Friday, December 09, 2005

I know that you can love me, when there's no one left to blame

So, I just got back from seeing an afternoon screening of Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. This film is, for me, a more important film then the much loved Lord of the Rings trilogy, because, well, to be honest, I've actually read The Chronicles of Narnia when I was young. And while I have come to read and love Tolkien's books in my adulthood, there's something akin to a deeper, truer love for C.S. Lewis's stories because I loved them in childhood. Yes, there was a cartoon and that BBC thing in the 1980s, but they were both, to be frank, crap. Men in beaver suits does not Narnia make!

And I was not disappointed.

I thought this films was brilliant. The writers/diretor fleshed out the right things by contextualizing the story within the evacuation of London during World War 2. The animals and creatures, always been a problem with adapting LW&W, looked spectular. And the White Witch was strangely erotic.

4 comments:

Tom said...

I just saw it, too - I must agree that it is entirely sweet.

We have an old animated version on tape, however, which I think I like more still. I'll have to watch it again.

Anonymous said...

hey mike, i just watched your short film and I have the exact same "stuffed bunny rabbit". When is the sequel?
ps are u really a grocer of despair?

Anonymous said...

I always thought the BBC versions of the Chronicles were a little off. In the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, all I could remember and not get out of my mind was the girl (Lucy) with the teeth. Also, I wasn't a big fan of mixing the "live action" with the "cartoon characters" a la the fight scenes.

I do plan on seeing the new one in theatres, hoping it to be a better experience than the BBC versions for myself.

Michael said...

Well, Anonymous. You have excellent taste in Stuffed Bunny Rabbits (or SBRs as the professionals call them).

Sequel? I'm pretty sure I've produced the definitive work on misery, despair and Birthdays. What would a sequel to that even look like? Actually, I had a dream of someone opening an X-mas present, climbing inside and disappearing.

PS I am the grocer of despair... now that Leonard Cohen looks like my grandma. And who might you be?