Although I'm sure for some people the answer to that question will be that there are no other movies that could ever truly replicate the uniqueness of Narnia, for me I think there are probably a variety of different movies which evoke similar tones that I'd be looking to capture as a director.

Perhaps number 1 on my list would be Martin Scorsese's "Hugo". Superficially it hits a lot of the right notes - a pair of young children in a period setting, exploring an old building (in this case a train station), uncovering some mysteries, and going in an adventure together - but I think it also hits the right tone in terms of the joy and wonder the children experience when they unlock the heart of the mystery in the third act (I won't spoil that because I genuinely found it quite a surprising turn) and also just the overall wholesome uplifting sentiment it evokes, whilst still being grounded in a somewhat grim and gritty reality.

Also, if ever anyone wanted proof that Martin Scorsese is one of the greatest living directors, I'd point them towards "Hugo", as it proves that despite directing mostly crime dramas for the majority of his career, he can still do a kid's movie and absolutely smash it out of the park at the first attempt.

As for the rest of my list, Paddington 1 & 2 (both directed by Paul King) would probably be next. I know I've already raved about them enough on other threads, but I think that like Hugo they are both close to being perfect films, and both hit the right tone in terms of being funny yet also heartfelt, exciting but also endearing, and purposeful yet also whimsical, all at the same time 

@icarus I haven't seen Hugo. I can picture the cover art, though. I definitely need to give it a watch. It would seem we are in agreement that the right tone is to lean into the genre of family/kids' movie. 

There's a bit in Greatest Showman that reminds me strongly of how I imagine the opening to Magician's Nephew. Otherwise, there's nothing I can think of off-hand, and that may be because American cinema tends to pack as much in as possible and my own ideas for Narnia are a bit slower-paced, more like a low-budget European fairy tale film. Hugo, if I remember correctly, did let the viewer breathe from time to time.

This might be a lazy answer, but I would recommend looking at the movies Castle in the Sky (1986) and Spirited Away (2001) for the closest thing to what I imagine as the tone of the ideal Narnia movie. (I admit I haven't watched the actual Japanese versions of them though, just the English dubs.) I feel like the way they handle their kid heroes in particular is how I would handle the Narnian leads. 

@anfinwen unfortunately I did not enjoy Moonacre, as it was a bad adaptation of a lovely children's book! ( Similar to how Hollywood changed some parts of the Narnia stories )

However, the right tone can be maintained by keeping the stories in their own place, class and time settings, and making the scriptwriters read the books properly and have a Lewis expert advise them. 

So, the dark spiritual tones and heavy duty battles found in 90% of the older kids' books today, do not belong in these stories. 

Posted by: @mel

.Otherwise, there's nothing I can think of off-hand, and that may be because American cinema tends to pack as much in as possible and my own ideas for Narnia are a bit slower-paced, more like a low-budget European fairy tale film. Hugo,

On that note then (and this is another film which I've frequently raved about in other areas of the forum for similar reasons) but I would also include David Lowery's The Green Knight from 2021 in my list of Narnia comparison movies.

Tone wise, it's probably a lot darker and more adult in nature than you would want Narnia to be, but I love the fact that the movie is not afraid to embrace the unconventional nature of the source material (even if it does make some changes) and is not afraid to be weird, and abstract, and kind of slow at times, with a narrative structure that is even quite hard to pin down on first viewing. 

When Greta Gerwig talks about Narnia being "non-schematic", and when we on the forum have discussed how the Narnia books don't always fit a conventional 3 Act structure, the Green Knight is the movie I would point to as a good example of how to pull that off.

Also oddly enough (and similarly as was discussed on one of the recent Narnia Web Podcasts with the guy from "Into the Wardrobe" about the Narnia books) whilst The Green Knight appears on first viewing to be kind of random, it does actually have a very exacting underlying schema and purpose to it - I think that's the reason I've watched the film so many times, because each time I do I feel like i learn something new about it, and delve another layer deeper into the filmmakers intent. That's definitely a quality I would want to get from a Narnia movie

The tone of a movie would be much the same as an author’s attitude toward their book.  If the movie or TV series is based on a book by C. S. Lewis it should have mostly a serious attitude. It can have some humor in it, but its content should be mainly serious. And the film director should view her work (if it is Greta Gerwig or anyone else) in much the same way as Lewis considered his book. It the best way to understand the author. 🙂

Posted by: @narnian78

If the movie or TV series is based on a book by C. S. Lewis it should have mostly a serious attitude.

Did CS Lewis write the Narnia books with a serious tone though? Id say quite the opposite.

The comparison I often give of his narrative style is that it's like a grandfather reading a bedtime story to a young child - kind of half making it up as he goes along, in a kind of rambling free-form manner, and occasionally throwing in random asides to the children about how good the marmalade roll was (etc), rather than boring them to sleep by delving deep into complicated lore and mythology.

Overall, I think I'd describe Lewis' tone in the Narnia books as warm and heartfelt, but also playful and whimsical. Even in the "darker" stories I think that tonal quality of the narrator's voice still comes across.

I think that's one of the qualities that makes Narnia kind of difficult to represent on-screen, as the director needs to incorporate those tonal qualities into their filmmaking style. It's definitely not impossible though, and I think we've already seen some good suggestions in the thread for similar films which pull that trick off 

@icarus 

Yes, I think that Lewis intended his books to be serious and thoughtful. There are parts that are humorous in them like Mrs. MacReady’s character, but mostly the issues in the books such as the saving of Edmund from the White Witch and the saving of Narnia from her were deeply serious matters.  How could it be otherwise?  And any movie or television series should show that important attribute of Lewis’ feelings toward his story. It should not be downplayed in any way. The playfulness was a part of his style, but his feeling that evil should be conquered and the villains should punished are large part of his own fairy tales. He made that clear throughout all seven of the books. He believed that saving people and God’s creation from evil was a very serious business.