Have you ever seen or listened to a Narnia adaptation with someone for whom it's the first time they heard the story?
Here's something interesting I've noticed. As a fan, watching the LWW movie, I'm thinking, "Oh, they're trying to make Edmund more sympathetic than he is in the book." But newcomers who are expecting him to be just another protagonist tend to be surprised and disgusted by Edmund's actions.
Even though that example is from the Walden Media movies, I'd also be interested in hearing about non-fans' reactions to the BBC TV serials or the BBC radio dramas or the Focus on the Family ones-or even reading the board book.
For better or worse-for who knows what may unfold from a chrysalis?-hope was left behind.
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I did just that last month!
It was a Norwegian adaptation of the book, and very close to the text.
I haven't had time to talk much with my friend yet about the play, but I'll tell more about it later. I've told abot it in this thread https://community.narniaweb.com/index.php/community/general-movie-discussion/narnia-stage-adaptations/paged/5/#post-357132 (Narnia Stage Adaptations).
At least she enjoyed it very much. The play was on a tour, and it's likely that it will be back in September. Then we're hoping to watch it again, and she thinks that her 14 year old daughter would enjoy joining us.
(avi artwork by Henning Janssen)
A couple of years ago a family friend (might as well be a sister) was staying with us and we showed her the Walden LWW because despite being in the same generation that grew up with the films she’d somehow never seen it, and really knew nothing of Narnia at all outside of going to a magical land. It was great to see her take it in for the first time. Similarly a couple of years before that an online best friend of mine was messaging me while watching all of them for her first time and I loved how invested she was, she was locked in and asking me so many questions about the books because she wanted to understand everything she could.
Then there’s my parents, who despite having seen LWW plenty of times over the years, always have the same negative commentary about Edmund like they still can’t believe he’d do this to his siblings and I always have to explain over and over again about the enchantment on the Turkish Delight because they’ve never read the books and apparently they forget the fact that I’ve explained this many times. My mom in particular gets very indignant and angry about anything she perceives as wrong or unfair and it’s so awkward trying to defend Edmund to her lol. Oh well. 😅