Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
Full disclosure: I haven’t read The Magician’s Nephew, so I can’t speak to the specific adaptation of Netflix’s upcoming Narnia movie, a prequel to the series despite being the seventh book, second to last, in C.S. Lewis’ “Chronicles Of Narnia” series. I don’t think it was ever adapted. Being first chronologically, it does make sense to start a new series of Narnia adaptations there, as there have been a few adaptations of the first book, The Lion, The Witch, & The Wardrobe. It allows you to have a new starting point and be a fresh point of starting when the first book has at least three that I know of.
It’s also a good way to start your series at a very bad spot and give people who haven’t read the book a poor idea of what the story is. Guess which path Netflix and Greta Gerwig seem to be heading.
The trailer dropped today for Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew, the tale of the first visit to Narnia from the world of the Sons Of Adam and Daughters Of Eve. It’s very much the disappointment we were worried about. On it’s own…it might have been okay. However, this story doesn’t exist in a solo outing. It’s the later story of a franchise set at the start of the legend and has an intended feel and design that Greta Gerwig, the director, wants to go in. That’s where this already looks like things won’t be going well.
The only thing that had any of the whimsy you’d expect from Narnia is not in Narnia. It’s when the truck parks near the horse and give it the illusion of having wings like a pegasus. I wish that was the starting point but it appears to be the end point. Gerwig said in interviews that she was going for a 1970s rock opera vibe, even basing some of Aslan’s look on Ziggy Stardust, the 70s persona of David Bowie that he abandoned for his own mental health. Apparently Gerwig would rather emulate Jesus Christ Superstar. You know, where the movie ends on the Crucifiction rather than the Resurrection.
Except that’s not the world Lewis created. Lewis went for an old style fantasy world, much like contemporary and colleague J.R.R. Tolkien did with his Middle Earth series. Lewis leaned more into his Christian values. Aslan’s sacrifice and resurrection to save Peter in The Lion, The Witch, & The Wardrobe was not only inspired by Jesus’ own sacrifice but it’s hinted that Aslan is Jesus, known by many names in other worlds. In the magical world of Narnia he took on the form of one of the world’s talking animals rather than a human. The rock opera vibe just doesn’t feel right, especially the look of the woman I’m assuming is the villainess. Again, I haven’t read the story, but look at other adaptations.
This is a scene from the 1988 BBC TV series adaptation. With less budget than Netflix has and special effects clearly not up to what people can do at home today, it still looks like Narnia. It’s outdoors (maybe the prequel book isn’t?), it looks like a beautiful woodland instead of a trippy studio. Then again, the most beloved adaptation of The Wizard Of Oz was filmed entirely in a studio and still did a better job of feeling like a magical outdoor place. There’s drama, but there’s also a sense of magic, so Narnia feels like a magical place instead of a nightclub these two kids probably shouldn’t be at.
Sticking with the same book, the movie from 2005 and it’s sequels, even the one Walden Media made without Disney, still had that magic that matches Lewis’ vision. There’s a power here lacking in the trailer for the modern movie. I somehow doubt Lewis took a different course in his vision in the second to last book that translates so well to The Who’s Tommy or The Rocky Horror Picture Show (style, not content–no way Lewis would have approved of that).
Heck, here’s an animated version FROM the 1970s. I swear, it was not my intention to go with the same scene every time, but somehow that’s how YouTube was giving it to me, so I ran with it. Even the space scene representing looking into a time before the Deep Magic isn’t as trippy. Remember, I’m not reviewing the movie. I’m reviewing the trailer.
And the one for The Magician’s Nephew just doesn’t carry the same feel that one would expect and want to see from a Narnia story. They should be looking to the Lord Of The Rings movies, or even the three movies we got from Narnia, not Phantom Of The Paradise. However, that’s the style Gerwig was going for, and it won’t surprise anyone who knows the story of her Barbie movie that she leaned into her feminism by having Meryl Streep, a woman, voice Aslan. There are plenty of actors, camera and voice, who would portray not only Aslan’s wisdom, the reason given for going with Streep, but his quiet power and being…you know, a lion instead of a lioness. I’m a bit concerned about the “childlike wonder” angle given Gerwig’s history, but it can be done with talking lion Jesus as well.
So thus far nothing about the material that’s supposed to make me interested in this adaptation from a Hollywood with a history of bad adaptations in recent years of a book series whose religious themes they’ve shown distaste for and a desire to make every story in their image. Could the movie be good? Maybe, but evidence doesn’t point that way. Even the kids’ acting isn’t the best from this display. I think I’ll stick to the good adaptations and hope someone who cares about getting the world of Narnia right comes along in my lifetime and fixes this. Hopes are not high right now.
