I like this scene. When Lucy removes the bracelet, Dragon Eustace roars a little. I guess he wasnt very comfortable with the bracelet. Funny thing. When they say "you have no way of staying warm" or what was said, Eustace breathed fire and gave that "Oh Really" wicked smile.

After seeing this today what disappointed me was that Dragon Eustace was too immediately forthright in trying to make himself known to his family. It was more
heart-rending in the book where he's actually planted himself on the beach between the water and the ship and is actually a bit timid and reluctant in his revelation....

"But when it saw them, instead of rising up and blowing fire and smoke, the dragon retreated - you could almost say it waddled - back into the shallows of the bay..."

In the book it's more of a trial for Eustace to reveal himself and get used to being in his new dragon skin. And more like a humorous guessing game for Lucy, Edmund, and the others to figure it out. The movie didn't really show that and condensed it too much. In addition, after he revealed himself, they didn't develop enough (at least to me) how much his character had changed in other small ways besides the bigger ones in the film of tugging the ship or fighting the sea serpent. I'd much rather they'd also included a visual montage of Dragon Eustace getting food for the crew, taking them for a ride over the island, laying on the beach so they could use him like a hot water bottle (wasted CGI cuteness opportunity), selecting a tree to repair the mast, etc. Those would have been amusing things to see and attach the audience with him emotionally so the undragoning bit would have had more meaning behind it.

The problem with him and a visual montage of Eustace getting food for the crew and helping out on the island is that it would slow down the progress of the movie, and its seems that would require making the movie longer, with for budget reason, was not feasable. I think to compensate for that, they wanted to progress with the story and combine Eustace helping the crew. So having him pull the Dawn Treader in the windless sea was a good compromise.

I didn't mind the way he "showed" Edmund his writing/fire on the island. Thought it was kinda cool, actually. And I didn't get the impression he was ATTACKING the ship. I thought it was more like, he was kind of JUST turned into a dragon, so he's obviously panicking, not realizing how he's this huge creature and not being able to realize how strong and powerful he is. So while it looks like he's attacking them, he's really just flying around freaking out.

I love this bit! poor Edmund getting caught unawares
it was epic!

..... I'd much rather they'd also included a visual montage of Dragon Eustace getting food for the crew, taking them for a ride over the island, laying on the beach so they could use him like a hot water bottle (wasted CGI cuteness opportunity), selecting a tree to repair the mast, etc. Those would have been amusing things to see and attach the audience with him emotionally so the undragoning bit would have had more meaning behind it.

The problem with him and a visual montage of Eustace getting food for the crew and helping out on the island is that it would slow down the progress of the movie, and its seems that would require making the movie longer, with for budget reason, was not feasible. I think to compensate for that, they wanted to progress with the story and combine Eustace helping the crew. So having him pull the Dawn Treader in the windless sea was a good compromise.

I actually don't think it would have slowed the film that much (this film actually needed some slowing down...and urgently needed more character/plot development). I think the emotional investment would have warranted a montage like the one I wished they'd had. But I do see what you're saying.

I haven't posted in this thread since December. Recently, I was listening to the Focus on the Family audio dramatization again of VDT when Eustace was being dragoned....and I hope there are deleted scenes where he's acclimating to being a dragon on the VDT DVD. The speed of the dragoning was a negative in the movie for me because I didn't feel any of Eustace's dismay or shock that he was one, which I guess would have added a lot more to my feeling for the character in the movie. Listening to the audio play really draws it out so that you pretty much feel his surprise at having found himself changed, it was pretty suspenseful too. I would have liked to have seen more of the dragon's cave in the movie and the other dead dragon he finds before he himself became one. It would have been a gem of a scene if they had put that in the film.

I felt they were being to dramatic about it. Not letting the audience know he turned into a dragon like we didn't exactly know in the book (although we probably figured it out before Eustace) was good. But they should have done it in a less dramatic way.

The part I liked was "I am Eustace" written in fire. That was pretty cool although it was over the top. Otherwise, the scene was nether here nor there for me. Like so much of the film, it just happened!

I think the way they did it in the movie wasn't too dramatic, and I adored it. But the only mixed feeling I have for this is I sort of wish that they had kept in the scene where Eustace first reacts to being a dragon.

On one hand, one of my favorite lines of the moment is when Eustace wept and it was a sound hardly to be imagined. I've always wanted to see the agony he was feeling when he realized he was a jerk, so I miss that in the film. On the other hand, though, I loved the "element of suprise" moment that was put into play. If I hadn't know anything about the movie or book, I likely would've paused a second and then thought "wait a minute."

So, I overall love this scene, but I have a few things I sometimes wish were still there.

I love angst, so him crying in agony at his discovery would've been much appreciated in my case.