Welcome to NW! I completely agree with you. We are the fans, we're already going to see the movie. The posters are for the people who saw the first two movies and are only finding out just now that there's another one coming out. They need something on the posters to remind people of the previous ones, to think "Oh! Susan and Peter from LWW!" etc.

Hey, thanks! I love it here so far! Yeah, you added exactly what I was saying.

I've been wondering - what if this is just a one-time thing? I mean, I don't think they'd put the WW, Peter, and Susan on the main poster. Like I said, this 3-D display is meant to catch the eye of the average moviegoer, so maybe the posters will be more geared towards fans like us...? I dunno.

I must say, I'm really liking what I've seen of Susan in that close-up. Her expression, and her 'fancy' clothes, and especially how made-up and grown-up she looks, next to Peter, who looks fresh-faced as always....looks like Susan is headed in the right direction!

~~

Lady Galadriel: I suppose I can have a little. Thank you . Maybe it will help a little

Libby: um, I think we've stated alot of reasons. Aslan looks horrible. The minatour looks drawn. Peter, Jadis, and Susan shouldn't be there. Hardly anyone likes how Lucy and Edmund and Caspian look. Reepicheep is being promoted way too much. etc.

....looks like Susan is headed in the right direction!

Or the wrong direction, depending on how you look at it.

Is it 3-D? Cool. I'm actually quite OK with this. Peter and Susan are obviously in 'earth' clothes and it makes much more sense to show them doing what they are doing e.g. going to America and studying rather than having Ed and Lucy talking about it. It makes much more sense in a movie than it does in a book. Also as to the White Witch in the book it mentions Lucy dreams of the WW on the Dark Island and in a movie it would make sense to make all these dreams visual for the viewer. They probably put them on the poster for merely promotional reasons so no one who likes the characters won't be disappointed that they're not coming back. Or to scare crazy fans like us?

The main reason I'm not actually freaking out, despite my logical explanations, is because Michael Apted himself told me they'd be in it so I've known for awhile. No jokes! I'm just glad I can finally say that! At least, I'm assuming I can. Mods?

^^ you know Michael Apted? awesome! wow!

Whenever I’m away from NW the big news hits… and the sad thing is that I was on NW pretty much all day yesterday. Maybe I should stay away so the trailer can come.

My Thoughts:
OK. At first I seriously doubted that was Tilda. Now that we know that it is Tilda people are assuming she’s in Edmund’s dream. But couldn’t she just as likely be in Lucy’s dream? If you remember the FotF Radio Drama, during that part at Dark Island the Narrator says “...one of her own dreams, which she tried hardest to forget, came back to her as vividly as if she’d only just woken,” and then they replay a sound clip of the White Witch screaming as she kills Aslan. The implication is that Lucy had once had a nightmare of the White Witch. I’ve always thought that specifically that part of the radio drama was masterfully done, so I’m not as shocked (about the Walden movie doing something similar) as you might expect.

As far as the size of the Will, Anna and Tilda’s heads (and the fact that they are on the poster at all) here’s what I think is the best explanation:
Don’t actors negotiate things like billing and poster space before they sign the contract? Perhaps Tilda being prominent on the poster was part of the deal in order to get her to agree to do the movie at all. The same scenario could be true with Will and Anna.

As far as Ramandu’s Daughter is concerned… remember folks, she’s barely in the book. Granted she’s in it more than Peter, but then again, I think our anticipation of meeting her outweighs her importance in the film.

Only a couple of people have weapons and they aren't pointing them at the viewer.

Well, I suppose that is something to be thankful for!

As for Peter and Susan appearing, I don't believe there was any confirmation that they were not going to be in the movie. Ernie Malik's interview said that "They do not appear in the book."

Exactly what I thought at the time! He was definitely leaving himself an out. Now that I think about it, it was just after this interview that I started expecting Peter and Susan to be in the movie.

We have another problem. I went back to look at it again and I took a real close look at the helm. It has the 12 horoscope constellations from our world. Scorpio, Pises, Lybra, and they form the wheel that steers the Dawn Treader on the 3D poster.

We’ve known about this for a while. I think there is an entire thread dedicated to it.

If this is any example of the type of promotion Fox will use, expect manipulative trailers similar to the Bridge to Terebithia trailers that made everyone think it was a fantasy movie.

I’ll admit I was one of the people who saw BtT footage and thought it was a fantasy movie. Fortunately for me (and Disney) I liked the movie anyway. The marketing for that movie was successful for me. I might not have gone to see the film otherwise.

The main reason I'm not actually freaking out, despite my logical explanations, is because Michael Apted himself told me they'd be in it so I've known for awhile. No jokes! I'm just glad I can finally say that! At least, I'm assuming I can. Mods?

You'll have to tell us about that encounter soon!

I'm beginning to calm down a bit with Peter, Susan and WW being on the poster. We all know that it is obviously a way of bringing back audiences with familiar faces and that they do not play huge roles.

As far as Ramandu’s Daughter is concerned… remember folks, she’s barely in the book. Granted she’s in it more than Peter, but then again, I think our anticipation of meeting her outweighs her importance in the film.

Pardon me but have you actually seen this film yet?

There's no telling how big RD's character will be in this movie rather then the book. Fact is she's on the poster when they could have used Drinian and others. Obviously she's going to be very important.

After Suspian in PC you know this crew had to of worked very hard to make her likable considering she is Caspian's true love

Ok, I only read through half of the posts, but I'm working on it! And it's really late so I'll just say what popped into my head. Advertising, the fans already know it's coming out, so nothing on the poster will really make them want to see it more, they may get angry or happy, but it won't make them not want to see it. So their target is the non-Narnian fans. These people may have seen LWW but only once or only bits of it, anyhow, all they see is "Oh, that Lion guy! The Narnia stuff! Hm, their making another movie! That guy was from the first one, right? And I think that one, possibly that one. Wasn't that guy in the second? Whoah, look at that bunch of characters! Well, I don't really want to watch the previous film to catch up on who's who... so I guess I'll skip it."
EARTH TO ADVERTISING!!!! THEY ARE PROBABLY TURNED OFF BY ALL THE BUSINESS OF THE POSTER!!! Or crowdedness, because I guess that's what it is... And ditto glumPuddle, totally not artistic. I mean, just check out the pop-up poster from LWW, They don't put a bunch of characters in your face? No! It was a lamp post! Why not just a huge poster of the DT? and maybe have Reep peeking out the dragon's prow for a little fan-excitement?
Which brings me back to the fans; Advertising's other duty. The more fan's are excited about the movie, the more they'll tell their friends. So don't put things in the poster that will tick the fans off! We don't really get mad and not want to see the film just because you spoiled a cameo, but the lamer your posters are, the more water you pour on us. (eats the chocolate offered by cepp).

I agree with your thoughts on the poster Shy Galadriel but we have to remember this is a totally different group of people - Fox. They are going to want to do advertising a lot different to Disney especially as Walden felt the advertising wasn't good enough on PC. I think many non-Narnian fans would want to see it because of the good-looking guys on the poster (maybe that's the real reason they put Peter on it ).

As far as the size of the Will, Anna and Tilda’s heads (and the fact that they are on the poster at all) here’s what I think is the best explanation:
Don’t actors negotiate things like billing and poster space before they sign the contract? Perhaps Tilda being prominent on the poster was part of the deal in order to get her to agree to do the movie at all. The same scenario could be true with Will and Anna.

That is such a good idea. What a good explanation! And hopefully I will be allowed to tell about Michael soon or they could just post the report I sent in as I can't really remember everything.

When it comes to busy-ness, compare it to one of the Toy Story 3 posters. http://img.listal.com/image/1047989/600full-toy-story-3-poster.jpg The stand here doesn't come close. It follows several design principles. One of which is a U pattern. Everything is set to focus on two things, Aslan and Reepicheep. Just like the teaser poster.

I don't have a problem with how busy the poster is, but I do have a problem with color choice and contrast (the light blue, bright red and bright gold don't work all that well together the way they're being used here), with Reepicheep appearing twice on the same poster, with it having virtually no references to the most memorable story moments and with it looking too much like the LWW poster, when Dawn Treader could have the most unique poster, being the most unique book.

It looks like the Fox guy who made the poster for 'The Seeker' or 'Percy Jackson' (which didn't look all that good) tried to made a Narnia poster, but couldn't replicate the look of the previous movie materials.

The tagline, the out of place characters, the bad looking minotaur drawing, Reepicheep appearing on top of the Narnia logo on the teaser poster and on the other VTD display - it all just makes it look bland.

Why do they keep on doing this to the fans?

Always fun to be gone over a weekend when some controversial piece of news is released. I haven't read through this whole thread, so I will probably be repeating pretty much everything, but I thought I'd go ahead and post my thoughts.

Good stuff first.
I am sooooo happy that Fox and Walden have started promoting the movie. Just in time for the big summer movies. I'm hoping here in the next few weeks we'll start seeing posters and stands in the majority of the theaters in the US (and other countries would be even better!)
I like the overall layout of the banner. Aslan front and center. Earthlings on the left. Narnians on the right. I also like that it's a 3D stand with the Dawn Treader helm popping out.
Cool on seeing the Chief Dufflepud and Ramandu's Daughter! The wish for seeing new stuff has been answered! And they both look great (though I wish we could have seen Chief's foot )

Negative stuff...
I have to admit, I panicked when I saw the minotaur in the first pictures because it looked more like a pig than the wonderful minotaurs KNB EFX designed. Thankfully, truth's pictures made it look much, much better. Still, it doesn't look as nice to me as in the previous movies, so I'm hoping that it was just a bad photoshopping job for this poster or maybe I still haven't gotten a good look at it. The minotaurs on the set pictures we've seen look very nice.
Like I saw in other posts, I'm not entirely sure why Reep made it on there twice. I guess it's because he's an official part of the logo and the poster and the logo are two separate design features... even so. It's rather odd. At least they should have included a different pose.

And the highly controversial....
I've known for a long, long time about the cameos of Peter, Susan, and the White Witch. I don't know where they fit into the movie, I just know that they're all small parts (though Susan was confirmed to have the part in the Magician's Book where she should be). Even if the roles are tiny and appropriate and the fans end up loving the cameos, they should NEVER have been put onto the poster. I can see all of the book fans who don't read the websites instantly deciding they're not going to bother with this film. All of Walden's promises that they learned their lesson on Prince Caspian and will stick closer to the book have seemingly been thrown out the window. How else is that poster supposed to be interpreted besides those three characters have a prominent role in the film?
To the public, it's extremely deceiving. Not everyone reads the fansites to see that the White Witch only appears in a dream sequence. How else is the huge figure of the White Witch supposed to be interpreted? If you haven't read the book and don't know the story and go in to the movie expecting to see characters you loved barely there at all, well that would make me a little frustrated.
To the fans, it's almost a slap in the face as it seems to say there is no regard for the book. One of the biggest strengths about this series is that each and every story is a separate adventure. They all stand alone and they are all well loved. No other fantasy series out there can claim that because you have to read the previous book to move onto the next one. And yet, the production cannot seem to let go of the previous story and embrace the current story for what it is. It seems they MUST rely on the previous story's characters in order to make the next movie.

The light at the end of the tunnel for me at least is that having the revelation of these three characters being in the movie being so bluntly announced and in an uninformative way, that when the time comes we all find out what their role in the films are, there will be a huge sigh of relief from people thinking "oh, is that all?" We shall see.

Feeling much better about this now. I'm mostly assured that the White Witch IS on the poster, but only for tie-in.
Susan and Peter I can deal with.
I'm pretty sure that the minotaur can only get better from here, especially knowing the talent and reputation of Howard Berger and his people.

The newer pictures are making the whole display look a lot better. Still room for improvement, still a little cluttered, still odd placement and sizing, but it's all bearable. I just hope it does get better. No, I'm SURE it will.

Thanks to Beloved and Tenthofthatname for taking pictures and thanks to all our calmer members (well, Ceppault) for keeping me sane. And fed.

Well, I can't believe they did it, that's about the worst fan service ever. And they are marketing this film completely wrong. First the poster, which might look beautiful except for reepicheep, but it does resemble avatar and the tag line is terrible. Now, they are making this stand. If the white witch, peter and susan are not in the movie, an dit's just so people would recognize narnia, The fans will be glad, but the people who saw the poster will be disappointed. Else it's the other way around. Whatever they do, someone is gonna be displeased.

That's what I call bad marketing, promising something different than the end product. Marketing material should represent the film, and the film itself should be enough for people to go see it. If you make false promises to make sure people go see it, you might get bad reviews.

But I guess they are doing this just to market the film. they would not dare to bring back the white witch after our reaction to the same situation with PC, right?

for my video about this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jT3ZdoP2g-4