They must not rush through this. The movie could live or die on this scene. If Aslan doesn't have an intimidating presence, the audience won't share Jill's sense of urgency. If the audience doesn't connect with Jill's struggle to trust Aslan, they won't care about her emotional journey for the rest of the movie. And if they aren't intrigued by the four signs, what reason will they even have to keep watching?

Amen! And I'll add this: if Aslan doesn't have the presence of a divine, impossibly-powerful-yet-impossibly-personal being, then we risk losing the audience's investment in the quest.

If they do not give this scene its due significance, it may end up leaving the viewer feeling like movie!Susan in LWW... just because a man in a red coat gives you a sword it doesn't make you a hero, and just because a scary lion gives you a succeed-or-die-trying quest doesn't mean you should listen to him. Aslan cannot seem like just a lion, and that forest cannot seem like just a place... this is the creator and savior of Narnia, and this is his Country. The stream that Jill drinks from isn't just a water source; it is where Caspian is resurrected.

While I don't want people to be hit over the head with the notion that Aslan is God, I think that impression must be present throughout both scenes in Aslan's Country. They need to feel like an encounter with the divine, and should both feel sharply different from any other scene in the movie... otherwordly, but not like a dream. Rather, more real and more important than any other scene in the film.

One movie scene that comes to mind when I think about this is when God speaks to Moses in the animated film The Prince of Egypt. While I think Jill and Aslan's conversation should be more understated than the one in the linked clip, I do see a number of parallels here... Jill is scared and given a task that she doubts she can accomplish, and all of that is true of Moses as well. Aslan is stern, and the voice from the burning bush is stern. And they both carry such incredible power that it never occurs to reader/viewer that Jill or Moses should do anything but what they say.

Another film that comes to my mind is the 1937 Frank Capra gem Lost Horizon. I saw it several years ago and I don't know if anyone on here has seen it aside from me, but it is about a group who crash land in the Himalayas and are rescued by some people who live in a mysterious, Eden-like valley called Shangri-La. There's a conversation about halfway through the film where the main character is speaking with the High Lama, and I remember being struck by the overwhelming feeling that what was being said was Very Important, and yet still feeling like there was so much I didn't understand.

While it's a very different scene compared to the scene in SC, I can't help but think that the way it caught my attention may have been akin to Jill's own internal state during her conversation with Aslan. I hope the scene evokes a similar spellbound feeling... but they must give it time to breathe and to let Aslan be Aslan in order to do that. Remember the signs, and remember the scene in which the signs are first spoken! Nothing else matters.

I agree that this is probably the most important scene for the filmmakers to get right.

But honesty I don't think I'm all that concerned about them rushing through it, right now anyway. Because unlike the Professor's scene in LWW which at least on paper isn't all that important to the overall story being told (though really it is). Whereas Jill meeting Aslan is one of the most important scene's in the story not just thematically and for Jill's character growth but it also kickstarts the plot.
Comparing it to LWW again, it would be like rushing though Lucy first entering Narnia. Honesty think it would be hard for the filmmakers to miss the importance of the scene and just give the cliff-notes, and if they do I think it would be a bad sign for the film as a whole.

Here are my thoughts on what they should or shouldn't do.

. If Aslan doesn't have an intimidating presence, the audience won't share Jill's sense of urgency.

I couldn't agree more! I think that how she first sees Aslan will really affect the viewer's feelings. Aslan shouldn't rush up and lay down near Jill to blow Eustace. That doesn't seem like the right way to convey his greatness in a movie format. Instead, she should see Eustace start to float, and then turn and see the towering cliffs rising behind her. A spot of gold draws her eye. It is a lion, and he seems to be blowing. She has a long cry before stumbling off to "leave" and find the "door" back to school. Then she comes face to face with the Lion and realizes how thirsty she is etc.
Another thing they should change is Aslan saying "There is no other stream." This never made sense to me, and anyways she could back off into the woods and go up or down stream away from the Lion before drinking. The situation should be such that the audience feels the magnetism of Aslan's presence along with Jill. She simply can't leave or turn away.

Yes it is an important scene to be treated with care. It also dictates how the film will start though. Before that important meeting of Jill and Aslan, we have to know who Jill is, how she met Eustace, and the circumstances of how she got to that meeting with Aslan.

There isn't any room for flashbacks of what happened with Rilian, if the scene is done properly. What is your opinion about how the BBC Silver Chair version handled this critical scene?

Another thing they should change is Aslan saying "There is no other stream." This never made sense to me, and anyways she could back off into the woods and go up or down stream away from the Lion before drinking.

I do see what you are saying. In the movie, perhaps they should stage the scene in such a way that Jill's options appear more limited. Maybe she can't leave without passing close to Aslan. Maybe it is clear that this is the only part of the stream in sight that is easily accessible. Or maybe they could make it more of a pond than a stream.

In the book, I understand Jill being too frightened to move an inch. “If I run away, it’ll be after me in a moment. And if I go on, I shall run straight into its mouth.” Maybe the movie could have Jill trying to slowly back away... and then freeze when Aslan speaks.

What is your opinion about how the BBC Silver Chair version handled this critical scene?

Pretty bad. Aslan seems weak and sounds like he is about to either fall asleep or die. Jill understandably doesn't seem particularly frightened of him. And don't get me started on the line "I see... I have to trust you."

But honesty I don't think I'm all that concerned about them rushing through it, right now anyway. Because unlike the Professor's scene in LWW which at least on paper isn't all that important to the overall story being told (though really it is). Whereas Jill meeting Aslan is one of the most important scene's in the story not just thematically and for Jill's character growth but it also kickstarts the plot.
Comparing it to LWW again, it would be like rushing though Lucy first entering Narnia.

That's a great point. Still, the scene in LWW where Lucy first enters Narnia is an easy sell in Hollywood. She's a little girl in a winter wonderland, she makes a magical friend, and it's really charming and cute. Jill and Aslan's conversation, on the other hand... not so much. Here's a girl who has already been bullied at school, has just been crying her eyes out at the edge of a cliff after causing her only friend to go plunging over its edge, and now she's lost in a strange land and there's this extremely intimidating lion who is not exactly treating her with kid gloves. I would be surprised if they rushed through it, but I wouldn't be surprised if they tried to "soften up" Aslan... and that would be a huge mistake.

Another thing they should change is Aslan saying "There is no other stream." This never made sense to me, and anyways she could back off into the woods and go up or down stream away from the Lion before drinking. The situation should be such that the audience feels the magnetism of Aslan's presence along with Jill. She simply can't leave or turn away.

I think I'd resolve this problem by drawing on the mountainous terrain of Aslan's Country... if it is full of steep, sheer cliffs, you could have Jill wandering around and getting lost before finally finding the stream, except that stream is descending down a steep waterfall, falling into a shallow pool before it then flows down another cliff. The only access point is near where Aslan is sitting. Make it obvious that Jill is has been walking in the woods for a long time and is too exhausted and parched to attempt to scale the cliffs, and it ought to work.

I definitely wouldn't want them to cut out the line, either way... I really like the spiritual significance.

Aslan seems weak and sounds like he is about to either fall asleep or die. Jill understandably doesn't seem particularly frightened of him.

Yeah... I went and watched that scene myself, and I was thinking that if I had been Jill in that situation, I'd have thought, "Well, I'll just wait until he dies and I'll get my drink of water then."

I think I'd resolve this problem by drawing on the mountainous terrain of Aslan's Country... if it is full of steep, sheer cliffs, you could have Jill wandering around and getting lost before finally finding the stream, except that stream is descending down a steep waterfall, falling into a shallow pool before it then flows down another cliff. The only access point is near where Aslan is sitting. Make it obvious that Jill is has been walking in the woods for a long time and is too exhausted and parched to attempt to scale the cliffs, and it ought to work.

Rose! You're alive and well too, I see! You always have THE ideas. I had to think for a second to get what you were saying, but it totally solves the "why can't she just walk up or downstream" problem.

I think another problem with this scene is that most people who know Narnia know Aslan is a lion and that, minimally, he is a "good guy". It's so easy to forget that Jill DOESN'T know he's a good guy because Aslan is such a recognisable character. I think there's also a tendency to just love and trust talking animals in fantasy stories because, even if you don't succeed, who wouldn't want to take a stab at befriending something THAT cool? A lion in real life can't understand what you're saying, so he's a bit tougher to reason with.

So how do you make people feel Jill's fear when they likely already know that Aslan is benevolent? Without a doubt, the viewer knows Aslan will not be attacking or eating Jill, for many reasons, only one of which is Aslan's reputation in the series. The trick will be to make the reader appreciate just how frightening it is for a school girl from England in the 1940s to confront a lion; she has almost certainly never been near a large, exotic, and potentially dangerous animal before. She also has not been exposed to much of the information we have available today about animal behaviour. She's never seen clips of lion documentaries on Youtube. She's never seen cute meme-type pictures with lions in them. She's probably never even seen one in captivity. This is a gigantic wild beast in front of her, and a talking one at that.

I often wonder how they will overcome this hurdle: that "beasts" are simply not as scary as they once were because of how much better we understand them now. I think this is a good thing, because we should definitely respect wildlife rather than blindly fear it, but "lions, tigers, and bears" don't pack the punch they used to. We can see fantastic depictions of monsters far scarier than any lion in movies, video games, or just on the internet. I will venture to say that in decades past, perhaps, the idea of a school girl being confronted with a lion would be fairly intimidating, but it's not so much the case today.

What do you guys think...am I just over-analysing?

Rose! You're alive and well too, I see! You always have THE ideas. I had to think for a second to get what you were saying, but it totally solves the "why can't she just walk up or downstream" problem.

Phelan! Just the other day I was wondering when you'd meander back to NW, considering all of the news that's been flying around about SC.

And thank you! When I was considering that idea, I was mostly thinking in terms of video game geography. In linear video games, game designers will often use cliffs and mountainous terrain to force a player into a specific area or to follow a certain route. Obviously, you wouldn't want the area surrounding the stream to look contrived or artificial, but I think the principle could still work.

So how do you make people feel Jill's fear when they likely already know that Aslan is benevolent? Without a doubt, the viewer knows Aslan will not be attacking or eating Jill, for many reasons, only one of which is Aslan's reputation in the series. The trick will be to make the reader appreciate just how frightening it is for a school girl from England in the 1940s to confront a lion; she has almost certainly never been near a large, exotic, and potentially dangerous animal before. She also has not been exposed to much of the information we have available today about animal behaviour. She's never seen clips of lion documentaries on Youtube. She's never seen cute meme-type pictures with lions in them. She's probably never even seen one in captivity. This is a gigantic wild beast in front of her, and a talking one at that.

That's a really good question... and if you're like me and feel that Liam Neeson's Aslan was already too gentle/wise-old-mentor-y, it could be a big problem. If they "reboot" the character (less tame, new character design, et cetera), it could work a lot better. The voice acting and Aslan's demeanor are pretty critical.

I remember a few years ago there was a discussion about how to save on the costs of a CGI lion, and I suggested that you could conceal Aslan's identity for the first half of the scene by the stream, playing up the idea that this is an animal stalking Jill. I'm not sure what would be the best way to go about doing this—I like how it's sort of a standoff between the two in the book—but the general idea still seems like a good possibility. Maybe he is concealed in shadows somehow, perhaps sitting in the semi-darkness of a cave out of which the stream is flowing... this animation gives one an idea. (Bonus: the cave could help solve the "there is no other stream" problem, if the stream soon dives down a cliff beyond the mouth of the cave.) When Jill has finally tasted the water and looks up, however, the sun has pierced through the trees, the shadows have lifted, and there is Aslan in all his breathtaking glory.

Another related idea is that Jill's perception of Aslan could be different before and after she drinks from the stream. When re-reading SC recently, I was struck by how Jill described Aslan's Country as "a very lonely forest" when she first enters it, which seemed at odds with the descriptions of Aslan's Country in LB. It made me wonder if that description was meant to reflect Jill's internal emotional and spiritual landscape, similar to how the blindness of the Dwarfs in LB mirrors their own self-absorption. If the Dwarfs can't even see Aslan at all, then perhaps Jill, consumed with fear, wouldn't be able to see Aslan as he really is. I'm not sure how I would translate this idea to screen, though.

I think I'd resolve this problem by drawing on the mountainous terrain of Aslan's Country... if it is full of steep, sheer cliffs, you could have Jill wandering around and getting lost before finally finding the stream, except that stream is descending down a steep waterfall, falling into a shallow pool before it then flows down another cliff. The only access point is near where Aslan is sitting. Make it obvious that Jill is has been walking in the woods for a long time and is too exhausted and parched to attempt to scale the cliffs, and it ought to work.

I don't think Jill has been doing that much walking - she has been running from bullies (perhaps she was going to drink at a water fountain when they saw her) and then going through that frightening clifftop experience, and finally a good cry - that is quite enough to make you thirsty.

I do think Lewis's description of the encounter is valid: Jill approaches the stream when she finally finds it, but is frozen with fear at the sight of the lion beside it.

@ Coracle, it is very likely that at the point where Jill had that clifftop experience once she and Eustace emerged from their unexpected forest walk, wasn't all that far from where the stream was about to cascade down from the cliff in a waterfall anyway. Just because the waterfall was out of the line of Jill's sight from where she was crying doesn't mean it would be out of hearing.

Which is why the Lion has to be listened to about the availability of water elsewhere. I hope they show that clearly in the movie. The BBC TV SC was too vague and wishy washy, making much of the story from studios, sets and local landscapes where possible. A film worth watching should be able to show clarity of what the story is about in how they pick landscapes to use. And I'm sure that there are plenty of suitable cliffs and waterfalls around this glorious planet without having to force the whole cast and crew to make expensive and detailed world tours to find one. Believe it or not, even on this rather dry continent, where snow-capped peaks are in short supply relative to neighbouring New Zealand, there are some distinctly useful sorts of cliffs and waterfalls an hour's drive from where I live.

...the scene in LWW where Lucy first enters Narnia is an easy sell in Hollywood. She's a little girl in a winter wonderland, she makes a magical friend, and it's really charming and cute. Jill and Aslan's conversation, on the other hand... not so much. Here's a girl who has already been bullied at school, has just been crying her eyes out at the edge of a cliff after causing her only friend to go plunging over its edge, and now she's lost in a strange land and there's this extremely intimidating lion who is not exactly treating her with kid gloves. I would be surprised if they rushed through it, but I wouldn't be surprised if they tried to "soften up" Aslan... and that would be a huge mistake.

Reading back through the thread to your post, I both agree with you and disagree with you. The lead up to Lucy going to Narnia for the first time definitely is unexpected and magical, undoubtedly, but the treatment she gets from her brothers and sister afterwards, until they all get to Narnia, is not so nice either. Nor were the wartime exigencies of evacuating children away from their normal homes, which caused her and her sister and brothers to be at the Professor's house in the first place. But I do agree with you, absolutely, that it would be a big mistake to "soften up" Aslan.

Because we do need structure in our lives, not every rule imposed by authority, even authorities we disagree with, is automatically a bad one, and it must be impressed on people that obeying good safety laws isn't about "fraidy cats" or about being a "wimp" as some bullies might urge, and that endangering oneself or hurting other people, even risking other people's lives through our own unthinking and reckless behaviour, isn't "cool" or noble, even if one isn't one of the Experiment House bullies.

And the sort of character Aslan is, in Silver Chair, is just the sort of character to portray and reinforce this salient fact of life in a film. Especially in any Narnia film and especially in Silver Chair. For Aslan to do less within the scope of the film, would betray not only the film and its audience, but also the book and the story. Aslan needs to be stern here, and within character, whether some reviewer or other dislikes "lion-delivered sermons" or not. And whether or not some producers might like the spectacle of falling over cliffs.

I always love reading your guys' ideas on this stuff! So do you think, then, that they could make Aslan's Country look more foreboding to Jill initially, even down to Aslan himself? Could they perhaps gradually transition into a more hospitable-looking landscape and a more approachable Aslan, or do they need to keep the visuals completely uniform? Like, could they make Jill's first impression of Aslan's country that it is a dense and thorny one, and only reveal the brilliantly coloured birds for a moment when she reaches where Aslan lies. Then the birds quickly disappear from her attention as she notices a menacing beast partially obscured by shadows. Could it be something like that, or does the scene have to be "incredibly breathtaking country, magnificent lion" from the start? I feel like the duality of the whole scene is easy to imagine when it's on paper, when your mind can blend Jill's fear and the truth of Aslan's benevolence, but that concept seems kind of difficult to render on screen with just one set of visuals.

@ Phelan Velvet. Yes it sounds good, but what is your idea of an "inhospitable landscape", exactly? Usually it is not the sort of place where tourists go to, en masse, in nice little package tours, and where abseiling is often attempted by enthusiasts. There must be heaps of places in all six inhabited continents which may or may not abut a coastline but where trees grow not too far from the top of cliffs, alongside streams which cascade down those cliffs in waterfalls. And where there is a major hospital nearby where the stuntpeople can be sent in case of misadventure.

Unless it is so spectacularly dry and deep, like a huge gash in the Earth's surface, something like the Grand Canyon, that one isn't likely to notice the terrain at the top of the canyon. But, like the stream above a waterfall we drove across the top of, up in the Blue Mountains National Park, some months ago, that Grand Canyon was formed by the action of erosion and the Colorado River at the bottom of it.

The Grand Canyon does look formidable and forbidding from pictures. But so does the coastline of the Great Australian Bight, near the Nullabor Plain. That coastline drops to the sea in huge cliffs, so uniform that it looks as if someone had taken a huge scone cutter to the land to cleanly slice it away from the bit of Antarctica it once abutted. The trouble is with both Grand Canyon and the Nullabor Plain is the almost total lack of trees, though there may well be one or two waterfalls over the sides of the cliffs, in both cases.

The English countryside, except, maybe, in Winter or bad weather, isn't all that wild. Some "rural" parts of England just looked to me like spaces in between towns and urban conglomerates. Sherwood Forest, where we went in 1997, is a nice tame little treeish park, where there are pathways and arrangements of log-like fencing where people can sit down if they need to. Wooden information boards along the way enlighten people about what they can find in the place. It may well have looked much different eight or nine centuries ago, when it allegedly sheltered Robin Hood.

Yes, parts of England have moors, which at the end of autumn might well be dreary, which the children expected to see outside of the garden gate. What we are looking for in Aslan's Country is a complete contrast. And yes, it would be nice to see (and hear) colourful birds. The sort that would fly down and eat crumbs of bread from one's hands, like at Green Patch, near Jervis Bay, south of Sydney, or in the Amazon, though that is far too dangerous a place. I was thinking of the sort of terrain at Mt Tambourine, in Queensland, where they filmed Aslan's Table in VDT.

Reading SC I got the distinct impression that Scrubb falls off the cliff, Aslan rushes up to it to blow Scrubb to Narnia, then goes back into the forest. It goes to a stream and lies down like the Lions at Trafalgar Square at the foot of Nelson's Column, possibly blocking off from Jill's sight where the waterfall would fall over the cliff. Pauline Baynes, who drew the cliff bending around to the right, with outlying trees, gives some idea of what I am trying to get at. Not some little pool with the Lion at the other side of it like I remember in the BBC TV version.

^ You've got to go further north to get the wild parts of Britain ... Northumberland, and the Highlands of Scotland ...

Rose, I love the idea that Jill might be seeing Aslan's Country differently. How the dwarves react in LB is powerful and rather frightening. It would also be interesting to see something like this echo through a series of films - at the beginning, Jill being blind; at the end, Jill unable to help others who are blind. But I digress.

I think your mention of the burning bush scene in The Prince of Egypt is a good comparison too. Despite the changes the film makes to the story, I personally think it's one of the best adaptations of Exodus. The scene presents a loving, majestic and powerful God - a real triumph of filmmaking and animation. I would love to see that kind of visual representation of "not a tame lion".

Phelan, the idea that the audience is too familiar with Aslan / talking beasts for him to be seen as a threat is an interesting one. I hope that the filmmakers think about how to combat this. Characters in films are often portrayed as a threat after the audience has come to trust them. One example coming to mind is from Zootopia, when

Gp, I don't think they will rush through the signs - at least, I hope not! In LWW the three choices comment is only important at that moment; shortly after, the question is moot because everyone knows Narnia is real. In SC the signs are important throughout the entire story. So hopefully it will be treated differently.

I don't think Jill has been doing that much walking - she has been running from bullies (perhaps she was going to drink at a water fountain when they saw her) and then going through that frightening clifftop experience, and finally a good cry - that is quite enough to make you thirsty.

I love that idea! Maybe even the bullies have been setting up business by the water fountains, charging the younger students for getting a drink, and Jill is reduced to tears because she is thirsty, doesn't have any money, and they won't let her get any water. That would be a great way to set up the idea that she's desperate for a drink.

Like, could they make Jill's first impression of Aslan's country that it is a dense and thorny one, and only reveal the brilliantly coloured birds for a moment when she reaches where Aslan lies. Then the birds quickly disappear from her attention as she notices a menacing beast partially obscured by shadows. Could it be something like that, or does the scene have to be "incredibly breathtaking country, magnificent lion" from the start?

I like the idea of the birds appearing for a moment when she reaches the spot where Aslan is sitting!

One thought I had is that when Jill and Eustace arrives, it is a pretty but empty, lonely place... similar to how Lewis describes it in the book. After Eustace plunges over the cliff and Jill is sobbing her eyes out, the appearance of the forest could change to reflect Jill's new emotional state. (After all, she does say "I wish we'd never come to this dreadful place".) And then that more foreboding, unfriendly appearance bleeds into her perspective of the Lion and continues up until the point that she tastes the water at the stream... then Aslan is fully revealed.

Rose, I love the idea that Jill might be seeing Aslan's Country differently. How the dwarves react in LB is powerful and rather frightening. It would also be interesting to see something like this echo through a series of films - at the beginning, Jill being blind; at the end, Jill unable to help others who are blind. But I digress.

Ooh, yes! I hadn't thought of that, but that could be a good way to foreshadow that theme in LB.

Characters in films are often portrayed as a threat after the audience has come to trust them. One example coming to mind is from Zootopia, when

Spoiler

Nick pretends to have been shot by the serum.

This totally got me.

Ha, I thought of that example as well! It does seem like somewhat risky business to portray Aslan as dangerous form the outset (which he is, but he's good) if the audience is unable to shake that first impression... that may be another point in favor of Aslan going through a physical and/or atmospheric transformation (at least from Jill's perspective) after she drinks the water. They do need to take care to make sure it doesn't seem like the water has bewitched her, though.