Ok mods, please don't hurt me. This really is relevent to the discussion at hand. I think it belongs here rather than the Narnia and Christianity section. I realize that not everyone on this site is a Christian. I am not trying to offend anyone. I just have a thought I feel is worth posting here.

Warrior 4 Jesus, I see your point. I think Humanism is carried way too far in our culture. I think if you look at Aslan's words from a certain point of view it could be interpreted as Humanism. But actually Aslan said nothing contrary to the Bible to my knowledge. There are plenty of sciptures that talk about being yourself, or rather being the person God created you to be. I feel this is more what Aslan was trying to say. He wasn't saying "Like totally be urself cuz ur like so totally awesome with ur spell-readin', disobeyin', envious self! Can I like hav ur autograph, Lucy, my shero?!?! " This would be worthy of our protest, as this would be Humanism and complete ruination of Aslan's true character. But he wasn't saying that. I feel he was saying something more along the lines of

1st Corinthians 12: 12-14, 17-19

The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all it's parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit-whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free-and we are all given one Spirit to drink.
Now the body is not made up of one part but of many... If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be?

or this

Hebrews 11: 39- 40

These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.

We are called to be a part of God's Master Plan. God has a specific plan and destiny for all people, from the best of us to the worst of us. We all make a difference in this world and we are all part of God's plan. This is in fact a biblical truth. This is seen over and over in the Bible. Everything and everyone has a purpose which God planned for us.

This is the message Aslan was trying to convey to Lucy. It wasn't that Lucy was perfect just the way she was and could do anything she chose. It wasn't that she should take pride in herself because she was pure awesome. This is the Humanism that is so aften forced down our throats. Aslan's message to Lucy was that she had a purpose for which she had been chosen. If Lucy had missed her calling, the Pevensie children would've never entered Narnia. Is Aslan big enough that he could've found another four kids to save Narnia from the White Witch and fulfil the prophecy? Certainly. Is he big enough to have saved Narnia himself. Absolutely. But he wanted to include the Pevensies. He meant for the Pevensies to do it. The profecy was meant for them. It was their destiny. And it was Lucy's destiny to discover (or rediscover, I should say) Narnia.

The concept of destinies and callings and purposes is all throughout the Bible. This isn't a YAY HUMANITY sort of thing. It's a WOW GOD sort of thing, as he is the one who planned it. My only complaint with the scene is that I don't think they made it clear enough that Aslan was the one who planned Lucy's destiny. Though I suppose it came through enough in LWW that it was Aslan who sort of drew them to Narnia in the first place.

I personally loved that scene. My favorite part was when she woke up and threw the spell in the fire. When Aslan roared as the paper was being consumed by the fire it reminded me of how God takes our sin away and forgives us like it never happened. It also shows that Lucy is really sorry for the wrong she did and she would never return to it. In the magician's library, she seemed like she was almost sorry when she heard Aslan's roar. But it was more like she was sorry she's been caught, and she took the spell with her anyway. When she burned it, that was her way of saying, "I'm sorry and I'm never going back," which I thought was very well done and very powerful.

I really liked that scene. the Will and Anna cameos were good and kind of explained their place in the trailer! I think that Lucy should have spoken to Asland and seen all of that America stuff in Coriakins house though...but I didn't really mind and I guess having Lucy plagued by her want to be more like Susan did add precious running time to the film!

Over all though it was a really beautiful magical scene and I really enjoyed it!!!

I don't really think there was anything wrong with the scene as it was. In and of itself, the scene made sense. I don't really have a problem with anything Aslan said to Lucy. It is a dialog that has been used in many a movie and TV show and I don't think there is anything fundamentally wrong with telling someone to accept who they are and accept the gifts they have been given. And it was a clever way to work in the Anna and Will cameos (although I would have preferred their cameos to be in the beginning of the movie).
My problem was not so much with the individual scene. What I didn't like was that I felt the whole storyline was such a huge leap--taken from one single moment in the book. Being jealous of Susan was mentioned once in the book. Something that Lucy thought about occasionally. Not something she thought about all the time. (Turning a moment of jealousy into "I wish I didn't exist" just wasn't a leap I could take.) And that change altered who Lucy was. One of the things that I love about the Lucy that Lewis created was that she always spoke the truth--even if it sometimes displeased others. Throughout the books, Lucy didn't alter her looks, personality or opinion to please others. Not that she never did anything wrong or didn't have any faults, but she wasn't afraid to be herself. While Prince Caspian simply ignored Lucy's personality, Dawn Treader portrayed her as the exact opposite (someone who didn't want to be herself). So I didn't like the scene for Lucy reading the spell only because I didn't care for the character arc the scriptwriters made up for Lucy.

The other thing that bothered me was Lucy ripping out the spell. That has more to do with how the movie diminished the role of Aslan. Any time Lucy has had an encounter with Aslan she forgets her fears and draws strength from him. She doesn't ignore his warnings and do as she pleases.

I do realize I am in the minority on this one. It seems to have been a good decision to include this scene--it is a popular one, even among people who didn't like other aspects of the film. Maybe there's something I missed, but it just didn't appeal to me.

Personally I hated that scene. When Lucy tore the page out of the book I was like NOOOOOOOO. She tore the page out........yes I understand she was desperate and all.....but still to tear a page out of a magician's book, a book that doesn't belong to you....I mean what ever happened to her manners. Yes I know she was envious of her sister and I totally understand that, I have four sisters and I constantly struggling with jealously, thinking that they are far prettier than I am, but I would never tear out a page of a magical book that doesn't belong to me just so I could say a spell.....I goes against everything my parents taught me. And I guess I sort of expected Lucy of all people to know better than to tear a page out of a magician's book
Anyway also in the book Lucy wants to say the spell but Aslan stops her, and I liked that part, she was tempted to say a spell that would make her the most beautiful in the world but she didn't. She withstood the temptation, in the movie.....she totally yielded to it, doing the exact opposite that what was in the book. Then the fact that she 'became Susan' was the last straw, I just couldn't believe it when I saw that whole scene....sigh...those two scenes where so dissapointing And the part with Aslan.....it was okay I guess.....kinda cheesy I thought.....but then perhaps it's just me

The magician appears in the room after she has said the spell. So presumably he watched her steal the spell and says nothing about it. That confused me.
I liked the scene up until she ripped out the spell. I liked making the snow fall. I liked the look of the magical book. I didn't like the ultimate outcome for reasons that have been discussed here and that I have talked about other places.

The thing that I found strange about this scene is that Lucy becomes Susan and the real Susan disappears in a cosmological poof. Lucy never even remotely wished for this. "All I wanted was to be beautiful like Susan," she says. I only got the vibe that she was envious of Susan, not jealous. (Envy - desiring something not possessed by one's self. Jealousy - Desiring something possessed another and feeling that one's personal success is being threatened because the other has it.) If Lucy was jealous of Susan, I can understand her becoming Susan, but Lucy only seemed to look up to Susan.

When Lucy entered Susan's body, she not only wished herself away, but Susan as well...very strange. This is quite different than It's a Wonderful Life, where George gets exactly what he wishes for, and he also merely observes the altered version of the present; he does not have the ability to interact with it.

Minotaur, when you get a DVD, check the scene carefully - you will find the wording of that spell ambiguous - Lucy will use it to become "she" who is the beautiful one (I can't remember the right words) - which it seems is Susan. We do get Lucy saying she wants to be like Susan, beautiful like Susan, important like Susan....
She does get to become the one she wants to be like - only to find out what would happen without a Lucy in the world.

MAKE me she, who I'd agrre, holds more beauty over me!

notice MAKE me she! When I saw it again I understood because first time I was like 'What? Why has she become Susan?'

Lucy did make herself Susan, but she didn't want to, she didn't realise what she was doing and how the spell worked! Hence-
"what have you done..."
"...I didn't want this..."
"...You wished yourself away!"

The only issue I had with that part of the moive was that Lu actually read the spell, as in, we could hear it! Other that that, I liked it.

This was probably one of the few scenes in the film that I actually did enjoy. Like in the book, I enjoy seeing a different side in Lucy's character, that she still has her struggles and isn't perfect. The morph between Lucy and Susan's image in front of the mirror is amazing to watch (the two really do have similarities that they could be sisters) and I like the transition between scenes here- from Narnia to England. The mirror effect is also really enjoyable when Aslan appears, in the sense that he's not really there (as when Lucy turns from the mirror to see him in the cabin, he's no where to be seen). I didn't much care for the parallel with Tumnus in LWW with the fire scene. It just felt like a "seen it" moment and I prefer that each character has a different character arc, that each has guidance from Aslan in a different way. What really bothered me though was that Lucy was able to tear the page out of the Magician's book. In the VDT book, Lucy can't turn the pages back once they had been read, so to me, she shouldn't be able to rip out pages either. One could argue that it is a magic book and that perhaps Aslan really wanted her to take the page, but I just don't see it that way.

I really loved that scene. It was one of those few changes they made to the story that I liked in the movie. And I liked seeing Peter, even though it was very brief.