I'm choosing to believe that it means the cheesy humor is gone and the attitude of the movie is more mature. Marcus and McFeely seemed to approach the screenwriting with a "How many lame jokes can we cram in to make all the characters look like five years olds?" attitude. I won't be sorry if that has been eliminated.

^ Those were my first thoughts when reading the interview. I only later remembered those lines from PC: "Its a more savage place than you remember." I hope its the former and not the latter that Ben Barnes is talking about.

I suddenly have the strange feeling that I've heard the phrase "more mature and adult" somewhere before. Hm.....

I'm with Bookwyrm on this one. If being more mature means the movie will have no cheesy one-liners and lame jokes than I am 100% for it. But I don't think that's what Ben Barnes meant. He goes on to say that it is an adventure film rather than a "pure work of fantasy." It sounds like he means that the story will be more mature because it is an adventure story. I'm not sure how adventure is more mature than fantasy, but okay.

"Mature" and "adult" aren't the words that come to mind when I think of VoDT. From what we've seen in the trailers, though, it could be a good thing. Maybe the characters act more mature and we won't have any childish bickering? That would be nice. I also wouldn't mind fewer of the "We could gather nuts!" lines, but I don't want the whole movie to be "Think of the lost souls we're here to save," either.

I like the humor in the movies.
"If he says hurry up 1 more time I'm going to turn him into a big fluffy hat."
"HURRY UP!"

"Pretend you're talking to me."
"We are talking to you."

I wouldn't be unhappy if they kept more of those out to replace with deep and thought provoking segments, but I'm not a big fan of the middle ground except as bridges between the 2 ends.

I like humor. But the movies have all those cheesy one-liners and everything. Lewis had classy humor (if I can say that.) If they can add that to the movie, it would be lovely. I want to have something funny happen and think, "Lewis could have written that." I want it to at least come near to the level of sophistication that were in the books.

Yes, it would be nice if they cut the constant bickering as well.
I too don't see how an adventure film is more mature that a fantasy film, so I'm not sure what Ben Barnes means by that.

Lewis had classy humor (if I can say that.) If they can add that to the movie, it would be lovely. I want to have something funny happen and think, "Lewis could have written that." I want it to at least come near to the level of sophistication that were in the books.

Exactly!

Don't forget about substance, please!

Perhaps Ben is very tactfully trying to say that he thought Adamson's attempts at adapting the CoN weren't very good?

I really can't imagine Lewis writing most of the humor present in the first two movies as most of it was either modern, cheesy, or immature. Some of it was even poking fun at the source material. I don't think I'll ever forgive them for Susan's snide "You know that doesn't really rhyme." line.

I like humor. But the movies have all those cheesy one-liners and everything. Lewis had classy humor (if I can say that.) If they can add that to the movie, it would be lovely. I want to have something funny happen and think, "Lewis could have written that." I want it to at least come near to the level of sophistication that were in the books.

I want to echo this as well. While I enjoyed aspects of the first two films very much, the biggest thing missing for me was the sense that these were Lewis's stories: with Lewis's humor and effortless insight and narrative finesse. I keep waiting for the filmmakers to take more dialogue straight from the books. So far it hasn't happened, but I'm holding out hope they've wisened up this time. (The clips help - they seem to show a more sensitive ear for period-appropriate dialogue.)

This is still a young franchise. The Harry Potter films didn't hit their stride until the third film, IMO (which was more mature than the others - simply in the manner it was approached by the director).

I am so happy to hear what Ben said! Lewis wrote Narnia for kids, but also for all ages.....he said himself that a kids book that is only enjoyed by kids is not a good book (something like that.....i don't think i got the quote quite right )
anyway, this is going to be so amazing!

I, personally, took "mature" as more adult-like topics, such as temptation, and the other underlying Christian themes.

I hope he means mature as in the story and characters aren't going to be messed up like in Prince Caspian.

The humor isn't that lame. Does this mean that there won't be any joking around in VDT?

I hope there's still humor in the movie. If the jokes aren't cheesy, I don't mind a bit of humor. VDT should at least feel lighthearted at the beginning and adventuresome most of the time, if not necessarily funny.

I agree with Trufflehunter that the "mature" is signifying more serious themes. The PC movie really wasn't that mature, for all its darkness and grit.