Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader

The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader (CNVDT) is the 3rd movie installment of the popular book franchise, following Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (CNLWW) and Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (CNPC). In the last decade, ever since The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and Twilight found success at the box office, Hollywood has rushed to adapt numerous book series for youngsters into a family movie-going experience, and the Narnia book series has been no exception, turning in 3 installments in the last 5 years.

I am a fan of the Narnia books, with CNLWW being mandatory reading in 5th grade. It was such a delightful experience that I chose to read the rest of the series on my own. Some I enjoyed immensely - CNLWW, The Silver Chair, and The Last Battle stand out; others, not so much - CNPC and CNVCT's book versions weren't necessarily my cup of tea. Sadly for me (or maybe fortunately, depending on how you look at it), my memory of the literary stories is not solid. I don't remember all the subtle details and plot points from the books, and I don't have the time (nor frankly the inclination) to re-read them just to watch the films. And I have seen the movie versions of CNLWW and CNPC only once, so any narrative threads weaved from those films to CNVDT were most likely lost on me.

Honestly, I went into CNVDT with fairly low expectations. One reason was my aforementioned lack of enthusiasm for the source book. Best as I can recall it, the book wasn't heavy on action or worried about the main "plot", but more focused on the epic voyage that Lucy, Peter, and Eustace take with Caspian on the Dawn Treader. This made me wonder how they could craft an interesting, engaging plot when the book didn't exactly ooze it. The other source of my trepidation was CNPC. While I enjoyed CNLWW, as I believe they were pretty faithful to the novel that I loved, CNPC departed greatly from its source. Besides being visually unimaginative, it was also long and boring, with a meandering plot that was unfocused. Wasn't going to Narnia supposed to be fun? Weren't you supposed to be transported to a wonderful magical place? Not in the Narnia of CNPC. In a conversation I had with a friend about the film series, he rightly pointed out that in CNPC Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy had to re-learn all of the lessons from CNLWW because they either couldn't remember them or the White Witch magically wiped their memories. I'll let you decide which happened.

And I wasn't the only disenchanted fan - CNPC bombed out at the box office. While some of its demise was due to moving its release to the overly cluttered summer season, it was also the distinct drop in quality that kept fans away (with good reason). And I think that was the main feeling I had throughout CNVDT - the filmmakers realized that they needed to win fans back to the movie series, so they focused the film on the essential plot elements without much deviation for some of the whimsy and charm that make up the book.

And what is the plot you ask? In this installment, Lucy, Edmund, and their irritating cousin Eustace magically get taken back to Narnia, where they immediately hookup with (now King) Caspian on the Dawn Treader. He's on his way to find the missing 7 Lords of Narnia so that they can head to an island of Aslan's where they will all present their magical swords so they can undo the evil on another island, or something to that effect, as they never stop long enough to fully explain the importance behind ending this evil or the island or anything. But it gives us a reason to be there and that's what's important I guess. And at just under two hours, this is a greatly focused, somewhat distilled version of the CNVDT book plot, which again, is to be expected as the movie series is trying to win back fans.

You say you want interesting character development? Sorry homeslice, you won't find that in CNVDT. The only characters that they "develop" is Lucy, Edmund, and Eustace - I use quotes because their development is so basic and quick that it's hardly development at all. Lucy is jealous of her older sister Susan's beauty, Edmund believes himself a leader and is still haunted by the White Witch, and Eustace just doesn't know how to be anything but a douche. Each go through their "journey" to realize that they can become better people at the end, which, no surprise, they do.

There were lots of deviations from the book (too many to list them all), but only one really bothered me: the return (again) of the White Witch. Why is she still here? Why do they keep bringing her back? I know that Edmund as a character needs to grow, but why do they have to keep using the White Witch? Do they not have any better ideas? Does Tilda Swinton need the money? I just don't get it. None of the other changes were so egregious that it significantly bothered me, (they mostly combined events or used shortcuts to keep the movie moving), but it still irks me that CNVDT's filmmakers have to do it in the first place. I know that screen time is precious and you can't literally adapt the novel into a movie as that's impractical, but you can make the movie while keeping the spirit of the book. That's what the film adaptations of the franchises mentioned in the first paragraph do so effectively, and it's why they're so popular. Any modifications, deviations, or new creative choices are done so with the spirit of the source material in mind. They actually attempt to honor the source material. It seems like the filmmakers of CNVDT were so desperate to get back a viable paying fanbase that they changed things for simplicity and audience accessibility rather than the spirit of the Narnia novels.

Which brings me back to my first and overarching point with CNVDT. Everything that is done, everything that you see, and everything that you experience is designed to win you back. It essentially says "we know we screwed up with CNPC, but look, we can turn this around and make a solid film franchise of this series - just stick with us and keep coming to the theatre." I think at times Hollywood forgets that the reason we loved the books in the first place is because authors like C.S. Lewis knew how to craft a story with interesting characters and engaging plots. Too bad they don't.

I enjoyed CNVDT better than CNPC as it was at least easier to sit through, but it's still not nearly as good as CNLWW was. We'll see if the filmmakers efforts to turn the film franchise around literally and figuratively pay off - if they don't, we may not see any more Narnia films, which would be a shame, because if they could just capture the spirit of the books, they wouldn't struggle to make money; fans like me would be lining up to see them. Which isn't to say I won't see Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair if they ever make it, but I might need Aslan to roar at the filmmakers before they do.