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 in 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 an adaptation keeping things from the source material that modern audiences might consider overly sentimental while finding ways to make them more palatable.) 

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" 😉

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.

It has been too long since the Walden films finished screening in 2011 until now, in 2025. Over the years I have resigned myself to never seeing the whole series ever completely filmed. We thought the most likely film after VDT would be SC, and we discussed filming that particular movie to death, before the present Narnia Web site became our home, to catch up with present day technology. Therefore, any time I want to watch the 3 Walden films, I invariably end up finishing them by watching the BBC Silver Chair DVD to keep the storyline going. The prospect of VDT being filmed excited me, especially as much of the filming was done in Australia and Malta where Doug Gresham was living at the time. For that very reason I was determined to love it, no matter what. Since 2011 I've grown more appreciative of VDT's faults, like too much Jadis, the green mist, and that 7 swords nonsense, which in my opinion also ruined the chances of a credible SC being filmed at all by Walden. 

That is one reason why, once MN does come into production, & is filmed, I've plans to watch it first, then Walden's 3 Films and then, the BBC Silver Chair. If Netflix then goes on to do LWW, then I will have a choice between Walden LWW, BBC LWW, Cartoon LWW and then Netflix LWW, or maybe the lot, just for comparison. Perhaps then, Netflix will round off its version with the big reveal that Digory Kirke was the elderly Professor, at the end, after their return, describing how the wardrobe the Pevensies stumbled into, came into being, to preserve the surprise. Isn't this the same as the BBC LWW reveal on audio, when the whole series was portrayed with the Professor as narrator for the whole septology? 

Should Netflix go on to manage a third film, I hope to goodness it would be HHB, when much depends on the popularity of the series with viewers, whether Netflix gets that far or not. And, after MN, HHB is one more of the three Narnia books not to be filmed at all yet. There is hardly anything of BBC PC, compared to Walden's PC, whilst BBC's VDT, contracted to 4 TV episodes, is also quite watchable, in the lead up to Silver Chair, though in my opinion, they should have picked Samuel West, to play the last scene in SC when King Caspian comes back to life, not the boy used for BBC Prince Caspian. 

I am beginning to wonder if Netflix can ever get as far as another production of SC, a favourite of mine. I also wonder if SC will ever be screened in my lifetime, let alone LB, the third of the three movies which has not been done before. It would not grieve me too much if LWW, PC, & VDT were missed out altogether, in favour of keeping a long story more manageable, when the Netflix production might be more of a re-release of work already done. But then, a Netflix LWW is also needed, not only to explain the wardrobe, but also to clear up, once & for all, what happens to Jadis, & also to explain an adult Susan's role in HHB. 

So it's been about 20 years since the Walden film of LWW was released in December, then was followed by PC in May 2008 and VDT in 2010. Then I think it was 2013, it was announced that the Mark Gordon Company was "rebooting" with picking up with SC (it was confusing at the time, because "reboot" is apparently a broad category). Then in 2018, it was announced that Netflix would be adapting Narnia into movies and series (even then, Narnia fans like us had no idea what that meant). 

Now that Greta Gerwig is set to direct at least 2 Narnia movies, does that mean all of them are going to movies with different directors? I've actually heard that series do change a lot, even when it's taken within the same universe, and it could even have different directors. 

I don't know if my sensibilities have changed since the Walden days? I'm just waiting to see what happens with what Netflix and Greta Gerwig does with MN. I still watch the BBC TV series and the Walden films from time to time, though. But since there's never been a screen adaptation of MN before, well, who knows? It could turn out better than we thought. At least we won't have any other screen adaptation to compare it to. 

@waggawerewolf27 sounds like the beginnings of a Southern Narniawebbers' Moot. A week in which we watch one or two a day, discuss and groan over supper.

@coracle Sounds like a good idea. But it depends if we all have the DVD's to do such a moot, doesn't it, and access to the wherewithall to play them? 

But I'd like that, I really would. 

@waggawerewolf27 - I have all the Walden films, the BBC productions and the animated LWW on DVD although I think I may need to replace my Walden VDT as I think my kids scratched it... A Southern NarniaWebbers' Moot sounds like a great idea!  

It's a long time since the 2006  Lewis conference in Sydney, which had only one Walden film to talk about. 
I only met one Narniawebber there, and we didn't Moot. 
So much has happened since to change my views on many aspects of the films. 

@pete I think I may need to replace my Walden VDT as I think my kids scratched it..

Maybe J & B HiFi might still be able to get a second copy for you. But then, I believe that all the Walden films are on Disney's Streaming service. 

@coracle It's a long time since the 2006 Lewis conference in Sydney, which had only one Walden film to talk about. 

If it is only for a small group of us Narnia Webbers to get together, Sydney would still be a good place for us Southerners to meet (in person), even if its Imax isn't as good as Melbourne's, I understand. But our new environmentally safe airport at Badgery's Creek, will be up and running by the end of next year, complete with its very own Metro station, which connects to St Marys which is also linked to the main Sydney Railway network. At both St Marys (Saints) and Penrith (Penrith Panthers) there is good accommodation available. (I'm a member. ).  But Sydney, itself, might be better for quick access to the Imax theatre, there, if seeing Magician's Nephew is one object of such a meeting. At the moment, the exchange rate favours any USA, UK or Canadian travellers, when today's rate is 65.5 cents to 1 USD. 

But I think that just to review the Walden films at home, what we have now, where we are, is more suitable. I've got all of the BBC & Walden films on DVD. I have the BBC audio productions on tape but whilst I have the FoTF audios on CD, I don't at the moment have a CD player to play them on, though I can borrow one from one of my daughters.

What we would need is some sort of timetable to watch these movies and in which order

@jasmine_tarkheena Now that Greta Gerwig is set to direct at least 2 Narnia movies, does that mean all of them are going to movies with different directors?

Any idea what the second Narnia movie might be? I suppose it would be LWW for reasons of continuity. 

I don’t know if people will go back to the Walden films if they don’t like Greta Gerwig’s new movie, but I think the Walden movies are worth rewatching for sensible Narnia fans. They do have a lot of fine acting in them even though the story adaptation is not always perfect. It certainly isn’t a bad thing to enjoy them, and they have motivated people to reread the original books. It is too soon to know if Greta’s movies will do the same thing, but I hope their content will be good enough to inspire some interest in the works on which they are supposedly based. 🙂