Disney had a go at the Narnia stories several years ago. The first movie, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe didn’t really have a heart. Despite this, Lucy was lovely, and the movie wasn’t bad as far as Hollywood movies go. The next episode, Prince Caspian, spent the first ten minutes making the audience dislike, and therefore not care about its lead characters, and went downhill from there. Disney’s final attempt, the Voyage of the Dawn Treader, was a vile schmozzle from beginning to end.
The movies did not engage the huge potential audience of people around the world who love the Narnia books, because they did not convey what Lewis wrote the books to convey. They were washed out, and ultimately boring.
Netflix now owns the movie rights to the Chronicles of Narnia. So new movies. Yay! Right? Probably wrong.
To direct the new movies Netflix has appointed the director of the eviscerated 2019 version of Little Women, Greta Gerwig. This version removed the Christian faith which was the heart of the books, the faith which gave the Little Women their hope, courage, and resilience. Greta replaced this with feminine strength and independence. This resulted in a movie which is atheistic, anachronistic, preachy, and dull. Greta also directed the recent live action Barbie movie. Of this, the less said the better.
No doubt the new movies will include lots of dramatic action, impressive CGI, and repeated failed attempts at humour. What they will almost certainly not include is any real understanding of CS Lewis and his faith, the faith explained in and evident throughout the Chronicles. And consequently, like Disney’s versions, and Amazon Prime’s Rings of Tedium, they miss the whole point, and will fail.
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