My family, with another family from church, went to go see the new Voyage of the Dawn Treader movie. If you have not seen it but plan to, don't read this. It contains spoilers. If you have not read the book, this spoiler will be vastly more spoil-some than it would be otherwise. Just a warning.
Speaking from a critical perspective: It was the first time I've seen a movie with things added that weren't in the book and been this fond of the change.
Speaking from a personal perspective, I can explain.
In the book, Lucy Pevensie almost says a spell that she thinks will make her as beautiful as her sister Susan, but Aslan's face appears in the pages and she quickly turns away. In the movie, Lucy tears the page out of the book and sticks it in her pocket. That night she has a dream about what would happen if she uses it. She becomes Susan, and Lucy completely disappears. Among other issues, she and her siblings never discover Narnia.
She then sees herself standing in front of the mirror, and Aslan stands next to her and explains that she has value as herself, and that she should not try to change herself to become more like someone else.
I really enjoyed this scene. It stays true to C.S. Lewis's vision, and it was extremely easy to fit it to a theological Christian worldview. From this viewpoint, it's clear what is going on, God telling the girl that He loves her the way she is, and that she should become more herself, not try to be other people.
This is something I feel that a lot of people forget. Indeed, commercials prey on this forgetfulness. When something is all the rage, people feel that they need to be just like everyone else, dress and look like everyone else, etc. This especially targets women and girls.
Going back to the critical perspective, the movie was good. It was true to the feeling of the book, had some great scenes of seafaring, excellent casting of Eustace and interesting development of his relationship with Reepicheep the talking mouse, and more. It was very enjoyable.
Speaking from a critical perspective: It was the first time I've seen a movie with things added that weren't in the book and been this fond of the change.
Speaking from a personal perspective, I can explain.
In the book, Lucy Pevensie almost says a spell that she thinks will make her as beautiful as her sister Susan, but Aslan's face appears in the pages and she quickly turns away. In the movie, Lucy tears the page out of the book and sticks it in her pocket. That night she has a dream about what would happen if she uses it. She becomes Susan, and Lucy completely disappears. Among other issues, she and her siblings never discover Narnia.
She then sees herself standing in front of the mirror, and Aslan stands next to her and explains that she has value as herself, and that she should not try to change herself to become more like someone else.
I really enjoyed this scene. It stays true to C.S. Lewis's vision, and it was extremely easy to fit it to a theological Christian worldview. From this viewpoint, it's clear what is going on, God telling the girl that He loves her the way she is, and that she should become more herself, not try to be other people.
This is something I feel that a lot of people forget. Indeed, commercials prey on this forgetfulness. When something is all the rage, people feel that they need to be just like everyone else, dress and look like everyone else, etc. This especially targets women and girls.
Going back to the critical perspective, the movie was good. It was true to the feeling of the book, had some great scenes of seafaring, excellent casting of Eustace and interesting development of his relationship with Reepicheep the talking mouse, and more. It was very enjoyable.
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