So oddly enough, the movie which (former Narnia Creative Architect) Matthew Aldrich has now signed on to write is going to be a Puppet movie - a DC comics adaptation about the character of Robin.

https://deadline.com/2024/10/dynamic-duo-movie-robins-dc-1236105077/

Obviously there is no footage from the movie yet, but the company behind the production, Swaybox, have been working on this really cool new Puppet technology for a few years now, and it does look really interesting.

Here is a demo reel they did for a puppet which is done in the style of The Iron Giant movie - no idea how it works, but it does look very cool.

and this is an advert that they apparently did for the NFL (this one seems to suggest there is some degree of CGI augmentation, but still not really clear)

Presumably they can do the puppets in whatever particular style they want, so you wouldn't necessarily be beholden to the "Iron Giant" aesthetic.

Here is another demo reel with some other puppetry styles:

https://www.swayboxstudios.com/reel

Either way, I'll definitely definitely be keen to see what Matthew Aldrich and co do with it for their Robins movie, and i wouldn't mind at all if this was something they explored for Narnia if they prove they can make it work for a feature length production.

Should an animated Narnia look like the 1977 Rankin/Bass production of The Hobbit?  It might not be a bad thing if something similar were made.  I actually liked the animation that Rankin and Bass made back then, and I liked the old fashioned look.  I would hope for a better story adaptation that would include more of the book, but I think Rankin/Bass did get some things right in the appearance of the characters and the backgrounds of the scenes.  I think probably modern technology could probably add some things for realism while retaining the medieval atmosphere of the stories. Other artists could add their own unique style, but I think the 1977 production provided a good example to follow.

Puppets are sometimes used in live theater productions so I think they probably could work in an animated film. Today’s technology could add some realism to the animation so the backgrounds could be made to look like scenes have more depth and details. But you usually can tell if something is animated in that it doesn’t look exactly like the real thing.