Cool breakdown!

I agree with them that Aslan's animation still mostly stands on its own, even after 20 years. I know Netflix's Narnia will have a huge budget, and technology has advanced significantly since then, but there's a part of me that worries Walden's Aslan might still look better.

On a slightly related note (feel free to let me know if it's not, mods!),

@impending-doom

It is an intriguing possibility!  Babe used a mix of real, trained animals, animatronic animal heads and CGI to create talking animals.  Given that Neal Scanlan worked on that movie, it is not impossible that something similar could be done here.  The Star Wars sequels also used a fair bit of the Creature department for some characters that would more often be created digitally today.

I commented in the article (before I saw your reply) that in the Waldon movies, I think (not 100% certain) we mostly saw the Creature Shop used for Mythological creatures. Talking Animals were usually CGI.  The Magician's Nephew has a lot of animals being created and talking (particularly around 'Brandy', their pet 😆), while there is not a lot of talk recorded for the Dryads, Naiads, Minotaurs, Centaurs, Fauns, The River God or mythical creatures in general.  This was making me wonder what the Creature Department would actually work on.  The thought that maybe practical effects could even be used for the animals is pretty cool!

And also, another Narnian VFX video appeared in my feed (I guess the youtube algorithm knows what I click on), this one was by a young artist who wanted to attempt to recreate the VFX for Aslan using Blender today).  For the most part, it is just a look at how someone creates these effects on a budget, though there are some insights again into how Waldon originally did these effects: Remaking Narnia VFX in a month

I had actually liked the BBC’s Aslan even though it was only a puppet.  While the Walden’s Aslan looked more realistic it probably would have been more endearing if it looked more like BBC’s, and that probably could have been done even with today’s technology. The mouth movements would be corrected to be look more convincing, and the lion’s walk would be less mechanical.  But there was something about the old fashioned way of doing things which seemed less like a computerized Aslan and more like a work of art. Liam Neeson and Ronald Pickup were both quite good with Aslan’s voice, which I think should certainly be male.  It is very unlikely that Greta Gerwig would go back to using puppets, but maybe her Aslan could look more like Pauline Baynes’ illustrations. But I doubt that she cares much about the lion’s appearance since she doesn’t even seem to be particular about getting Aslan’s gender right. 

Posted by: @narnian78

But I doubt that she cares much about the lion’s appearance since she doesn’t even seem to be particular about getting Aslan’s gender right. 

Can it please be emphasised once again that we simply do not know whether or not this is true?

All we have to go on is a rumour reported by two Hollywood news websites (one of them obscure, the other considered reasonably reliable, but neither of them officially associated with Netflix or any other studios) nearly 6 months ago — with absolutely no evidence offered at the time, or ever since.

The one piece of possible evidence we have of what Aslan may look like is that poster in one of the London sets showing a magnificently maned (therefore ostensibly male) lion. We don't know if that is meant to be a "teaser" reference to Aslan, but given the context — and the poster's promise of "a new world, a new home" — it is far more likely than not.

Neither Gerwig nor anyone else actually involved with the project has made any known comments so far about Aslan at all, let alone Aslan's gender, or that of the actor who will be providing Aslan's voice. We have no accurate and verifiable knowledge of what Gerwig's ideas and plans are for Aslan at all.

Therefore, insinuating that Gerwig doesn't care much about Aslan's appearance, and that she isn't even particular about getting Aslan's gender right, is not justifiable on the basis of the information we actually have. It's also really not fair on Gerwig herself.

In short, can't we wait until we know for certain what she IS doing with Aslan before we make judgments about it, and her? 

@courtenay

All right, I will apologize for saying it.  I can’t know about it for certain.  But it seems like now that this much time has passed and we haven’t heard anything from Greta Gerwig about who will be playing Aslan I guess that we won’t know until the movie is actually being filmed.  I would think she would have heard something about the rumors and said something factual to contradict them, but maybe that is still coming.  Actually I think a small part of the movie was filmed but only enough for a trailer. It now seems rather late to know who will play the most important character. But she may have some other reasons for taking her time.

I will wait and see if there are any positive reviews of the film before deciding whether I want to watch it.  It certainly would be nice to know something more about what it will be like.  I didn’t mean to offend you, and I think you were right in pointing out that I was too quick to judge a film that hasn’t even been completed.

@courtenay

I was wondering what the people here thought of this video from a few months ago:

https://youtu.be/4nF1uZff_DY?si=7B9YPoK-6hpfNopX

This man (I don’t think his name is actually given on the channel) apparently believes that Meryl Streep will play Aslan.  He may have been mistaken in believing that the rumor is true. All we know is the actress may have been considered to play Aslan, and that isn’t really definite.  I have subscribed to his YouTube channel for a few years, and some of his videos are quite good. I wouldn’t take it as gospel truth, although I do like some of his other videos. He may have been mistaken.  The name of his channel Into the Wardrobe is the same as one of the first websites about C. S. Lewis. I have subscribed to it since 2021:

https://community.narniaweb.com/community/talk-about-narnia/new-narnia-lore-youtube-channel/

Posted by: @narnian78

This man (I don’t think his name is actually given on the channel) apparently believes that Meryl Streep will play Aslan.  He may have been mistaken in believing that the rumor is true. All we know is the actress may have been considered to play Aslan, and that isn’t really definite.  I have subscribed to his YouTube channel for a few years, and some of his videos are quite good. I wouldn’t take it as gospel truth, although I do like some of his other videos. He may have been mistaken.

The date under the video says "6 months ago" and he refers to having only just heard the apparent confirmation of the Meryl Streep rumour. He was obviously reacting to the second news report that claimed to have confirmation of most of what the original report said, and that came from a Hollywood news website that seems to have a good reputation.

Many Narnia fans will agree with all or most of the things he says, IF the rumour is true. But this video is of no more and no less value than any of the myriad other reaction videos and opinion pieces that came out from other commentators all over the internet after that rumour broke at the start of April. 

My point simply was (and is) that since then, we have had absolutely zero further information, let alone confirmation, from anyone who is actually involved with the project and can say for certain how Aslan is going to be portrayed and who is going to provide his (or her?) voice. So it's still not possible for any of us to judge what Gerwig actually thinks about Aslan's appearance or gender, until we know exactly what she's going to do with Aslan. Which we still don't.

Like probably lots of others here, I'm starting to get a bit impatient, but we can still only wait and see... 

@courtenay 

I don’t think it is entirely his fault if he got the wrong information.  He is just repeating what he heard from others about the casting. I think the movie would probably be a failure if the rumor were true. But we don’t know yet if it will be successful.  I am not too enthusiastic about seeing it for other reasons like the time setting.  We will wait and see about what the portrayal of Aslan will be like.

@narnian78

I have subscribed to his channel for some time now. (It is quite enjoyable!))
I remember he posted this video just after the rumors about Meryl Streep  playing Aslan came out (it was just a few days after we were all talking about it on this site).  You can see that the video was posted 6 months ago.  I don't believe he has any insider knowledge on what Netflix is doing that we don't have here.  (I remember he referenced this site as one of his major sources in one of his videos on Huge Netflix Narnia News Roundup: Everything that's Happened in 2024 at the 3:26 mark.)

I appreciate his insights that casting Aslan as a female does a lot to compromise the intent that C S Lewis had with the original books 🙂.