Posted by: @shmatterson

I love most of John Cambell's score for the Focus on the Family version(and his work on Adventures in Odyssey), but one point in the Last Battle uses a little piece of music very similar to one that was used extensively in the Lord of the Rings movies. Does anyone know which was made first?  *puts conspiracy theory hat on.

 

Ooer... I've just checked the dates of them, and as far as I can make out, they were both made in 2002! But of course the composer for the LOTR films was Howard Shore. Whether or not he has any connection with John Campbell, I have no idea. You're right, they do sound very similar...

@courtenay I think The Two Towers was released in 2002. Hard to believe it was 20 years ago when Fellowship of the Ring came out. 

@shmatterson I don't think I've noticed The Last Battle having a score that sounds similar to Lord of the Rings. I can kind of see it. I think the score they had for Tash in the stable almost sounds like something Danny Elfman would write. 

I guess that audio readings of the Narnia books could be included in the audio versions of Narnia.  Many years ago I bought a set of vinyl LP’s which have shortened readings of the first four books, beginning with The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Ian Richardson reads that story and also The Silver Chair, Claire Bloom performs Prince Caspian, and Anthony Quayle reads from The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.  Each reading is about an hour in length. These actors did a fine job and had wonderful voices, although the stories are much abridged.

@narnian78 There have been full-length audiobooks of all the Chronicles released as well — I used to have The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and The Horse and His Boy on CD (I jettisoned them in one of my episodes of moving house, as I didn't listen to them that often).

HHB was a fine reading — I can't remember who the reader was — but I had more reservations about LWW, read by actor Michael York. He did a good job in general, apart from the fact that male actors generally don't do female voices very well and his White Witch sounded like a terrible caricature. (Female actors have the same problem with deeper male voices, naturally. When I'm reading the Chronicles aloud to myself, as I do, I can never get Aslan sounding anything like I imagine he should. )

But what really irked me about that particular recording is that for several of the Narnian characters, instead of simply inventing a kind of voice that sounded "right" for that kind of person or creature, York went and put on stereotypical accents from around the British Isles instead. Seriously — he did Mr Tumnus with an Irish accent (as if he were a leprechaun... a leprefaun??), the two Beavers with Yorkshire accents, and (silliest of all) Maugrim the Wolf with a Scottish accent. It just came across as so hokey and I was having to laugh and shake my head all the way through that audiobook. I was hanging out to see if he'd do Aslan with a Welsh accent — I love Welsh accents — but unfortunately, he didn't. That, though, had a lot to do with why I never listened to that audiobook again and didn't end up keeping it...

The way that Tash sounds in the Focus on the Family is how I picture him to sound like-

As for the cast on the Focus on the Family Radio theatre adaption, they all do a superb job. While I love Stash Kirkebride as Rishda, I feel that he is a bit too over the top at times. Elizabeth Counsel brought Jadis to life really well, though she is bit loud at times. Steven Webb and Jade Williams brought out the innocence in Eustace and Jill, though at times they do come off a little snappy. And David Suchet has a very powerful voice as Aslan.

@shmatterson I think you are right about John Campbell using almost identical music to Howard Shore's Uruk hai when the Calormens are whipping the Narnia talking horse. Since Fellowship came out at the end of 2001 and The Last Battle came out in 2002, it's possible Campbell borrowed some of Shore's music. Campbell also borrowed music from Gustav Holst's "The Planets" on various islands throughout Dawn Treader, and music from Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings" when Caspian dies in Silver Chair. John Williams and Hans Zimmer also borrowed music from "The Planets" in Star Wars and Gladiator respectively.

But I also have a theory that Howard Shore borrowed a theme from John Campbell. The theme that plays when Pippin tells Gandalf he didn't think it would end this way, and right after Sam tells Frodo "I can't carry it for you, but I can carry you," sounds like a variation for "The Edge of the World" theme in Dawn Treader. Dawn Treader came out in 2001 and Return of the King in 2003, so it's definitely possible Howard Shore borrowed and then tweaked that theme. You can find that theme on the website I put together: matthewsmediamusings.home.blog. 

I think the way that the epilogue is presented with the cast and crew in the Focus on the Family Radio Theatre audio adaption, it almost sounds like it could be a curtain call.

@jasmine_tarkheena That's the way radio drama is presented. (Remember radio shows and dramas were around long before tv). 

But I love it too; it works very well with Narnia. Douglas Gresham has a lovely voice for radio (did you know he was a radio presenter for years?)

@coracle 

I did not know that. Douglas Gresham sure does an impressive prologue and epilogue.

We been obsessively listening to the FOTF version on youtube. In the car... before bed... When poof playlist deleted. We need to buy the CDs. But in the meantime, is there anywhere else we can stream, please? 

@nogreatwisdom my CDs started ageing, so I got them sent from FotF direct by email. Not free, but official.

Try here:

https://store.focusonthefamily.com/radio-theatre-the-chronicles-of-narnia-set-digital/

There are also plenty of other options there.

Happy listening!

@coracle 

My CD’s of the Focus on Family Narnia still sound great, and I bought them in the 1990’s, although I had to replace a case that was coming apart. I like the audio quality of a CD much better than downloads for the soundscape of Narnia. I don’t always see the need to replace older technology when CD’s provide better audio quality.

@coracle oh Thank you! 

Listening my happy way through FotF for the first time in a while, I noticed a lot of small points that I think the Walden movies picked up and reused.

I also notice one or two changes for which I can't think of a reason.  In Prince Caspian, in the scene where Trufflehunter and the two dwarfs question Caspian about where he learned about the Old Narnians, he replies that it was his father who got rid of the nurse for telling him stories about them. In the book it's Miraz who does all of it.
This puts his father into a bad light; I had somehow thought Caspian IX was the better brother, and Miraz the evil one.

Any ideas?

Posted by: @coracle

Listening my happy way through FotF for the first time in a while, I noticed a lot of small points that I think the Walden movies picked up and reused.

I also notice one or two changes for which I can't think of a reason.  In Prince Caspian, in the scene where Trufflehunter and the two dwarfs question Caspian about where he learned about the Old Narnians, he replies that it was his father who got rid of the nurse for telling him stories about them. In the book it's Miraz who does all of it.
This puts his father into a bad light; I had somehow thought Caspian IX was the better brother, and Miraz the evil one.

Any ideas?

I don't think I've noticed that. I would never have thought of Caspian IX as bad as a brother as Miraz. Though that could make an interesting plot line for Netflix to do. We could possibly see their boyhood and see Miraz's anger and bitterness progress.