The 🧙Magician's Nephew (forthcoming film adaptation)

[Radaghast]

Not sure if this is the right place for this, since it's a film adaptation, not a written work, but the trailer for The Magician's Nephew is out. The film will be released February 27.

The Magician's Nephew was originally the sixth book to be released but the first chronologically, and, beginning in 1980, the series was released in the Chronicles' chronological order. But TMN still serves as a prequel as both book and movie.

 

[Deimos]

Nope... a hard pass for me.
CSL readers will not be happy with this at all.

 

[Fingon_Findekáno]

I personally do not plan to watch the movie (never-mind the fact I also don't have Netflix). They ruined it when they cast Meryl Streep as Aslan. She's a great actress and all, but she has no business playing the Great Lion. 😑 He is, and evermore shall and should be, a male and played by a male.

I'll be happily sticking to the three Chronicles of Narnia movies made by Disney (my favorite by far being The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe), and to the Logos Theatre's stage productions.

 

[Deimos]

I personally do not plan to watch the movie (never-mind the fact I also don't have Netflix). They ruined it when they cast Meryl Streep as Aslan. She's a great actress and all, but she has no business playing the Great Lion. 😑 He is, and evermore shall and should be, a male and played by a male.

I'll be happily sticking to the three Chronicles of Narnia movies made by Disney (my favorite by far being The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe), and to the Logos Theatre's stage productions.

Oh, it's on Netflix? (I didn't notice that).
So, problem solved; I don't have Netflix either 😁

 

[Radaghast]

I personally do not plan to watch the movie (never-mind the fact I also don't have Netflix). They ruined it when they cast Meryl Streep as Aslan. She's a great actress and all, but she has no business playing the Great Lion. 😑 He is, and evermore shall and should be, a male and played by a male.

I'll be happily sticking to the three Chronicles of Narnia movies made by Disney (my favorite by far being The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe), and to the Logos Theatre's stage productions.

It's going to be released to theaters. Netflix is just one of the distributors. Just saying.

Anyway, I'm probably not going to watch it either, until maybe it's available to borrow from the library. To be honest, I reread these books not too long ago and they didn't hold up very well, so I have minimal interest at best.

Meryl Streep as Aslan. That's...weird. But given the film is by Greta Gerwig, I'm not terribly surprised.

 

[Deimos]

It's going to be released to theaters. Netflix is just one of the distributors. Just saying.

Anyway, I'm probably not going to watch it either, until maybe it's available to borrow from the library. To be honest, I reread these books not too long ago and they didn't hold up very well, so I have minimal interest at best.

Meryl Streep as Aslan. That's...weird. But given the film is by Greta Gerwig, I'm not terribly surprised.

I reread them every few years. For me they do hold up well, very well, indeed.
I keep discovering something "new" in them with every re-read. .
Also apropos this Netflix...thing... I am a particularly annoyed (appalled?) because MN is my favorite of the the Seven Books.
Both Digory and Uncle Andrew are totally miscast relative their physical likeness ( alikeness? haha) to the book characters.
Can't wait to hear what Narnia readers have to say...getting my popcorn ready ...should be scathingly entertaining. 😆

 

[Radaghast]

I reread them every few years. For me they do hold up well, very well, indeed.
I keep discovering something "new" in them with every re-read. .
Also apropos this Netflix...thing... I am a particularly annoyed (appalled?) because MN is my favorite of the the Seven Books.
Both Digory and Uncle Andrew are totally miscast relative their physical likeness ( alikeness? haha) to the book characters.
Can't wait to hear what Narnia readers have to say...getting my popcorn ready ...should be scathingly entertaining. 😆

For me, I guess the only book that still holds up is Lion. The others I find rather grating. Either because of the allegory or because of characters being intensely stupid and/or annoying.

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

 

[Radaghast]

Where's Bacchus?

 

[Ricardo]

If memory serves, the magician's nephew was supposed to be chronologically the first book, before the events of the lion, the witch and the wardrobe, but was released later I think. It tells the story of the old man that took the children in the lion, the witch and the wardrobe.

 

[Radaghast]

If memory serves, the magician's nephew was supposed to be chronologically the first book, before the events of the lion, the witch and the wardrobe, but was released later I think. It tells the story of the old man that took the children in the lion, the witch and the wardrobe.

Yes, it is the first in the series chronologically but was the 6th book to be released. It takes place in the early 20th century ("Sherlock Holmes was still living in Baker Street").

Original publication order, from 1950-1956:

1. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
2. Prince Caspian
3. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
4. The Silver Chair
5. The Horse and His Boy
6. The Magician's Nephew
7. The Last Battle

Chronological Order:

1. The Magician's Nephew
2. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
3. The Horse and His Boy
4. Prince Caspian
5. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
6. The Silver Chair
7. The Last Battle

When I was an admirer of these books, I preferred the original order. I still would if I ever ventured to read them again. I'm almost tempted to, as I have The Complete Chronicles of Narnia, which is beautifully illustrated by Pauline Baynes.

 

[Ricardo]

Yes, it is the first in the series chronologically but was the 6th book to be released. It takes place in the early 20th century ("Sherlock Holmes was still living in Baker Street").

Original publication order, from 1950-1956:

1. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
2. Prince Caspian
3. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
4. The Silver Chair
5. The Horse and His Boy
6. The Magician's Nephew
7. The Last Battle

Chronological Order:

1. The Magician's Nephew
2. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
3. The Horse and His Boy
4. Prince Caspian
5. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
6. The Silver Chair
7. The Last Battle

When I was an admirer of these books, I preferred the original order. I still would if I ever ventured to read them again. I'm almost tempted to, as I have The Complete Chronicles of Narnia, which is beautifully illustrated by Pauline Baynes.

View attachment 49938

Yes, I agree, I think the order was intentional, it keeps building up without giving all the information. You know the old man in the lion ... is related to Narnia but you don't know how until the 6th book. Narrative in novels doesn't need to be linear.

 

[Radaghast]

Yes, I agree, I think the order was intentional, it keeps building up without giving all the information. You know the old man in the lion ... is related to Narnia but you don't know how until the 6th book. Narrative in novels doesn't need to be linear.

Absolutely agree, but actually, Lewis had no idea he'd be writing a series. He was inspired to by the popularity of the first book and just kept building on the Narnian mythos. But I think it worked out better that way. In the original order, it felt like Lewis was peeling back layers of Narnia and showing us different aspects of it, its history, geography, etc. With the chronological order, it's just, meh, imho.

 

[James the Just]

If only the Silver Chair came before the Dawn Treader. Then the chronological order would be the astrological days of the week from the last to the first (Saturday is the first day of the week in astrology, not Sunday or Monday).

Chronological Order:
The Magician's Nephew; Venus (Friday)
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe; Jupiter (Thursday)
The Horse and His Boy; Mercury (Wednesday)
Prince Caspian; Mars (Tuesday)
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader; Sun (Sunday)
The Silver Chair; Moon (Monday)
The Last Battle; Saturn (Saturday)

Planet Narnia

The Chronicles of Narnia - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Erurávennë]

😖😝😳
Well that is horrid...
First of all, that is not Digory and from there on everything is pretty self-evident.

"Would it not be better to be dead than to have this horrible fear that Aslan has come and is not like the Aslan we have believed in and longed for? It is as if the sun rose one day and were a black sun."
- King Tirian, The Last Battle

Ha, ha. Seems applicable.

 

[James the Just]

If only the Silver Chair came before the Dawn Treader. Then the chronological order would be the astrological days of the week from the last to the first (Saturday is the first day of the week in astrology, not Sunday or Monday).

Chronological Order:
The Magician's Nephew; Venus (Friday)
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe; Jupiter (Thursday)
The Horse and His Boy; Mercury (Wednesday)
Prince Caspian; Mars (Tuesday)
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader; Sun (Sunday)
The Silver Chair; Moon (Monday)
The Last Battle; Saturn (Saturday)

Planet Narnia

The Chronicles of Narnia - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

If a Solar-centric Chaldean order were used, that is Sun, Mercury, Venus, Moon, etc. instead of the traditional Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, etc., then Sunday and Monday would switch places. That might work. So it would be:

Chronological Order:
The Magician's Nephew; Venus (Friday)
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe; Jupiter (Thursday)
The Horse and His Boy; Mercury (Wednesday)
Prince Caspian; Mars (Tuesday)
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader; Sun (Monday)
The Silver Chair; Moon (Sunday)
The Last Battle; Saturn (Saturday)

 

[Deimos]

Yes, I agree, I think the order was intentional, it keeps building up without giving all the information. You know the old man in the lion ... is related to Narnia but you don't know how until the 6th book. Narrative in novels doesn't need to be linear.

Precisely.

 

[Deimos]

Absolutely agree, but actually, Lewis had no idea he'd be writing a series. He was inspired to by the popularity of the first book and just kept building on the Narnian mythos. But I think it worked out better that way. In the original order, it felt like Lewis was peeling back layers of Narnia and showing us different aspects of it, its history, geography, etc. With the chronological order, it's just, meh, imho.

It is just wonderful how he explains the origins of the Lantern in Lantern Waste.
And the reader having to wait until the 6th book to learn it, (while all the time wondering if there would ever be any explanation)

 

[Server Room Gremlin]

I watched this trailer out of curiosity when it popped up in my YouTube recommendations. The start of it looked ok, and it was all quite visually striking. Casting choices for the human characters were middling to good.
Although I think the fantastical aspects of the Narnia books need to have a particular vibe/feel of their own (and not just seem like generic sci-fi or fantasy), I don't really mind who they choose to play the characters, as long as their can pull off their personality.
I guess because, particularly in the case of the children who visit Narnia, they're just meant to be ordinary kids, and I personally don't have a strong mental image of what they 'should' look like. There are the illustrations in the books to go off of, of course, but none of the adaptations I've watched before have cast actors who always look exactly like those illustrations.

The choice to change the setting to the mid 20th century (instead of the late 19th) was a bit strange, but not a deal-breaker for me.

But then, as it went on, it all went downhill. The fantastical elements started looking more like sci-fi and less like Narnia: they just didn't have the right feel. There's a sort of archaic peace and quietness about the Narnia books, even though they have their vibrant and energetic moments. This was way too flashy and 'loud'. Still not the worst thing ever: I can deal with some visual/artistic design changes, as long as the core messages of the story remain intact. ...But it was clear towards the end that they weren't going to stick to those in any way. Maybe they didn't even see or understand the underlying meanings in the first place.
And then we hit rock-bottom: the appearance of 'Aslan'. That was just... disappointing. It looked and felt like a black hole walking across the screen. Such insipid nothingness, in the place of someone who is the heart and soul of Narnia, who ought to feel like the fullest and most alive being there. They changed everything about him, except for the lion form. And with the heart of Narnia gone, the rest of it seemed to me even less like the world it was attempting to portray.

At that point I decided that this was not worth my time or interest to look into any further. Not even to criticise. There are better things I could be doing or thinking about.

 

[Deimos]

...

At that point I decided that this was not worth my time or interest to look into any further. Not even to criticise. There are better things I could be doing or thinking about.

Agreed...
And how difficult would it have been to cast someone (or even , Good Heavens, just use "make-up") that looks like Uncle Andrew as drawn by Pauline Baynes? That drawing of him is spot on from the story. The hair...the character has to have The Hair.