Posted by: @jasmine_tarkheena

MN might be bit of a challenge for a movie. Digory and Polly put on the rings, and they disappear into another world. They come out of the pools in between the worlds. Then they jump into the world of Charn in one pool and later, into another pool into the world of Narnia. I think that will be a challenge there.

Hmm, for MN, I'm almost imagining the sort of thing that they did with Walden VDT. It would be interesting if the pool was really deep and the children were almost drowning in the pool. They would be desperately be trying to find a way out of the pool when the rings would like glow and when they reach up for air again, they're in Charn. 

Another idea would be to have the kids look into the pool and as their feet splash lightly and when the water becomes still after the splash, the reflection in the pool would be in Charn. 

I think for LB, when Tirian calls for help, it would be better to just exclude the part on the train. After Tirian asks for help, and is tied to the tree, he could be just about to give up hope when he hears Jill and Eustace behind him. I think it would be better for the kids to just be in Narnia and have it from Tirian's perspective instead of theirs. Then, they could just explain to Tirian how they got there. 

-KingEdTheJust

I feel like there are three categories of Earth-to-Narnia transitions in the books:

First you have your instantaneous teleportations, such as the magic rings in MN, and also the railway incident in LB. These are probably the easiest to do on screen because they are just hard cuts from one place to the next.

Next you have your standard door-based Portals, such as the wardrobe in LWW, the door in SC and the pools in MN. These still are moderately easy to pull off on screen, as it's a well worn trope - go in one side, come out the other.

However there are still a couple of interesting considerations for portals - for example in the recent NarniaWeb podcast they talked about how in the BBC Silver Chair adaptation it can be difficult to convey to the audience that the place on the other side of the door is 'otherworldly' if it just looks like a grass field (which is exactly what you would expect to be behind that door in the real world).

Also on the subject of portals, i'd also be interested in seeing a version of the Wardrobe transition which has a more physical Narnia-side to it, such as in this Narnia Lego concept. Granted that's not the way it's described in the book, but I'm up for seeing a new visual exploration of the concept.

Finally you have what I feel like are the hardest transitions to visualise - the ones where the children are drawn into Narnia (somewhat against their will) as part of an extended process, such as in PC and VODT.

Thankfully though I feel Walden absolutely nailed it on both the PC and VODT transition sequences, so they've really set the bar for how to visualise these sequences for me. That said, there is no way Netflix will have the budget to match what Walden did here, therefore they might have to do something more basic on these two.

@icarus I'd prefer the wardrobe to BE a transition, not merely a door, and definitely no sign of another world visible to someone not inside it already.
Lucy didn't get to Narnia by simply opening the wardrobe door, nor even getting in among the first line of fur coats. It wasn't until she had got in among the second line of coats that things began to feel different. She was not merely curious, but brave and persistent.
The wardrobe therefore has some sort of interaction with the humans. (unlike Pratchett's 'Sentient Pearwood', but with a trace of that concept!) When Edmund followed Lucy the second time, perhaps he got in under her influence?
The first time the other children tried to see if Lucy was right, there was no interaction given. The last time, when they needed to escape from Mrs Macready and would try anything, their minds were more open, yet it took several minutes hiding together in the wardrobe before she seemed to have gone, and it was only then that the interaction happened and they found themselves in Narnia together.

I also want to see a simpler but still dramatic version of the book's Prince Caspian transition. I don't agree that Walden 'absolutely nailed it' (although it was dramatic, and clever)
In the book, the children are changing trains, as still happens all over UK. They arrive on one train with their luggage, at a smaller rural station (still in wartime), and look at the signs for when their different trains are due.
This gives a much better sense of the time/place location than a fake Tube station (with wrong signage) in central London, full of children who ought to have been still evacuated in the safe countryside, not going to day school in London itself!
It's a year since they came back from Narnia, and they are all off to boarding school, girls and boys to different schools so are waiting glumly for two different trains.
Nobody says anything in the book before the transition starts, Peter is not fighting nor sulking about not having been a king for the last 12 months, and there is no boy trying to get Susan's attention. If dialogue is necessary, the Focus on the Family script does this scene well since we can't see the station!

It is not until they find themselves in the trees that Lucy asks Peter if they might be back in Narnia. It doesn't take long in the book, and doesn't have to be a long exciting adventure getting there. After all, being in Narnia, and finding what they are to do there, is more important than the transition.

Even blue-screen and CGI can do an excellent job of a straightforward transition into bushes and overgrown apple-trees.

Those are actually some great ideas for transitions from Earth to Narnia. I think we can all agree it's going to be a challenge to do on screen.

They should be simple, yet in some cases, it can be dramatic. For PC, maybe when the Pevensies feel like something it's pulling them, there could be like a flash of light. The train station all fades away, then at an instant, they're in Narnia.

It would be cool to see the picture getting bigger in VDT, making us wonder, "Is the picture getting bigger or are the kids getting smaller?" Yet it might not happen that way in a movie or series.

I don't think we really have anything to worry about in HHB, since it doesn't involve any kids traveling from Earth to Narnia. Then of course, they could decide to move the hunting of the White Stag and the Pevensies climbing out of the wardrobe from the end of LWW to the end of HHB.

As for transition from Earth to Narnia, I don't think we have next to nothing to worry about in HHB, given that it doesn't involved that. Then, of course, they could decide to pair LWW and HHB, and move the scene with the White Stag from the end of LWW to the end of HHB.

It might be something to see the picture getting bigger in VDT, making us wonder if the picture was getting bigger or if the children (Edmund, Lucy, and Eustace) were getting smaller.

@jasmine_tarkheena 

I am not so sure about combining two of the Narnia books. It didn’t work so well in the BBC production of Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.  The stories may be cut too much, which was the problem with the BBC’s hour long version of Prince Caspian. Actually, the transitions from Earth to Narnia in all of the books should remain the same as they are in the original stories. Also, moving scenes should be avoided wherever possible out of respect to the author’s conception of the plot.

@narnian78 

Right. While there are some transitions that could easily match with the books (like the wardrobe in LWW), some of which can be kind of tricky to do on screen.

Walden had the water come out of the picture and flooding the bedroom in VDT, which is actually one of the most impressive things done in film. It would be idea if the picture was getting bigger, leaving us wondering whether the picture was getting bigger or the kids were getting smaller.

LB might be kind of tricky for transition, because the book is hardly in our world at all. An idea would be having Tirian call out to Aslan and then to the Seven Friends of Narnia. Then it could cut to the Seven Friends of Narnia gathering around then all of sudden, they see Tirian appear before them. Then they discuss on how they could get Eustace and Jill to Narnia, given the line that Eustace says, "You can't just get there by wanting to." Then we see Peter and Edmund dressed as workmen, digging the rings out. Digory, Polly, Lucy, Eustace and Jill aboard the train. Then we see the train going a bit fast. Then it cuts to Eustace and Jill in Narnia.