The only think I have against this is that Lewis didn't like the idea of a cartoon Aslan.

How do you know Lewis didn't like the idea of a cartoon Aslan?

On to the main topic: Rebooting Narnia starting with LWW is not anything like rebooting a superhero series. LWW has a specific story, whereas, with superhero franchises there's a lot more license in story-telling, so you can really have a completely different movie. Also, when Walden LWW came out it was an instant classic. I just don't think people are ready to try a second helping when the first was so satisfying. They would need to wait until general audiences have forgotten the first Walden version, before any one can remake LWW.

As for remaking PC, given the weak source material, I thought the movie was pretty decent. Not worth remaking from an artistic standpoint. From a commercial standpoint, the book is unpopular, many people describe it as "the one you skip" when rereading the series. It's one thing to base a movie on an obscure book, but to base it on a poorly constructed book that few people would bother to read a second time, doesn't make sense.

On the other hand, I think rebooting starting from VDT would be an excellent idea. I personally would not be able to get excited about a remake of LWW or PC, but I would look forward to a remake of VDT with great pleasure. Walden took wild liberties with the book, so a remake could really be an entirely different movie. I think they should make it as a miniseries, and change the beginning a bit so that it doesn't rely on familiarity with PC for back story. Each island will be it's own episode, that way they could develop the emotional impact. They should probably change the title, so that it isn't confused with the big screen version.

Someone suggested doing HHB right after LWW. If they absolutely had to reboot starting from the beginning, I think this would make perfect sense in an animated series. However, if it's live action, the Pevensie and Caspian trilogies have to be made in quick succession, to avoid the actors' aging too much.

I was with you up until VDT. While we all have our opinions on the VDT film, regardless of one's opinion, I think that you either reboot the series from the very beginning, or don't reboot it at all. You are correct - LWW was a high quality adaptation. PC did an excellent job on the series's weakest book. As for VDT, even if you agree that it is a poor adaptation, I can't see anyone rebooting the series starting at that film. A reboot would mean recasting, which is a big no-no when in the middle of a franchise. Unless you use the same actors, but then everyone would think 'been there, done that'.

I think we just have to accept VDT for what it is and continue with the franchise, unless you are proponent of starting completely over.

Given the 7 year, 3 film investment in the Chronicles of Narnia film series, it is wise to just continue.

And you were right about another thing - Narnia is a poor comparison to Spiderman.. its easier to reboot Spiderman since it has hundreds of issues of source material to draw a plot from - easier to differentiate it. With Narnia, you pretty much just have the book and that it. Sure, you can change to 'feel' of the film, but unless you are a diehard fan, that might not be a good enough reason to return to the movies to watch a rebooted Narnia film. Trying to see this from a casual fan perspective, which drives the box office - and a series' financial ability to finance more films.

I think that the most important fix would be Aslan's character. Aslan is not god in the films. He is just like a magical helper that comes and helps them at the end of the film. I think they need to make him god. I am not saying they need to go all Christian about it all. They just need to make his character act god like in the films and he doesn't.

Also no major changes like the Susan/Caspian romance and no bad accents. And also do a better job of keeping the dialogue English sounding and old school sounding which means the characters shouldn't say crazy or stupid. No green mist for goodness sake. The dialogue in VotDT was so awful there is just nothing to be said.

I remember when i first watched LWW in the theater and i knew nothing about the film ahead of time except that it was LWW which i had read many times and i knew right before Tumnus said it that he was going to say "after all he isn't a tame lion". The dialogue was just so much better and why there were still Aslan issues it was much closer to the wonder of who was Aslan and then it went noisily downhill in PC and unbearable in VotDT.

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On the other hand, I think rebooting starting from VDT would be an excellent idea. I personally would not be able to get excited about a remake of LWW or PC, but I would look forward to a remake of VDT with great pleasure. Walden took wild liberties with the book, so a remake could really be an entirely different movie. I think they should make it as a miniseries, and change the beginning a bit so that it doesn't rely on familiarity with PC for back story. Each island will be it's own episode, that way they could develop the emotional impact. They should probably change the title, so that it isn't confused with the big screen version....

Anhun I'm a fan of your posts too. I completely agree. I would love a do-over of VDT/reboot of VDT. Sadly my favorite Eustace ever, Will Poulter, won't fit into one. But if they were able to find someone just as talented, cute, and young as well as film the rest of the series closer together...maybe reboot VDT and have VDT and SC filmed back to back to keep the aging actor issue from rearing it's ugly head I could handle it. But rebooting VDT as a movie so soon after this last movie would be confusing.....though if one is rebooting VDT as a TV miniseries that's distanced from the movie VDT....I would buy that...it would have to be super good though with a well-cast new Eustace.

But if they could just plain do a reboot for the remaining SC-LB movies with quality on the level of a well-written, character-driven movie script...I would go for it. Even with a recast of Will P---as much as I love him---I'm dying for source material preservation/faithfulness over source material destruction/mangling. Spiritual symbols kept in tact please and veiled enough to be recognizable to a true fan and fun on the surface level for a casual fan.

I think a reboot would be a massive financial mistake and would probably end any hopes of any more movies in the near future. But considering that Walden made essentially nothing off of the last two movies, I could almost see them being desperate enough to try something like this.

Just a darker series in general. It still needs to feel fantastical and magical, but quite honestly if I made these films then they would be like PG-13 and then it would lose its intended audience. So ya.. imagine the LWW battle with a dark cloudy overcast and grotesque looking Jadis minions with glowing red eyes and blood. I can see NarniaWebbers stoning me if I ever make a Narnia movie like that.

I wouldn't! Sounds like an improvement over the non-scary Witch's army in LWW and the shiny and clean fight scenes. I'd love to see a battle closer to LotR's battles, which were anything but sparkly and clean. They also packed more of an emotional punch because even if you'd read the book, you could almost believe your favorite characters weren't going to make it out alive. I don't think anyone seriously believed that there would be character death in the Narrowhaven skirmish, for instance.

If you insist on a movie, then I would prefer a darker tone. I disliked the casual portrayal of war as something bloodless and grand in LWW as these kids from London just kill without so much as a blink of a eye. Prince Caspian hinted at it but just ended up feeling callous as Peter and Edmund hacked down hundreds of human beings without so much as a second thought later. Yes, I know they're fighting "bad guys" but that really doesn't take away the enormity of taking a life. If anything, this series just made the battles seem fun and cool. War and battle just isn't so grand when you have blood and wounds all over you.

Ditto that. I thought that the LWW battle wasn't all that bad, a little too clean and sterile, but there was apparent character death and it felt tragic. At least for a kids film anyway. PC pretty much tossed that out the window and made everything but the Night Raid look cool and fun. And the skirmish in VDT was just ridiculous. I never felt like Lewis was glorifying battle in the books, but VDT especially seemed to be determined to push the "It's so kewl!!1!" view on fighting.

I don't think anyone seriously believed that there would be character death in the Narrowhaven skirmish. . .

Ditto that. I thought that the LWW battle wasn't all that bad, a little too clean and sterile, but there was apparent character death and it felt tragic. At least for a kids film anyway. PC pretty much tossed that out the window and made everything but the Night Raid look cool and fun. And the skirmish in VDT was just ridiculous. I never felt like Lewis was glorifying battle in the books, but VDT especially seemed to be determined to push the "It's so kewl!!1!" view on fighting.

The Narrowhaven skirmish wasn't a battle, though, it was a brawl. You're not supposed to expect anyone to die. They've built entire sports (and dance styles) around that type of fighting. Action does not need a life or death contingency in order to be dramatically valid. Rocky Balboa didn't kill Apollo Creed. Now, I personally didn't feel that a Narrowhaven fight scene should have been there in the first place, but, as fight scenes go, it worked perfectly fine. Not the same proposition as a LotR battle, and intended to give a different feel. For my part, I don't want Narnia to be a LOTR copy-cat. Tolkein described battles and fights in nit-picking detail, whereas Lewis tended to give fights short shrift in the narrative, almost as if they were beside the point. Unlike LotR, in Narnia, violence is not what makes a hero a hero.

As for the fighting in PC being cool and fun, I think that's a matter of opinion. I was bored with it pretty quickly. Also, in the battle we see a number of humans die, and, in the duel Peter suffers an excruciating injury. If that's your idea of fun, well . . . I'll let that train of thought leave without me.

I'd really rather not have a reboot at all, I wouldn't mind VDT being redone, but the actors are all to old by now so I'd rather they just keep things as it is, just make the next movies closer to the books and eveything will be fine, I loved LWW so much I would be so broken hearted if they rebooted it, it would really kill me no reboots please, I don't even like the idea, course that could be just me

If they were going to redo the whole series completely from scratch, i'd quite like to see them do something in the realm of Animation. Not like your typical generic animated 3D Dreamworks movie, but something genuinely artistically credible, like say a classic hand-drawn animation style that evokes the original book illustrations, or using stop-motion animation style similar to Tim Burton's Corpse Bride, or Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr Fox movie.

Not only do you right off the bat sell yourself as being "different" to the previous series, but you also avoid a whole raft of the technical problems and financial limitations that have beset the current Narnia series. Going into the realm of animation would allow them to be much more creative visually, doing things they could never have afforded to do in Live Action, but at the same time would take alot of the pressure off many of the technical aspects of the filmmaking process, allowing them to focus much more on getting the story right.

I'm with you here, icarus. The more I think about it, the more I think animation would be the best route. Like you said, the cost would be considerably less to have the same or greater scale than the live-action movies and they could let the fantastical elements rip without the concern (or at least not as much) of it looking silly.

I also think that an animated Narnia movie would really reflect the child-likenature of the stories. I wonder if Pixar would do it... I'm not sure they would want the Christian label the films would inevitably get though.

I also think that an animated Narnia movie would really reflect the child-likenature of the stories. I wonder if Pixar would do it... I'm not sure they would want the Christian label the films would inevitably get though.

I'd like to see what Dreamworks would do with it... especially if it was 2-D I tend to like their style. I have a feeling Disney won't touch it for a while...

What if someone did make a mini-tv series? How long should it be? What order should it be in? And who should air it?

Pixar tends to stick with original ideas from their own scriptwriters. I learned this from a friend who works there.

Animation really would not be such a bad idea for the Narnia films and I agree with wolfloversk, I'd love to see Dreamworks take it on. Maybe even universal, they still do great animations.

I wouldn't object to animated Narnia movies. I would think they could be produced much cheaper than the CGI-heavy live action versions and could probably deliver the content of the books and still squeak by with a PG.

I also think that an animated Narnia movie would really reflect the child-likenature of the stories. I wonder if Pixar would do it... I'm not sure they would want the Christian label the films would inevitably get though.

I'd like to see what Dreamworks would do with it... especially if it was 2-D I tend to like their style. I have a feeling Disney won't touch it for a while...

Oh gosh, I never even thought about Disney's invovment being inherent in a Pixar production. Well there goes that.

I really wouldn't feel comfortable with dreamworks making it, what with the execessive potty humour and all.

Btw, love your avatar, Bookwyrm!

I think a lot of the problems would be solved if they rebooted it starting with The Magicians Nephew.

1. The lack of battles would help prevent unnecessary battles in the sequels.

2. It would give people more time to forget the first LWW before the next one came out.

3. I think you could get a distinctive feel for the movies that would separate it from other fantasies.

As for animation, as much as I think Pixar would do an excellent job , they work with original scripts like DamselJillPole said, and they only work with Disney, I don't see a partnership between them and Walden. I think Disney animation studios tends to be too lighthearted, so as much as I like Bolt , I don't think Narnia is right for them. As for Dreamworks, potty humor aside, I like their recent movies (except for shrek), but there's an even bigger issue. How to Train Your Dragon originally was a book and book series, and I honestly don't think I could name 20 similarities between the book and movie. Don't get me wrong, it's one of my favorite movies, but I wouldn't trust them with Narnia if they paid me $1,000,000 to do it.

I don't see why people want The CoN to be more graphically violent then they are. PC kind of pushed it in my opinion. I don't care how it was described in the books, it was only as bad as the READER pictured it, and you can't do that in a movie. You can have deaths of named characters, but the blows should be offscreen or something.

I voted in the poll that I'd prefer continuing the current series, partly because of how good LWW was, but a reboot is better than nothing.

I must say I've never seen How to Train Your Dragon or Shrek... Come to think of it I don't think I've seen any of their computer animated films. Actually the reason I named Dreamworks was because I don't think they'd stray from the religious side since they're the one's who did Prince of Egypt and Joseph: King of Dreams. Also Spirit was in my opinion the pinnacle of animated movies.

As for graphically violent... I think the problem there is it's hard to say just how graphic the books are (Though I'm sure most of us the books don't pass PG-13 material), I mean most of the battles were only described in aftermath, but at the same time you have a pretty accurate description of a snakes death (which is not bloodless in the books, may I remind you), a man who killed his own brother, and all that is Last Battle. Plus the idea of the film rating system has changed overtime as well... What's considered PG now might not have before... I think Walden's LWW tone is good for that movie, and HHB. BBC did excellent with SC despite horrible graphics of the time. VDT's and PC's tone I would put somewhere between their two film counterparts and MN has a tone similar to VDT. LB I would run along the lines of BBC's SC or Walden's PC... Yet they all have to aim at the same audience, perhaps we don't give enough credit to the problem. What works in books, might not in film, because it the books the tone is largely based on the reader... with film the veiwer depends on the tone.

I don't see why people want The CoN to be more graphically violent then they are. PC kind of pushed it in my opinion.

Yeah that surprised me too. The books are infused with a child-like innocence and I really wouldn't want to see overly graphic battles, except in The Last Battle. I f the violence level is pushed too far before then, the shock value of The Last Battle will be lost.

I must say I've never seen How to Train Your Dragon or Shrek... Come to think of it I don't think I've seen any of their computer animated films. Actually the reason I named Dreamworks was because I don't think they'd stray from the religious side since they're the one's who did Prince of Egypt and Joseph: King of Dreams. Also Spirit was in my opinion the pinnacle of animated movies.

I'd forgotten about those. I guess it is possible that Dreamworks wouldn't butcher the books but I'd still be wary if I heard that they would be the new studio.

The Dreamworks folks are observant Jewish though, that's why their religious movies are taken from the Torah. While not anti-Christian per se, I suspect they would balk at the idea of making a movie with an obvious Jesus-figure.