It struck me the other day whilst discussing the upcoming Greta Gerwig Narnia movie, how much my adaptation sensibilities have changed since the pre-production era on the Walden films.
Thinking back, I feel like my ideas back then were much more aligned to those of Markus & Mcfeely when it came to adaptating the books - I'd read a passage and think "well you'll have to change that visual, otherwise it will look too goofy on screen" or "they'll need to rearrange this section in order to fit the story into a more conventional three-act narrative structure". And in many ways that's exactly the approach Adamson took with the adaptations - streamlining off all the rough edges to create 2.5 solidly made and highly polished blockbuster style movies.
However, maybe now it's just because I've got older, or maybe its because I've become a lot more well versed in cinema in general (or even that cinema itself has become more diverse as an art form since the early 2000s) but I now find that my sensibilities are perhaps the exact opposite to what they were before - I'm now way more sold on the idea of keeping in some of the things that might be perceived as corny and old fashioned. I'm much more willing to see films taken bold risks on unconventional narrative structures, themes and ideas.
Anyway, I guess I was wondering if anyone else has gone through a similar mindset change.
How have your sensibilities on films and adaptations changed since the Walden days?
Great question! I'd say my sensibilities have changed-it'd be pretty weird if they hadn't after all these years-but not necessarily in the way yours have. In some ways, I'd say I've grown pickier about adaptations since I've had more time (and maturity) to analyze books and form opinions about just what makes them great. I've also grown more cynical about Hollywood doing great adaptations of the Narnia books. When I was a kid, I saw plenty of things in the books that were exciting. Nowadays, I feel like Hollywood's expectations of what makes an exciting action scene are ridiculously high. Also, when I was younger, I looked at the Narnia books and saw plenty of messages that everyone in my culture agreed were true like "don't enslave people" or "don't force women to get married against their will." I naively figured faithful adaptations could resonate with everybody. Nowadays, I feel like people in my culture are so bitterly opposed in everything that a faithful adaptation of Narnia would have the opposite effect and offend everybody.
But I think I've always been favor of keeping unconventional narrative structures and potential corniness or weirdness. (I wouldn't say never change scenes that modern viewers would consider corny, just don't do the cowardly thing and completely cut them. I actually think Greta Gerwig's Little Women is a good example of this.)
For better or worse-for who knows what may unfold from a chrysalis?-hope was left behind.
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My sensibilities have definitely changed since then. I have since (especially in the past 5 years) really re-connected with the books and grown to enjoy the levity and the shenanigans that occasionally border on absurdism. I definitely went through a phase where a hypothetical adaptation would have to change or cut a lot of things in order to make it "less cheesy". I don't know why I've become much more open minded about the funny moments, maybe because I've become "old enough to enjoy fairy tales" 😉
This is the journey
This is the trial
For the hero inside us all
I can hear adventure call
Here we go
As I have mentioned here before I have become more forgiving of Walden’s errors in adaptation than when the movies first came out. In fact I like them better now than a decade or two ago. Maybe it is because what is planned for Netflix seems farther from the books (e.g. the possibility of a female Aslan) or maybe because the films have grown on me. I hope I have become more sensible in recent years. I like the Walden films much more than I used to. I find them at least enjoyable as works of art even though they may not be perfect adaptations. I have become more picky about new adaptations, but it is mostly in the hope that Greta Gerwig will make a reasonably faithful Narnia film that is worthy of her audience.