The Silver Chair was the very first fantasy novel I ever read. The First. I couldn't even begin to describe to you how it made me feel, the emotions, the stirring of my imagination, the sheer wonder involved in discovering a whole magical world completely different from anything I knew in the real world. Reading it and the other Chronicles made me feel like something inside me was coming to life for the very first time. After that, there was no stopping me. I read fantasy voraciously. I discovered Middle-Earth, Oz, Earthsea, Wonderland, Hogwarts, and so many more over the next decade. This love for all things fantastical fired my imagination in ways it never had been fired before. I wrote tons of silly fantasy things and came up with ideas for dozens more. Eventually it led me to this website, where I made some of the very best friends I have ever had. My love for Narnia is still true and deep 12 years after I discovered it.

I write all of this because I think there's a fundamental disconnect between the purists and the more mainstream Narnia fans. The belief from outside the purist camp seems to be that we only like to complain because we're whiny negative complainers who enjoy being miserable and want to make others miserable. And yes, I know most of you would protest that that isn't what you think at all, that you understand, etc. I don't know how many times I've seen posts in GMD with little digs in them at purists, implying that they're so stupid and fanatical that they can't possibly understand what it takes to make a movie. The fact is, people complain on this site because they love the books that much that they can't stand to see them being screwed up. Doing things like tossing Peter's character into the trashbin to increase the drama of Prince Caspian feels like someone mutilated something we loved and cared about.

As for the recent accusations of deranged negativity and whatnot, have you bothered to read this thread in its entirety ? Or visited the poll that I created and stickied at the top of the GMD index? (My own vote was for "I only loved parts of it." Oh the negativity! ) With a very few exceptions, everyone on this thread has had at least a few positive things to say about this trailer. Yes, we've heavily discussed things we don't like, but were you really expecting almost thirty pages of "Wow! Lucy's so much taller!"? These are controversial changes being made to a beloved novel. There are a few OMIGOSH! IT'S SO FREAKING SHINY people here, but most, even the more mainstream fans, are far more interested in in-depth discussion and debate of what the little bit we've seen means for the movie's storyline. This is what we do here. This is what we've always done here. If you were expecting everyone to be talking about how every decision Michael Apted makes is nearly Godlike in its perfection, this is not the site for you.

This was what's known as a "teaser trailer", because it does tease us with shots out of order, story not being developed etc.

I hope we will see a second trailer a bit closer to the opening, with some longer shots in it, a bit of an explanation etc.

This one was to get us excited (and a bit unsettled too! ).

Epic post Bookwyrm!
Myself, I feel a bit indifferent having watched the trailer. I love aspects of it but as a whole it's very messy and incomplete. I'm holding out hope for it to be awesome.
I'm actually surprised how disconnected I seem to be. The Chronicles of Narnia are some of my favourite books ever and yet I don't have some of the issues others have with the movies, and that's okay.
That said, it'll be interesting to see what I make of the new Tintin movie (in late 2011).

Well, I for one, have been wanting the White WItch in there all along if she's Edmund's nightmare. Now, if she is anyhting but his nightmare, I would be disappointed. If she is his nightmare on Dark Island, I can see how much Edmund has changed and more depth to his character then I saw the first time I watched PC. (I had to watch it a few times to get soem depth). I want this movie made and I want to see Silver Chair and Last Battle. I'm sure we will get more Eustace later. I do want to see him a lot too. THe way he sat in the boat in the trailer reminded me of Edmund in LWW when they were eating breakfast before the WItch so rudely interuppted Peter and Edmund's jousting. I really wanted to see Edmund's nightmare so bad, and Eustace. Looks like I might just see Edmund's which is cool with me. BEsdies, I read somewhere that someone said she was Ed's nightmare? The screencap looks pretty nightmarish. Besides, Edmund and Caspian don't really get on in the book, so maybe that would be iwhy. They did steal from Edmund's time in PC and from his character and I'm looking forward to seeing Edmund in VDT for those reasons.

My problem with some fan negativity to the trailer is that they are complaining that several parts defy the books, when really there isnt.

Aside from Lillandil bursting into the sky, and the battle, there arent any big changes.

The White Witch's appearance is just a creative way of showing Edmund's nightmare and Lewis never said it didnt happen. I also think Aslan's appearances are out of sequence. And Peter and Susan won't return to Narnia. That's either a nostalgic flashback, a dream, or misleading advertising.

I will admit, I think the trailer is horrible. But its not because of what was shown. It was because the scenes were thrown in together in such a messy choppy way, with poor music choices and annoying voiceovers....it was just poorly done. None of the actual footage looked bad.

@Warrior: thank you! But you're certainly not the only one in this thread who likes the trailer -- a lot. It's just that, as you said, negative stuff drowns out the positive. I have very few complaints, if any, about the trailer -- which I love like Turkish Delight.

How long have we been waiting for this movie? And now that we get our FIRST GLIMPSE... all most people have to say is complaints. (I say most because there are a FEW that i have seen not complaining). Would you rather the movie not be made at all!?

To answer your last question, yes. Why would I want to see a bad Narnia film? I'd much rather it not be made at all.

When all the other Narnia trailers came out, the reaction was quite positive. This is the first Narnia trailer with a very negative reaction. The reason has nothing to do with us. It's very simple: The other trailers looked great, and this one looks bad. Hence, all the "complaining."

If something looks good, say it looks good. If something looks bad, say it looks bad. The PC trailer looked good. This trailer looks pretty darn bad.

The White Witch's appearance is just a creative way of showing Edmund's nightmare and Lewis never said it didnt happen.

You could justify virtually anything with that. Lewis also never said that Susan and Puddleglum are not the same character. Would it be okay to make them the same character?

The White Witch's appearance is, imo at this point, not a creative decision. It is a purley commercial decision. As is evidenced by the fact that they are showing her in the trailer even though we know her appearance is very brief. I think the reason they put her in the movie is that they wanted to put her in trailers and on posters to market the film. Tilda Swinton is now an Oscar-winning actress, and the White Witch was the villain in the first fillm which made over $700m

As for Edmund, it makes no sense for the character. It was a pretty powerful character moment for him when he stabbed the WW in PC. It was a completion of an arc for him. Peter was taken in by the Witch's magic, but Edmund was not. Because he had seen it before. Now the filmmakers are throwing all that out the window in the name of box office numbers.

I remember the PC trailer reaction being fairly negative as well. Many of us weren't happy with how dark the tone was if I remember correctly and as fantasia has said, non-narnia fansites are having a much more positive reaction to the teaser.

Sure, people had some big issues, but there were also lots of positive things being said. The negativity was no where close to this.

My point is that we are not to blame for all the negativity. The trailer is to blame. It's a bad trailer. It's only fair that our reaction should be negative.

I'm not going to tell everyone "stop being negative" or "stop being positive." Why would I want to tell people to stop expressing their honest opinions?

NarniaWebbers, if you like the trailer, say you like it. If you don't like it, say you don't like it. Is that fair?

*pokes in for a moment*

Would you rather the movie not be made at all!?

If they take large liberties and totally twist the plotline and mar the true characters then, yes, I'd rather they would not make it into a film. And why? Because I don't want to view a bad Narnia film. Additionally, there are all those other fans who haven't read the book and just view it then get a total misconception. Not like that's my problem, but I can't help but be irked when someone comments that the changed movie is better than the book.

Well, after watching the trailer several times, I can say the excitement from the first viewing has worn off some but I can't say I'm not looking more forward to the movie, with the exception of a little bit.
Honestly, this is the first time I've never really minded or hastily ate up any news that came out for the movie. Not that I'm expecting to hate it--there were those nice moments in the trailer to look forward to seeing.

Interestingly enough, as far as I've found, we're the only website that's extremely negative. Every other website I've been to has been a million times more positive about this trailer than the PC trailer. I suppose you can chock that up to the fact that the book purists are here, but I have to give kudos to Fox that with this trailer, they got people excited about the Narnia series again. All of the fans on this site will probably see the movie anyways, no matter what they thought of the teaser trailer.

All I know is that this trailer has gotten me the most excited about seeing the movie since it was greenlit.

^ It makes sense that most moviegoers would be excited by the trailer. It makes the movie look like a super hollywoodized, brainless, feel-good, kiddie fantasy film with lots of gimmicky special effects, magic, and action ...in 3D. Which is exactly the reason I'm not excited.

I'm still hoping that it's just a bad trailer, and not a reflection of what the movie will be. In fact, the more I watch the trailer, the more I feel like this is probably the case. As GymFan pointed out, if you really think about it, the trailer doesn't show much. No dragon, no Deathwater, and basically no Eustace.

Yes, we've heavily discussed things we don't like, but were you really expecting almost thirty pages of "Wow! Lucy's so much taller!"? These are controversial changes being made to a beloved novel. There are a few OMIGOSH! IT'S SO FREAKING SHINY people here, but most, even the more mainstream fans, are far more interested in in-depth discussion and debate of what the little bit we've seen means for the movie's storyline. This is what we do here. This is what we've always done here. If you were expecting everyone to be talking about how every decision Michael Apted makes is nearly Godlike in its perfection, this is not the site for you.

Very well written post. We're fans. We discuss. We analyze.

Non-fans are excited because the trailer makes the movie look like a super hollywoodized, brainless, feel-good, kiddie fantasy film with lots of gimmicky special effects, magic, and action ...in 3D.

Is that so? Last I looked, every super hollywoodized, brainless, feel-good, kiddie fantasy film with lots of gimmicky special effects, magic, and action movie bombed at the box office. Except perhaps Alice in Wonderland.

I'm still hoping that it's just a bad trailer, and not a reflection of what the movie will be.

This I agree with.

^ The two highest-grossing films last year were "Avatar" and "Transformers 2." Nuff said. No wonder non-fans love this trailer.

I have some friends who liked the trailer too, but these are the friends who find the Narnia books "boring." So the fact that they like the trailer is no comfort.

This I agree with.

Oh...so we agree that it's a bad trailer?

And this trailer looked absolutely nothing like either of those movies.