Okay I realize this is like 10 years too late, but Narnia: the lion the witch and the wardrobe did a great job at showing the difference between a tyrant and a leader. The beginning of the final battle shows the White Witch ordering her followers to kill, and they all run ahead of her to do her bidding. She put herself in position to not get hurt, and doesn’t care how many die for her to have victory. On the other side Peter is in front of all of his side, putting himself in harms way first before anyone else. Peter is one of his people and will die for them while the witch doesn’t care as long as she is the winner.
I’m rewatching the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe again, and some observations/thoughts:
Lucy’s pure childlike innocence at the start is so gorgeously endearing; like, if she hadn’t gone through into Narnia that first time she went into the Wardrobe, Peter would have come into that room and seen the freshly removed protective sheet all crumpled on the floor, and the door open, and he would not only have known INSTANTLY that someone was hidden in there, but he also would have known at a glance WHO was hidden in there and he’d probably pretend not to know there was anyone in there; he’d look behind it, but not in it - he’d probably be able to hear Lucy giggling, but even THEN he’d pretend not to be able to find her. But Lucy doesn’t register even remotely that Peter would know instantly where she is. She pulls this big sheet aside, pulls open the door, and goes, “yes. This is perfect. He’ll never find me here.”
Love the bit where the wolves are attacking Susan and Lu and Peter, Aslan, and a bunch of others arrive, and Oreus is about to go charging in there but then Aslan is like “No don’t, this is Peter’s battle,” so Oreus throws his hand out to the side to prevent anyone from charging in, like he hadn’t been literally about to do exactly that; makes me lol every time
Shout out to Skandar Keynes for the subtle quality of his acting. The way he portrays Edmund prior to the Witch is so childish and immature, and then the way he is after her is so vastly different. And I’m not talking script writing, although obviously that too. I mean the way he presents himself, down to his body language and the way he speaks. His voice becomes just a tad lower and slower; calmer and more self assured. The way he’s so stiff in the first part of the film, constantly recoiling from his family’s touch/looking uncomfortable and tense all the time, to how he looks so much more relaxed after he’s been rescued, even when he’s only just walking down from speaking with Aslan, and is about to see his siblings again for the first time since he betrayed them. He looks looser - no longer tense down to his bones, the line of his shoulders is no longer taut, and even when he’s hunching away because Peter’s just spoken to him and he’s not sure what to expect, it’s a different sort of hunch. He becomes so much older in the wake of the Witch, and Skandar portrays it so well. Physically he hasn’t aged at all, but all his mannerisms and actions are so much more mature, and honestly A+ acting my boy
The animation of the various creatures is so flipping good. I mean, this was a movie made in 2005, so like, it’s not like good CGI was an impossibility, but the LWW standard not only holds up to the quality of CGI in current movies, it actually surpasses a lot of them, and that’s very impressive. The Griffins for instance?? 10/10, if I didn’t know they weren’t real animals, I wouldn’t have guessed it
I will never not be blinded with rage the first time we see battle-ready Jadis and see that she’s wearing Aslan’s mane as part of her outfit, gah, it makes me utterly furious
The score for the battle scene is one of the greatest pieces of music ever written
I will always love the part where the mice chew Aslan loose, because that’s canonically when Talking Mice became a thing, and it just gives me the warmest feels
“Peter’s not king yet” iconic
Tumnus charging into battle with nothing but his scarf and just simply running into people and pushing them over, good job boyo, A+ for reckless enthusiasm
The casting for the older Pevensies is SPOT ON
No like seriously it’s SPOT ON
Shout out to the costumes in the first movie, because they’re absolutely stellar and SO MUCH BETTER than the costumes in the second movie, which were…. not stellar
“What was it he said? You girls stay in the castle; I’ll go and get the stag myself” adorbs, I love it
What must the shock have been for the Pevensies, one second being in their 20s in the woods, and the next being not even teenagers again and on the floor of a dusty old grey bedroom, honestly, i don’t know how any of them coped with that, I would have been so beyond devastated
It’s been nearly 13 years since that movie came out (holy shit) and I still love it to absolute bits, fantastic film, high-key will never ever tire of it
there are things in Narnia I always wonder about so here are some headcanons:
Aslan had told them that there was no need for Peter, Susan
and Lucy to speak to Edmund about what he had done, and they didn’t. He hadn’t
said that Edmund shouldn’t speak to them about it. It takes him a
while to work himself up to it, but he is so glad when he does.
Lucy’s cordial is a strange thing. It tastes glorious and heals instantly, but it does not remedy shock or clean up all the mess, with its abrupt shove between blinding agony and sudden relief. It’s dangerous too, in the way it leaves no reason not to stand up and
carry on fighting with not a moment to recover from the trauma, in the way it makes you reckless, lets you forget that you are mortal. It is kept in their vault not just as a priceless treasure, but as something to be used with caution.
Susan’s hugs were usually on the side of being a little too hard. She often surprised people with her strength.
Peter always considered the reason he was made High King above the others perfectly obvious, and assumed everyone else thought the same: it was only because he was the oldest, and someone had to do it, otherwise running a country with four sovereigns could get a bit messy. His family, his subjects, and anyone else who met him – friend and enemy alike – knew that being the eldest was only one of the reasons that Peter was the High King, and probably the least important reason at that.
I love all of them! Especially Edmund telling his siblings when he was ready and Peter’s thought on why he was High King!
sometimes I forget how lucky we were to get such fantastic movie adaptations for Narnia.
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is such a beautiful movie, true to the heart of the original story, with actual children playing children—
Prince Caspian gave us ben barnes, pocs, did not gloss over the realities of war, matured with the cast and the audience
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader was filled to the brim with beautiful sets and shots, high end animation, and a bittersweet ending to an era
thank goodness for Narinia
Yes, as much as I complain about the “green mist” in VDT & the romance between Susan & Caspian X, I will always love the Walden Narnia movies!
LWW was closest to the book and will (probably) always be my favorite movie ever made. I have spent soooo many hours of my life watching this movie, listening to the soundtrack, watching behind-the-scenes features, reading books about the production….
I didn’t really get to the level of obsession until after I saw PC, though. I was a big fan of LWW, but I hadn’t read all of the books yet & I didn’t even know the names of the cast (much less Weta Workshop’s involvement or how awesome Shane Rangi is). I went to the movie theater with my friends one night & we decided to watch PC on a coin flip. I don’t know what my life would have looked like if we had seen the other movie instead (I’m sure I would still have seen PC though) but oh my Aslan it changed my life. I was a bit older than I was in 2005 so I could actually understand more about them & I had more opportunities to choose what I did & bought, so that allowed me to really get into it. (I also shamelessly had a crush on William Moseley which fueled a significant part of my interest at first.) I started looking at Narnia news sites almost every day. I started my ongoing collection of Narnia & C.S. Lewis books & memorabilia & I also made this Tumblr lol. Basically, if I didn’t like PC as much as I did, my life would have been so different.
VDT was exciting for me because it was the first movie I was really anticipating. I was thrilled just to see production photos, wondered who Arabella Morton was, counted down the days until the release date (I even wrote it in all of my friends’ yearbooks that year lolol). Even if there was a chance it would turn out awful, I was looking forward to it because it was still a new Narnia movie! Luckily, I was ultimately delighted in the final result, even if it strayed from the book (way too much in my opinion) & barely had Harry Gregson-Williams’ themes (one of my favorite parts about LWW & PC!). I actually really liked the fan service moments tbh. Mostly, I thought Will Poulter was an amazing Eustace. I like it for what it is & no amount of negative opinions about certain elements of the movie will make me not love it.
LWW came out when I was in elementary school, PC came out when I was in middle school, & VDT came out when I was in high school. I grew up with the Walden movies & even if I can’t dedicate as much time to them as I used to, I will always love them & I will always be thankful for what they have given me.
Thank you for inspiring me to take the time to appreciate them again ♥
Andrew:"Any good movie should start with a birthing scene"
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Andrew:"For a boy who's only ridden a Shetland pony at the age of 8, that's quite impressive" – [about Ben]
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Andrew:"They ride into the river in New Zealand, and fall off their horses in Slovenia almost 6 months later"
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Andrew:"Prince Caspian the sleepy"
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Will:"Ash is actually a New Zealander and managed to do an English accent perfectly, which puts a lot of shame on us"
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Will:"The guy kneeing me right there was actually my stunt double who didn't actually end up doing much because I wanted to do my own stunts"
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Georgie:"Skandar you actually look younger"
Skandar:"Now you mean?"
Georgie:"No I mean-"
Skandar:"Good cause that was a year ago"
Andrew:"Look who can talk little miss Georgie"
Georgie:"No but no no, but I mean like if you think about from- in Narnia you seem a lot older as do I"
Skandar:"so you're saying that a year ago I looked younger"
Georgie:"No, in Narnia, when you get into Narnia in the film you look older"
Andrew:"That's the Narnian air"
Skandar:"it's because time has gone by"
Andrew:"No but it was also a conscious decision within the costuming within the hairstyles everything that the Narnian air was meant to age you more quickly so all of you guys were meant to very quickly age when you get there and it's all part to do with Isis' costumes, partly to do with how we let you wear your hair, all of those kind of things"
Georgie:"I get the Croydon face lift which made me look a bit more kind of younger which my plaits pulled back any excess skin that I had on my face"
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Anna:"I think this was the day Skandar outran William"
Will:"He didn't outrun me"
Andrew:"He did outrun you"
Will:"I caught him"
Andrew:"You didn't catch him"
Will:"Yes I did Skandar I caught you didn't I?"
Skandar:"I don't remember"
Will:"I caught him. He was quick I remember but I caught him"
Georgie:"Cause Will is Mr. Macho Man all time, 24/7"
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Georgie:"Weren't you dealing with sunburn at this point Skandar?"
Skandar:"Yea..."
Andrew:"That's right Mr. Lobster Legs. Actually he wasn't the only person who got sunburnt, I believe Anna--"
Anna:"I got sunburnt on the beach in the next few scenes"
Andrew:"Yea yea I know and you claim that it was while you were actually shooting but it seemed so conveniently after a weekend."
Anna:"But the line was right where I got sunburnt was where my costume was."
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Andrew:"Peter does a lot without saying anything; he's really an incredibly expressive actor. Very, very lucky to have him"
Anna:"He was saying that when he saw the film about 6 weeks ago for the first time that he was surprised by he does so much eye acting, then he thought 'hang on no wait it's because it's one of the only parts of my face I can actually move'"
Andrew:"That he had control of, that wasn't covered with yak hair or makeup."
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Andrew:"Harry pointed this out to me, it looks like here you're bowing to yourself at first and then you see the chest come up. I never really thought of it that way but he pointed that out when he was scoring--I mean I did that on purpose"
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Ben:"Talking of stink eye look at this" *Peter Dinklage death stares the guards*
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Anna:"Is this your Mr. Darcy moment"
Will:"Absolutely, with Trumpkin...instead of Keira Knightly"
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Will:"Skandar did you want me to say something about this fight?"
Skandar:"No I win in the end don't I"
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Skandar:"That's my stink eye"
Andrew:"Is that your Zoolander look?"
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Andrew:"Didn't really leave a mark that tree branch did it?" [to Ben]
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Georgie:"That beard has an amazing, you know, sticking out ability"
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Andrew:"This was one of the cases I decided not to torture the cast"
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Andrew:"Now we couldn't have done this scene in the last movie actually. There was no way we could've done this scene because Skandy would never have gone that close to the ledge."
Will:"So true"
Anna:"Where as this time he didn't even want a cable"
Andrew:"This time he just wanted a bungee"
Skandar:"Yea...I'm not gonna lie"
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Skandar:"I'd been walking around and someone had left literally a bar at lip height, just around the corner. So I turned the corner and literally turned and bang, hit my lip. On the way to going back to do that close up as you saw"
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Will:"Haha you saw it so clearly there"
Andrew:"He just looks pouty"
Will:"Like he's Zoolander again"
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Georgie:"Skandar was sleeping"
Skandar:"Mmhmm"
Ben:"Skandar was actually asleep like he is now"
Will:"Skandar was asleep in most of the shoot actually if I remember right"
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Andrew:"Sim Evan-Jones who was my editor on Shrek as well, he said 'you're shooting on a Shrek location' and I said 'what are you talking about' and I suddenly realise this looks exactly like the forest Shrek and Donkey walk through in the first Shrek film"
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Andrew:"The third film in which Pierfrancesco gets slapped by Sergio"
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Andrew:"Basically anyone who could grow facial hair ended up in the movie"
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Will:"Can I just say they cut out Skandar's close up here? Watch they get to him and Skandar doesn't get it."
Skandar:"Oh yea that's quite funny"
Will:"Skandar and...cut"
Georgie:"That's so horrible"
Andrew:"Based on the timing of his head turn believe it or not"
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Will:"That's quite a bloodthirsty little moment, actually" [on Reepicheep killing a man]
Ben:"'Yes I'm a mouse'"
Skandar:"It's kind of cancelled out with the comedy effect"
Georgie:"Skandar's analysis on the balance of life"
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Anna:"Skandar said something really interesting in an interview the other day actually, which was that Sergio doesn't just try to kind of get it right, he tries to give you as many ways of it being right as possible."
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Anna:"I like the fact that he finishes his fight and the only thing he's worried about is his torch"
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Andrew:"I remember though also during this time that somebody made the mistake of putting on the call sheet 'Edmund save the day'"
Anna:"No that was the white witch scene"
Andrew:"All I know is that we never heard the end of it"
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Skandar:"Filmed that"
Andrew:"That's true. That was Skandar's cinematography introduction there"
Skandar:"Other than blonde cam"
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Georgie:"Wasn't this 'Edmund saves the day'?"
Skandar:"Mmhmm"
Andrew:"That was later in this scene"
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Skandar:"Time to save the day"
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Andrew:"And who's saving the day? Who could it be?"
Anna:"I wonder"
Skandar:"Sounds like a pretty cool guy though. Must be pretty amazing to do that"
Georgie:"Oh oh oh wait, it's Skandar"
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Andrew:"Our roman light has arrived" [quoting Pierfrancesco]
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Georgie:"It says 'as his blade rockets towards his eye socket' it's like Andrew, please"
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Georgie:"And it was so funny because they were taking a photo of me and my riding double Hannah, and Paul said 'oh I'll get in there' and we were taking a photo and he goes 'oh look at me all proud being a girl"
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Andrew:"But the really fun thing to do in this is watch the background mice. And the bit where they are talking about chopping off their tails"
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Georgie:"Based on what, clinical trials?" [quoting an outtake line]
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Anna:"You had a cold when we were filming this Ben"
Ben:"I did. When I first did it, I said *in cold voice* 'any Telmarines'"
Andrew:"And 'Narnia belongs to the Narnians'"
Ben:"*cold voice* 'Narnia belongs to the Narnians' what?"
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Ben:"Skeptical Telmarine is my friend Marcus"
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Ben:"He thought in his purple outfit that he looked like a grape" [about Peter Dinklage]
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Georgie:"I have CG hair?"
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Will:"Skandar and I wanted a better joke at the end but Andrew wouldn't give it to us"
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Anna:"Skandar's favorite line in the whole movie" [about the leaving his torch in Narnia]
