRR Tolkein were buddies. I don't know if that makes a difference in the whole fantasy thing, but just saying. ;D

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know, they were in some kind of, like, club together or something. I forget, but yeah, I know they associated. :) At like Oxford or wherever. BRITAIN SOMEWHERE, yep yep. XD

[disturbed-kiwi.livejournal.com]

Gah.

Tolkien convinced C. S. Lewis to convert and was always irked tyhat he chose the wrong team when he did.

Read Strange and Norrell yet? Tolkien definately invented the stereotypes of Epic (as pop fiction, as studied poetry its old old news) and its taken this long to start getting fantasy authors to think outside Middle Earth again.

Why, yes, I did do a paper on the originas of Toliien fatasy in european mythology ie Beowulf. Why do you ask?

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

I actually knew that about the conversions- I did a paper when I was, like, eleven on The Screwtape Papers or on CS himself, I forget which, and that was definitely something I read about.

*facepalm* JS&MrN is sitting at home where I left it after christmas- I am so going to read it this summer, I just foolishly left it at home when I came down. As for Tolkien- well, that's why I said I didn't want to discuss it, because I don't know the first thing about it although it does seem very interesting. Can he really be said to have invented it if he's just changing it from poetry to prose- poetry was pop fiction once upon a time!!!

[disturbed-kiwi.livejournal.com]

Go read Strange. It's like Austen or something but with magicians.

I'd say Tolkien invented the modern fantasy prose epic. That includes many many varieties of what people classify as fantasy nowadays but their are exceptions, such as Strange or American Gods etc.

Earlier you had things that we'd call fantasy but were considered history (or maybe religion), and they were mainly oral. Epic the only thing that gets applied to both really.

[disturbed-kiwi.livejournal.com]

Also wanted to say:
Inklings is too classy a name for a bunch of oxford professors writing stories like narnia and middle earth to forget.

Inklings.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Inklings! Thanks for reminding me. XD

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

ME. TOO.

*kind of wants to make a dirty remark about moments of ecstasy... but no.*

[gabbysun.livejournal.com]

Heh, if you hadn't brought it up, I would've.

[aim-toothpaste.livejournal.com]

NARNIA EEEH

My favourite book was always The Horse and Its Boy. I don't know why. I liked the cool random references to Lucy and Susan and Peter and Edmund.

And my favourite character was Lucy, because she believed. Like, really lots.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Mine too! XD I think it was way less overdone and hysterical about religion than the other ones, personally. I mean they even manage to have a seriously kickass Muslim (okay, okay, Calormene) girl. Oh Aravis. :)

Yeah, I adore Lucy as well. I adore them ALL.

[aim-toothpaste.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the religion isn't there so much. I mean I didn't get that when I was little but it was a tad less moralistic and more about the adventure than anything else.

And go Aravis!

I didn't like Susan. Because she ditched them all in the last book.

[eavanmoore.livejournal.com]

Ah, but was it Susan doing the ditching, or was it C.S. Lewis meanly sacrificing her character to make an example of those who refuse to believe and are therefore unable to join Aslan?

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Word. *gestures downwards* I blethered a bit below, but you might enjoy (if you haven't already) Growing Up (http://www.yuletidetreasure.org/archive/8/growingup.html) which is a simply stunning story about Susan and Lucy.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

*gestures upwards* What eavanmoore said. Don't get me wrong, I adore CS and Narnia and I even like The Last Battle, but the way he describes Susan and what he does to her- it's the single thing that makes me the most angry about the books. I can cope with clumsy, clumsy Christian metaphor and I can cope with racism and sexism and bigotry, I really can and I love these books.

But Sue- in TLB he has Lucy say that she's interested in "nylons (stockings) and boys"- he puts onto Susan all his concerns with sexuality and being adult- he victimises her, basically, and uses her to comment about the state of the world and the things he doesn't like about adulthood. Things which are not all that bad, things which furthermore can be one of the most fun and exciting things about growing up. He uses growing up as a metaphor for the Fall of Man, the loss of innocence and the loss of faith- and see, for an atheist young woman who's not convinced sexuality and knowledge and a little bit of healthy scepticism are all that bad, what he does to Susan seems like character assassination and moralising of the worst sort. But really, Aslan ditched Susan, he told her that she couldn't come to Narnia- and not the reverse.

*sigh* I'm not really making much sense here, but heads much wiser than mine have written a lot about it and there's a simply beautiful, beautiful fic called Growing Up (http://www.yuletidetreasure.org/archive/8/growingup.html) which I most heartily recommend.

[aim-toothpaste.livejournal.com]

Thanks, I'll read it when I get time.

Yeah, I think I agree with you both. It's just I haven't read the books for the longest time so I can't really recall. I do remember thinking it was pretty random when I was seven. And I never re-read the last book so much.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

:P No worries.

Man, you just put me on the BIGGEST Narnia jag. *squirrels through archives*

OH! Beauty (http://www.panavatar.net/luminescent/fanfiction/beauty.htm)! There's a paragraph in there (it's quite short...) which talks about the way Susan was never offered the choice and it's brilliant and says what I was tyring to say.

(AUGH, html fixed.)

[shoeless-girl.livejournal.com]

I watched the trailer about seven times yesterday and BAWLED. It just looks SO SO GOOD! *JUMPS SQUEES* etc...

Whenever I get emotional and excited I get tears in my eyes. I just lost it while watching the trailer, especially Aslan walking up the altar. When I go to see the movie in the theatre I will have to take a box of tissues for I'm seriously going to weep. The only reason I'm not crying now is because manic_subbie and amarynth are in the room :D

Yes, I'm the biggest wuss in the entire world. I know this

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

You're so NOT the biggest wuss. That title totally goes to me. XD But- I totally know what you mean with this. It's like. I don't know. I can't really describe why this is different than any other film I'm excited about, but it is.

[melata-fic.livejournal.com]

It's epic. And this is a good thing. *beams*

Can't wait.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

I knoooow. *thrilled*

[blueyeti.livejournal.com]

I was squeeing over Narnia the other week to my 13-yr-old sister, and then to my dad, and my step-mum, and NONE OF THEM KNEW WHAT I WAS TALKING ABOUT. So I went out and poked my step-mum until she got a boxed set for Alice, and then added Narnia underneath Truckers on the List of Books I'm going to get my brother to read when he's 7.

But, yes, SQUEEAGE!

*adds Narnia to my post-HSC book list*

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

NONE OF THEM KNEW WHAT I WAS TALKING ABOUT.

OH MY GOD WHAT IS BECOMING OF THE CHILDREN?

And, in fact, the adults?

*horrified*

[blueyeti.livejournal.com]

*Exactly*. You can imagine my horror. Once I poked Dad a bit more he remembered the BBC versions my elder sister and I loved (and watched so often we had to buy a new tape of tLtWtW).

The Children! It was my duty to pass on the gems of my childhood to my dear younger siblings, and I have failed! (Actually, I got Alice onto Discworld now, and I got her onto Alex Rider, Redwall, Harry Potter, and I've got great plans for His Dark Materials as soon as she'll appreciate the ending. YAY! I just missed Narnia, somehow.)