@courtenay Alas, for people like me (lower middle-class Americans), nobody we encounter has wardrobes, just closets. So even "a plain ordinary wardrobe" is going to look exotic to us and it's arguably impossible for an adaptation to capture the effect C. S. Lewis intended.
For better or worse-for who knows what may unfold from a chrysalis?-hope was left behind.
-The God Beneath the Sea by Leon Garfield & Edward Blishen check out my new blog!
@courtenay Alas, for people like me (lower middle-class Americans), nobody we encounter has wardrobes, just closets.
Don't know if there's a difference in my dialect of English... if by "closet" you mean one that's built into the wall, we call that a wardrobe too, at least in Australia and probably in Britain as well.
Here where I live now, I do have a free-standing wardrobe, but despite having mirrors in its doors — both of them are a full-length mirror — it's fairly shallow on the inside and definitely not magical. (It's from IKEA. ) But LWW is set in the 1940s and the house that the children are exploring is much older than that, so that sets it up for us to expect them to find furniture of the sort most modern houses wouldn't have. (Another point in favour of keeping the period setting, but that's a different thread!)
"Now you are a lioness," said Aslan. "And now all Narnia will be renewed."
(Prince Caspian)
I am.though kind of starting to see @Fantasia's point.... If you end MN with the Wardrobe, and end LWW on the Wardrobe (as per Walden) do you then just end up over-saturating on Wardrobes? 🤔
(I’m very new here so I hope I’m using the quote function right) For a final shot of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, I think it would be interesting to do something to foreshadow something from Prince Caspian, since they don’t use the wardrobe as a way to Narnia again. Regardless of whether they do Prince Caspian next or not, it could be interesting to show a closeup of Susan’s horn, depending on how the filmmakers envision it being left behind: did it get left with the horses when they went on foot? Did she take it with her and it got snagged on a branch while struggling through the thick woods (before they began moving through coats)? Did it vanish entirely along with the rest of their Narnian garb? I’m somewhat partial to the latter explanation though it would make it harder to show it the way I envision it.
"one big wardrobe, the kind that has a looking-glass in the door".
Looking through the thread I found this quote but now, I can't find where I saw it or find whose post I took it from. My mother used to have that sort of wardrobe with a mirror inserted in one of the doors, as a matter of functionality. Most such old-fashioned wardrobes have 3 doors, with the centre door being the one with the mirror. The 2-door wardrobe in icarus' post on the previous page, looks random when there is nothing else in the room, but would still take up too much space if it was included with even a bed in that room.
The point about having a mirror at all, is that people often need one to get dressed. It might also take less wood to use in making the wardrobe, and mirrors are often considered magical in themselves.
These days, what Col Klink calls closets, often are laminated chipboard, or even if full height are made out of metal. Whilst in newer homes, people have either built-in wardrobes with glass sliding doors, or even walk-in wardrobes. Even free-standing wardrobes like this one, have drawers, these days. I'm rather inclined to think that though the Professor might be seen wondering what he would do with the blown down apple tree, the actual wardrobe, itself, might wait until LWW.
@fantasia, you raise an interesting suggestion and I think it would be interesting to leave a bit of mystery or an ah ha moment about where the Wardrobe came from. I think it could work as you're suggesting, leaving the tree standing at the end of a movie of MN. I in general am inclined to think it would be a good idea to finish MN (probably half way through the credits) with a vision of the wardrobe, but another idea could be a scene depicting the tree falling in the storm in London whilst simultaneously the Tree of Protection falling in Narnia could be the closing scene. Of course for those of us who've read the story, you immediately know what's going to happen afterward, but for those who aren't as familiar with it, they might be left wondering about an unusual scene concluding the movie. Well, I often picture a scene where it crosses between both the trees falling anyway. 🤔
*~JESUS is my REASON!~*
@courtenay This is changing the subject, but you might find it a fun bit of trivia. Long before any Narnia movies were made, my introduction to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was a series of picture books by Deborah Maze, which also had carved images on the wardrobe door. At least she got right that it's supposed to a have a looking glass on it though. Neither the Walden Media movie, the BBC miniseries, nor the Pauline Baynes illustrations included that.
I love Deborah Maze's illustrations of Narnia - I'm fairly sure I haven't seen all of them, as the one you included in your post was not one I was as familiar with, however I have seen some of her pictures and love them. Back in 1998 or 1999 I had a Narnia calendar with her pictures - which I now have tucked away in a special box, although I am eager to frame them and hang them up on my walls.
*~JESUS is my REASON!~*