Back in the 90s, it would have been nice for BBC to have tried to dramatise the other three books, but they'd have needed a lot of puppetry, or for technology to advance rapidly, to avoid more human actors playing the animals. 

Keeping them human would have kept the series consistent, if a bit old fashioned. On the British stage, generations of children have seen humans play animals (both humorous and serious). The theatre group I work with only started using puppets in the last 15 years, and required children to use their imagination before that.

Lewis's animals are a step forward from his childhood stories, however. In Boxen the creatures were basically playing adult humans, whereas in Narnia they all behave like the creatures they are, despite talking and thinking.

I'm not sure I miss any of the proposed adaptations. Most of them would have been disappointing. They seemed to be aiming at a modern teenage audience that enjoys American action movies with no Christian faith elements. The two original Walden scriptwriters were once quoted as saying that 'Susie' was the voice of the author.  They had clearly never understood what the books were, or what they were saying. 

I'm pleased that I'm not the only one who picked for the BBC series to have continued! 😀 Low budget as the series was, it definitely has a charm to it (and I'm very nostalgic about these things), and I appreciate their closeness to the original books.

I do not like the concept of a 'modern day' Narnia, full stop.

Posted by: @col-klink

I've been meaning to post more in this topic for a long time, but I've just had so many other things I wanted to type.

Re: Aslan being a real lion in the hypothetical BBC Horse and his Boy. I'm not sure how they could have done him pouncing on Aravis that way. It'd have to be a really well-trained lion. Then again, I'm not sure how they'd do that with the puppet either. Maybe there's a way it could work. 

I know it's been a while since you posted this, but I have a thought about how the BBC could have done the Aslan pouncing on Aravis - do a slow motion pouncing scene, however, speed up the Aslan movement a bit...I'm reflecting on how they got Aslan to fly in LWW, sure his movements are very slow, if they did this but perhaps a bit faster (meanwhile showing the rest of the scene in slow motion, and show claws coming out from his paws, I think it could have been done... although the other possibility I am picturing of how they could have done it would have been similar to the Peter vs Maugrim fight in LWW - red scene, using footage of a real lion pouncing and super-imposing it over the scene?

Another lost Narnia adaptation to mention would be an animated version of The Magician's Nephew written by Douglas Lloyd McIntosh. You can see storyboards of the project through the link below if you're interested 🤩 

https://www.narniaweb.com/2019/01/storyboard-from-abandoned-magicians-nephew-movie/

@impending-doom I mentioned that one earlier in this discussion as one I'd like to see too — I now think overall I would have voted for it (rather than for completing the BBC series) if it had been an option in the poll. A hand-drawn animated cartoon of MN in the early 1980s probably wouldn't reach the heights of grandeur and wonderment that the book does, but I suspect it would have come closer to doing it justice than anything the BBC was capable of in the 1990s, with the budget (or lack of it) that they had.  

Just came across this interview with a make-up artist called John Cormican where he just casually mentions several times (as if its common knowledge) about working on a movie adaptation of LWW directed by John Boorman, the director of Excalibur (1981) amongst other things

https://makeupeffectsarchive.blogspot.com/2025/03/john-cormican-interview.html  

Is this something anyone else has ever been aware of? Feels like a pretty big deal, and yet this is literally the first I'm ever hearing of it -  he even has photos of some concept art and a make-up test he did for a hag.

"...the cancelled John Boorman version of The Lion, the Witch, & the Wardrobe"

"There was also a version of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, that I worked on for three months, and then it was shelved."

I guess i might presume this is the 1990s "Cheesburger" version, based on the chronology of the other films he is discussing.... I'm just not sure i ever realised it had a director attached to it, or that it made it three months into pre-production.

Honestly, I would have loved seeing the three remaining BBC adaptations as a child! I admit that I personally feel a nostalgia for the practical effects utilized in 1980s-1990s fantasy films. I'm fascinated how artists found ways to bring fantastical elements to life with movie magic before computer graphics.

I think I felt a little disappointed with how everything played out for the Walden Media franchise, so I wasn't too upset about Joe Johnston's The Silver Chair being shelved. I think Johnston would have done an excellent job with my favorite book in the series, but I'm also hopeful (I think?) for this fresh start with a book we haven't seen a film adaptation of yet.