Green mist ruined for me then and still does.... As long as a "narnia" films adds something like that and and completely changes it from the book I can't like it.....

There were good parts but a movie as a whole? Not so good.

--Benjamin

My first viewing of VDT remains a very painful memory. The worst experience I have ever had in a theater. I felt betrayed by Walden Media. I actually felt embarrassed to be wearing a Narnia shirt in that theater.

I saw it three times in theaters, and twice on Blu-ray. The purpose of the second viewing was to give it another chance. The third viewing was for analysis purposes. The two Blu-ray viewings were for closure.

It's still a dumb movie. It feels like it was made with complete apathy.
And I can't begin to describe what a dreadful adaptation it is. Intentional or not, they ended up with an anti-Lewis movie.

Actually my first viewing was painful, but I was glad my companions liked it. The other four times I viewed it in the theatre I liked it, and I voted that I still like it, one year later. I have viewed the movie on blu-ray, like Glumpuddle above, and now have my own 3D copy which I viewed a short while ago.

I really liked the ending, especially on Aslan's beach, the transition into Narnia and also the Magician's Island scenes and I still do. The trouble is that after the family-friendly success of the M rated LOTR films and the then current M rated Harry Potter movies, that VDT remained well out of the 'M' rated league, having not broken any new ground in either technology or presentation.

That said, I agree it was a less than perfect movie as even this vaguely positive Steven Greydanus article acknowledges. I can even understand why teenagers and young adults might not like VDT much, and why they might consider the movie a bit childish for their mature outlook.

I don't know how anyone could successfully make a better teenage/young adult friendly movie out of a book which not only has no villains but no heroes either. How do you define a hero? As someone who takes risks? Someone who defeats the enemy? Or someone who saves others? For that matter how do you define a villain?

How do you make a movie about a voyage undertaken by people whose worst enemies are themselves? About defeating their basic instincts? And about saving people from themselves? And how do you discourage undue hero-worship or villain vilification without sounding 'cheesy'? Whilst I want to see the rest of the Narnia books made into movies, any future movie of VDT needs to be thought out very carefully indeed.

I don't know how anyone could successfully make a better teenage/young adult friendly movie out of a book which not only has no villains but no heroes either. How do you define a hero? As someone who takes risks? Someone who defeats the enemy? Or someone who saves others? For that matter how do you define a villain? .

None of those questions seem relevant to the VDT book. It's not about heroes and villains.

And that was the problem the filmmakers had with the book. It was so different from LOTR and HP that they didn't know what to do.

For my part, I don't think a discussion of strategies for courting the teen market is applicable to any Narnia movie. LWW proved that Narnia doesn't need the teen market to make good box office. The dramatic drop in box office between Caspian and LWW proved 2 things:

1. The Narnia franchise as a whole does not have a large built-in family fan base that will show up in droves, no matter when the film comes out, or how it's made.

2. Attempts to court the teen market are useless. The Narnia brand name in and of itself scares them away.

Concerns about the teen market are even less applicable to VDT in particular. They had clearly learned their lesson about pandering to teens in the wake of PC, given that they overcompensated by creating a kiddie (rather than family) film in VDT.

I haven't even seen it...mainly due to the bad reviews it's got So I don't know, I'm a bit torn. In a way I do want to see it, but I'm afraid it'll kill the magic and ruin everything.

None of those questions seem relevant to the VDT book. It's not about heroes and villains.

And that was the problem the filmmakers had with the book. It was so different from LOTR and HP that they didn't know what to do.

Precisely. C.S.Lewis and Tolkien were friends who differed about whether children needed to have mythology and deep themes made suitable for their tastes. Tolkien wrote the Lord of the Rings trilogy as adult sequels to his children's book, The Hobbit.

C.S.Lewis, in writing the Narnia series, kept all of the chronicles linguistically and plotwise at primary school level or thereabouts, obeying the then conventions of British children's literature which deliberately refrained from mentioning romance and post adolescent concerns. Where Lewis did agree with both Rowling and Tolkien was that heroes do not need to be of noble lineage, and that it is our choices, not our abilities, which determines who we are.

J.K.Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series, who admitted being inspired by many authors, including, in particular, C.S.Lewis's Voyage of the Dawn Treader, wanted to write a series which traces how children struggle with normal adolescence as well as good and evil as they grow into adults. So her books which started out as children's books ended up as books for young adults.

All three authors wrote about temptation and inner struggles. But where Tolkien has Sauron and his One Ring, eating away at Frodo's inner strength of will, and Rowling has Voldemort and his seven Horcruxes, one of which is Harry, himself, what does the book, VDT, in particular, have, to show how the characters struggle with temptation and overcome it?

Which are the heroes in VDT? The only one that really comes to mind is Aslan, who turns up with a growl to bring the main characters to their senses. However, Aslan, good as he is in VDT, is too like other mentors such as Dumbledore or Gandalf, both of whom were hairy, like Aslan, but merely wizards or sages. Who then is the hero of VDT? Eustace, who didn't even want to be on the ship? Caspian, whose quest it is to find the seven lords? Or Lucy and Edmund still trying not to envy Susan in America?

And which is the villain/enemy in VDT, who is attempting to deceive the hero or heroes into evil? Voldemort comes to life in the HP books, by using Harry's blood, and Sauron has regenerated his strength by forging the One Ring, after his near destruction at the end of Numenor. Yes, the White Witch is mentioned in VDT at Aslan's table, but only in passing. The only way she could possibly be relevant to that book is as a Dark Island nightmare.

Yes there are ancient swords mentioned in all three series which are used by those appointed to wield them, to set things right. But in book VDT, the only sword directly connected to Caspian's quest to find the Seven Lords is Restimar's sword rusting away on Deathwater Island. As well as the dagger the White Witch used to kill Aslan which sent three of the Lords to sleep. There are rings also, among the rest of the treasure mentioned in all three series. But the only ring that is relevant to VDT is Octesian's arm ring, which hurts Eustace as a dragon, but doesn't allow him to become invisible or threaten to kill him.

It would take a screenwriter of the calibre of Steven Kloves, who wrote all but one of the HP films, or Peter Jackson, responsible for the LOTR films, to do a better VDT screenplay, I think. Even film VDT's green mist is oddly reminiscent of the somewhat more spectacular green mistified army of the dead which Aragorn summoned to relieve the siege of Gondor.

The VDT reviews weren't all bad. Nor is it true to say that the Narnia films don't have a large fan base. Grown ups in their thirties and older, the pre-Internet crowd who grew up with Narnia, and not always with accompanying children, were the ones who kept VDT from foundering. This review, Treading the Dawn, was even positive. But when HP and LOTR are seen as family films, suitable for primary school children, how could VDT, lumbered with so many expectations and originally written for a younger audience, avoid looking dumbed down?

I haven't even seen it...mainly due to the bad reviews it's got So I don't know, I'm a bit torn. In a way I do want to see it, but I'm afraid it'll kill the magic and ruin everything.

I think part of the problem people had with VDT was the style was very different from the previous two movies. This was to be expected after we got a new director and a new composer. So the music, the delivery of the lines, even the lines themselves are very different in style.

I think that coupled with some major plot changes from the book was the turn off for most fans. So if you do ever see it, be aware it is extremely different from it's predecessors.

I find it gets better with time, once I get used to the changes. I'm cringing less and laughing more. Though I haven't watched it as much as I have the other two yet, since I have them virtually memorized to the point where I could probably say the entire script if someone asked me too... VDT I can't do that with yet. If you've ever seen the BBC series (and didn't grow up with them ) I'd rank it somewhere in between them. SC I thought was better than it and LWW and PC I thought was worse. I'd rank both VDT's about the same (though for different reasons). I hope that helps a bit in deciding whether or not to see it

I saw VDT at the cinema about 7 times, and I'm not really even as much of a Narnia fan as some! There were many parts that could have used improving (could have been longer), but the same can be said for pretty much any movie. In my opinion, it doesn't take anything away from the first two at all. And I do have it on DVD, so I still watch it from time to time.

Wow, one year, eh?

Well, I think when it first came out, I was pretty harsh on it, but I think it is true to say that I liked it then, and still like it now. As an adaptation and as just a movie, it wasn't the greatest . . .that's kinda putting it lightly, but it was so much fun just to watch the actors, and it's an ocean voyage, my favorite type of story.

Interesting! VDT, the DVD, has totally gone missing. When the DVD came out it wasn't all that well advertised. I had to ask to find out where it was in the store all the time, and there were no posters up advertising it.

Since then, I haven't seen it around for ages. Last Christmas I could get Blu-ray copies of LWW & PC, but VDT was nowhere to be found. I had to buy a 3D Blu-ray copy from Amazon, as it didn't seem to be around.

Whilst waiting for my photos at K-mart last week, I found in the adjacent movie section that LWW & PC were solidly stacked with the other children's classic movies. But VDT, was nowhere to be found.

I quite enjoyed the film of VDT when it first came out in the cinema, but having watched it on Blu-Ray three or four times since, I'm not as keen. I'm annoyed that they didn't stick to the book, and the substitute plot doesn't really make sense: if the purpose of the green mist was to tempt people and make them their own worst enemies, and the lesson to be learned was to reject temptation and do what you knew to be right, then what has placing seven magical swords on a table got to do with banishing it?

There are quite a few things I do like about the film, most especially Will Poulter's performance as Eustace, and the scenes with him and Reepicheep.

In contrast, I didn't like the film of PC very much when I saw it in the cinema, but having watched it again recently on DVD I like it much more. Again, I was annoyed that it didn't stick to the book but I think it works in its own right. In particular, Miraz went from being merely a grumpy old so-and-so in the book (despite the fact that he'd murdered Caspian IX) to a real villain whom you loved to hate in the film.

As for LWW, I thought the film was a nearly-perfect adaptation of the book, and thoroughly enjoyed it (even though LWW is my least favourite Narnia book).

One other thing: when I saw VDT in the cinema I saw it in 3D and found the 3D effect to be distracting and disorientating on things that were CGI-ed, such as Reepicheep and the dragon. I found it looked more "realistic" in 2D.

VDT...The Voyage of the Dawn Treader..one year later, I voted I didn't like it then and I don't like it now!
I saw it twice in the movie theaters and then onc on dvd about half a year ago, and I don't know when I will watch it again. I can't get over how dumb a plot it has, failing to follow evn the basic simple rules of how a story ought to go. I don't think it was intentional but they really did ruin the story with that movie. One of the biggest disapointments in my life (so far at least). There were and stil lare scenes that I like, but on the whole, I don't like that movie anymore than I liked it when I saw it the first time.

waggawerewolf27, that is odd, I know VDT is still for sale here in Russia on dvd, the most popular is to get LWW, PC and VDT together in a 3 disc set , but I still see it in stores, it's definatly not as popular as PC or LWW, but it was pretty big in Russia, and it's common to see it in stores.

We are having a weird year here anyway. Some stores are clearing out their DVD stocks as Blu-ray etc is becoming more popular, and other stores are selling a mishmash of DVD's that are either DVD reproductions of old VHS films, movie classics that are always around, including the Pirates of the Caribbean movies or music and TV DVD's. Although HP movies are still ubiquitous, LOTR & Narnia films are harder to find, and VDT rarest of them all.

I'd have expected that a copy of two of VDT would be on the remainder and bargain shelves, where stores are shifting old stock, but no such luck. There are dangers about buying such cheap movies, however.

Twenty years ago, I bought from a remainder table what purported to be Bass-Rankin's sequel to the unfinished 1977 Ralph Bakshi Lord of the Rings. The Bass-Rankin sequel must be the most awful movie, a poorly drawn schmaltzy (sp?) animation version. This was supposed to be the ballad of nine-fingered Frodo, with some sickly sweet tenor taking the minstrel part. Really, a mob of sheep bleating at being herded up, would be more entertaining to listen to. Or having my teeth drilled.

I agree that watching the same movie again can pall after a while, even though I liked and still like VDT. But no, I have never found VDT anywhere as nauseous to watch as that movie.

I finally got around to watching the VDT DVD for the first time. I did see the movie twice in theatres, though. And I still like it. I was harsher the first time around because of all the changes they made. But watching it now, I'm less critical and am enjoying the humour much more, and overall am rather satisfied. I know it's not the best adaptation, but it was still an enjoyable film. And I must say, I loved the entrance to Narnia and the leaving of Narnia..they were both filmed quite well.