Mr. Flaherty is my hero. Not for his making of the Narnia films, though I appreciate what he’s doing there. But what I really love is the opinion piece I just read in the Wall Street Journal.

Speaking about Joy Behar saying CS Lewis writes children’s books, Flaherty says:

Mrs. Palin is on the right track by giving C.S. Lewis a prominent place on her reading list. Yet Ms. Behar and other Palin critics have dismissed Lewis’s work, forgetting that Lewis was a medieval and renaissance scholar at Oxford and the author of several brilliant Christian apologetics. Ms. Behar’s dismissal of children’s books as less than important makes her a modern-day Eustace, the type of bully who mocks readers of fairy tales as simpletons.

If I were a dufflepud I’d be telling Flaherty, “Yes, chief, you got that right. You said that one perfectly, chief. No one can say this better than you have.”

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I’m a sucker for all things Narnia.

I have been slightly disappointed with the movies because they’ve messed with my memories of characters I have long loved. I thought in the first two movies the kids were misunderstood and misrepresented. They were petty and bratty. It’s true that in the book the characters were flawed, but the flaws were not modern-day, spoiled, brattiness and selfishness, I don’t think. I don’t think the movies got to the depths of the pride or the heights of the nobility that the kids possessed–the first through their sin natures and the second through their understanding that Aslan loved them, which made them want to be better people.

I’ve read the books maybe eight or nine times. But I haven’t read them in ten years or thereabouts, so I will admit that I might be forgetting how things really were and remembering what I read into the books.

I don’t plan on reading the books again, either, until the movies are done, because I want to see and enjoy the movies. And I suspect the more I forget about the books, the more I will enjoy the movies. Prince Caspian went far afield of the book, I know. But I love the movies, on the one hand, just because I love magic on the big screen. I want to enjoy the movies.

Well, here’s the trailer for The Voyage of the Dawn Treader—which may be my favorite of all Narnia books. I love the Dawn Treader—the boat—and the voyage. I love Reepicheep. I love, love, love those idiot dufflepuds! (What can I say? I can relate to the stupid creatures that think a good God is just a party-pooper. I pity the poor things who are so very stupid—so completely blind.)

And then, no. Dawn Treader is probably not my favorite Narnia book. Probably whichever book I’m reading at the time is my favorite. Anyway, take a peek at the trailer and you tell me. Are we getting a movie that is like the book or are we getting a remake of the Prince Caspian movie? Was the white witch in Dawn Treader, tempting Edmund? Were the boys once again disgruntled at being treated like kids when they were really kings and queens? Was there really WWII stuff going on? I don’t remember any of that. But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t there. And even if the movie isn’t like the book, I love seeing the magic and I can’t wait to go. Opening night! I’ll be there.

Thanks to Filmchat for this video. I have no idea why the cover there is in Spanish.

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Well, Avatar may not be a children’s story, but Disney’s Pocahontas was, and according to one fellow, they are the same story. Go read his short and hysterical comparison of the two plots, here.

It almost feels wrong to add anything after that.

But really! Best picture? Come on. I went to see the movie on Christmas night and thoroughly enjoyed it. I thought the world was fun, the 3-D was cool, and the love story and the good against evil plot was fine. For what it was, a short piece of fluffy, shallow entertainment in a busy world, it was fine.

Never did I think it would win awards, though. There was no depth to it. The characters were cardboard, the plot was simplistic and predictable, and the whole thing felt like it was a vehicle made expressly for preaching.

Did any of you see it? Did you think the characters were stereotypical? I’m wondering what everyone saw in this.

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OK. You slackers who still haven’t seen the movie–too bad if you get spoilers.

We went opening night. Me, the old grumpy one, my son, fifteen, and my daughter, fourteen. We all liked this one way better than The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

And yet…

I hadn’t read the book in eight years so I sat through the movie amazed that I had forgotten so much. “I didn’t remember Peter being such a jerk,” I thought.

I didn’t remember that he attacked the city, either.

So I came home and pulled out the book and flipped through the chapters and it looks to me like half the movie wasn’t in the book and half the book wasn’t in the movie.

The movie worked. I loved it. I can’t help but wonder what Lewis would have thought of it, though.

What about you? Did you like it? Did Peter’s arrogance and sulkiness bother you? I always thought he was the noble one and I was a little shocked by his fighting and his bad attitude. Kind of the way I was bothered in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe when the kids broke the window and instead of taking their lumps they ran away. That didn’t fit in with the picture I had in my head of those four Pevensie kids.

Edit: I should have checked Noel’s blog before I posted. Of course she posted a great little review the day after the movie opened. She’s so efficient, that one.

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