Star Wars at least has the excuse that that line is the franchise catch phrase. Its use is quite deliberate. Elsewhere it just makes me laugh because, intentional or not, it sounds like a Star Wars reference.

Actually when I heard that line I immediately thought of Star Wars, which also made me laugh.

Wow!! talk about nitpickers on this movie. That was actually one of my favorite scenes of the movie. He was trying to encourage Eustace because Eustace was crying. Make him feel better. Let him know that he might have a greater destiny. Get him to look on the bright side. No, it wasn't the most amazingly intelligent dialogue I've ever heard, or the most complicated, but it wasn't bad at all. Everybody with me in the theater loved that scene to. Some of my friends who didn't like the movie that much, actually listed that scene as the only cool one for them. I honestly have only heard this kind of extreme tearing apart of the movie on these boards. Most people who are not fans, or just casual fans, are not near this critical.

I think the reason why this line was so horrible was because no one actually thought there was anything special or extraordinary about Eustace except that he was a complete brat. Plus, we never could imagine C.S. Lewis writing that.

I loved this scene. I never considered this scene to have bad dialogue. In fact, its one of my favorite quotes in the movie.

I think the reason why this line was so horrible was because no one actually thought there was anything special or extraordinary about Eustace except that he was a complete brat. Plus, we never could imagine C.S. Lewis writing that.

So Reep is going to make Eustace feel better by telling him that he is a complete brat? Really, the whole point was to comfort Eustace. To make him feel better. Also, who says there wasn't something special about Eustace. He was called to Narnia after all. Sometimes God sees something in us that is special, we just may need a lot of work. Eustace had a lot of issues, and needed to learn a lesson. However, that doesn't mean that Aslan didn't see something in him, deep inside. Also, there are a lot of lines in the movie that I can't imagine C.S. Lewis writing. I think this one is the least of our worries. I still place this as one of my favorite scenes in the whole movie.

Yeah, well I was trying to say that I think more the point in these stories is that they are ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

Well whether eustace was special, or just ordinary, the point is that Reep was saying these lines to eustace. They were meant to cheer him up. I can understand analyzing what Aslan says because he really is the final authority. If he had said them then maybe I would be more critical of them. However the lines are more of a pep talk, and should be taken as such.

"Oh, that mansion!"
"We did it! I knew we could."
"When you grow up, you should be just like you."
"Our darkest dreams...our worst nightmares..."
"It seeks to corrupt all goodness...to steal the light from this world!"
"I'm a boy again!"
...you get the point.

Yeah...there were some cheesy lines in this film
However, I liked this particular one! I didn't feel that it was telling the audience to pitty Eustace now, I felt that it was doing that 'bullies have their own problems' thing. Maybe we do misunderstand Eustace. I see the change after undragoning as us finally seeing the real Eustace, as opposed to seeing a different person. So I think that this line is saying that you don't have to be a bully- stroppy and basically disliked by everyone- because everyone will give you a change if you let them!

Sorry if this is a bit of subject, but that is kind of how interpreted the scene in general!

I took issue with that line. I agree with Clive Staples on this. He was an ordinary person who was behaving badly (in a way that many people would behave upon finding treasure, stuffing it in his pockets, planning not to tell anyone) and got himself into an extraordinary situation. The movie here slipped into acting as if it was a good thing that Eustace got dragonned.

Later Reepicheep says, "I am a mouse, you are a dragon" to convince Eustace not to run away from Dark Island. Because of his enchantment, Reepicheep considers him more able to face the unknown than himself. I think this line was out of character for Reepicheep as well. It makes it seem almost like it was a good thing that Eustace went for the treasure with greed in his heart.

In the book Reepicheep does say straight out that it was his good fortune not to be human. Reminding the still undragonned film Eustace at that point that he wasn't human either might then make sense. Nightmares are a human weakness, it would seem, and this is the one time when Reepicheep would have seen it was an advantage for Eustace to not be human.

I took that line about the extraordinary things happening to extraordinary people as just consolation. Of course Eustace was in a doubly extraordinary position, having reached Narnia and then having become a dragon. If you agree that the way people deal with extraordinary situations is how they come to be extraordinary, then maybe there could be a niggle about a humanist take on C.S.Lewis' concept. It all depends on how you see extraordinary.

But Eustace is truly extraordinary in one way - he finally has to get Aslan's help to be undragonned, the very opposite of self-help. He has to admit his faults, and repent of his dragonish nature before humbly laying the last sword on Aslan's table. Unlike Superman, Spiderman, Batman, Megamind or whoever, Eustace admits he needs help, that he just wants to be useful and accepted, and as a result of his experience, becomes a new Eustace. Not your run-of-the-mill extraordinary superhero whose dragon-riding, light sabre and self-developed skills have allowed him to triumph over his human weaknesses.

In the book Reepicheep does say straight out that it was his good fortune not to be human. Reminding the still undragonned film Eustace at that point that he wasn't human either might then make sense. Nightmares are a human weakness, it would seem, and this is the one time when Reepicheep would have seen it was an advantage for Eustace to not be human.

I might have interpreted it your way had Reepicheep said, "You and I are beasts. We can go in there unhindered by nightmares." But the line was "I am a mouse, you are a dragon" so someone not as familiar with the book, would take that line as a juxtoposition not between beast and human but between mouse and dragon.

If you agree that the way people deal with extraordinary situations is how they come to be extraordinary, then maybe there could be a niggle about a humanist take on C.S.Lewis' concept. It all depends on how you see extraordinary.

ex·traor·di·nar·y ( k-strôr dn- r , k str -ôr -). adj. 1. Beyond what is ordinary or usual: extraordinary authority. 2. Highly exceptional; remarkable... (free online dictionary)

I consider great acts of kindness and self-sacrifice as extraordinary because these are not usual. In the book when the rations of water are low there are two ordinary courses of behavior. The most ordinary (commonly done) is what everyone on the ship but Eustace and Lucy do. That is to drink their own limited rations, no more no less. Eustace (a child not yet integrated with Narnian society) does what many of the younger kids I work with at my job would do and tries to steal extra rations believing that he himself suffers from thirst worse than others.

Now society tends to frown on stealing and there are consequences as most children learn after trying it once or twice and facing them. Its not because the desire to steal isn't there (it is there in almost everyone) but because people learn of the punishments in society. That's why society has to punish stealing behavior.

Lucy does the extraordinary thing. She gives up some of her water to Eustace and tells him "girls don't get as thirsty as boys." Its an act of compassion, of recognizing someone besides herself has feelings and acting upon that despite her own feelings of thirst.

Does this make Lucy an extraordinary person? No. She is an ordinary person who in this situation did an extraordinary thing. She later on in book and in movie is shown that she has normal human weaknesses. I believe all people are ordinary but are capable of extraordinary behavior (that can be both good or bad. Just out of the usual expected behavior.)

But Eustace is truly extraordinary in one way - he finally has to get Aslan's help to be undragonned, the very opposite of self-help.

1. Aslan hasn't undragonned him yet. So this is a moot point.

2.Extraordinary behavior does not equal that a person is in themselves anything but ordinary. I think its easy to label a behavior or set of behaviors as extraordinary. I don't think its ever correct to label a person as extraordinary, perhaps you could say, "This person often behaves in an extraordinary way." But to say that someone is "extraordinary" is actually meaningless by its very ambiguity. It can mean so many things that it means little to nothing.

3. What does self-help have to do with defending the line "extraordinary things happen to extraordinary people"?

Another quibble I have with the phrase "extraordinary things happen to extraordinary people" is that enchantments and dragons are not extraordinary to Reepicheep. He is a Narnian native! He says to dragonned Eustace: "I fought a dragon before; Much fiercer than you." Also, Caspian and Edmund act as if it is expected ( ordinary, usual, unremarkable) that dragon treasure hoards are enchanted -"Treasure? Trouble" they say. So therefore to Reepicheep enchantments when messing with dragon gold is the expected result. So the only thing extraordinary about Eustace's behavior was that it was uncommonly stupid (in the world of Narnia) to not know better than to go messing about with dragon treasure. As the common thing was to not do it out of fear of the consequences (much like how everyone but Eustace in the book didn't steal water when rations were low).

I took "extraordinary" as, Eustace is a great person deep down, "extraordinarily caring, etc." and that made him extraordinary.

I dont think this quote made it seem like Eustace's actions were forgiving, but it is easier for children to relate to. I mean, if someone had extremely bad luck and fell off a bike and broke their arm, it's reassuring to say "this extraordinary thing happened to me because I'm an extraordinary person!"

I took "extraordinary" as, Eustace is a great person deep down, "extraordinarily caring, etc." and that made him extraordinary.

I dont think this quote made it seem like Eustace's actions were forgiving, but it is easier for children to relate to. I mean, if someone had extremely bad luck and fell off a bike and broke their arm, it's reassuring to say "this extraordinary thing happened to me because I'm an extraordinary person!"

Which unfortunately, NOT the thing they need to hear. In any case, I don't think it is. I don't think Lewis would either.

It may be comforting, but it makes no sense.

Trufflehunter, that's a good point kids do say things like that. I have heard the kids I work with when something bad happens to them they will say something like, "I'm a magnet for bad-luck." That very well may have been the film-maker's reasoning for putting that line in.

Clive Staples Sibelius, If Reepicheep meant it in this way, "You are a bad-luck magnet" it could develop a victim mentality and lack of compassion for others in Eustace.

I like that in the book Reepicheep tells Eustace accounts of others who have been in seemingly impossible situations but still overcame. That was actually helpful and meaningful. Reepicheep teaches compassion (Eustace is not the only who suffers) and gives Eustace hope for future. Its such a different message than the either meaningless or damaging implications of "extraordinary things happen to extraordinary people"