{"id":8398,"date":"2005-11-29T07:05:56","date_gmt":"2005-11-29T14:05:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2005\/11\/29\/heres-hoping-hes-proven-wrong.html"},"modified":"2014-11-10T11:32:55","modified_gmt":"2014-11-10T18:32:55","slug":"heres_hoping_he","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/11\/29\/heres_hoping_he.html","title":{"rendered":"Here’s hoping he’s proven wrong"},"content":{"rendered":"

C.S. Lewis was not at all sanguine about a live-action Narnia adaptation<\/a>, according to this letter to a BBC producer — though, unlike the framing prose in the BoingBoing post this is quoted in<\/a>, his 1959 objections seem a bit more technical than philosophical.<\/p>\n

As things worked out, I wasn’t free to hear a single instalment of our serial [The Magician’s Nephew] except the first. What I did hear, I approved. I shd. be glad for the series to be given abroad. But I am absolutely opposed – adamant isn’t in it! – to a TV version. Anthropomorphic animals, when taken out of narrative into actual visibility, always turn into buffoonery or nightmare. At least, with photography. Cartoons (if only Disney did not combine so much vulgarity with his genius!) wld. be another matter. A human, pantomime, Aslan wld. be to me blasphemy.<\/p>\n

To that end, actually, the new film ought to be less objectionable than, say, the previous BBC live action series, which featured much clumsier puppetry for Aslan, though it’s still charming in my opinion). But bear in mind that Lewis died in 1963 — the CG capabilities available today have the potential to render Aslan et al.<\/em> as something that partakes neither of “buffoonery or nightmare,” and far removed from someone dressed in a lion’s suit (which would smack enough of pagan ritual to seem blasphemous to someone like Lewis). <\/p>\n

Given what BBC TV productions looked like in 1959 (or even 1969), I can’t say as I blame him for his concerns.<\/p>\n

That all said, the movie may very well suck. While Walt Disney is no longer present at the helm of his company (having died in 1966), and it’s not clear what “vulgarity” Lewis is objecting to, the present company may certainly make something that is not true to the spirit of the writer. Heck, Peter Jackson approached LotR with near-reverence, and there will still folks (including in the Tolkien estate) who frothed at the mouth over his changes. It’s easy to believe that a company that’s taken such liberties with properties such as The Little Mermaid<\/em> or Pocahontas <\/em>or The Hunchback of Notre Dame<\/em> (not to mention Kimba the White Lion<\/em>) might easily screw up Narnia.<\/p>\n

But, by the same token, that’s a battle for the fans of the work, not something to rely overly much on the 50-year-old opinions of the original author. Even someone such as C.S. Lewis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

C.S. Lewis was not at all sanguine about a live-action Narnia adaptation, according to this letter to a BBC producer — though, unlike the framing prose in the BoingBoing post…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[263,382,41,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-disney","category-lord-of-the-rings","category-media-movies","category-writing-and-language"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1146,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2001\/10\/10\/pc_or_not_pc_th.html","url_meta":{"origin":8398,"position":0},"title":"PC or not PC, that is the question","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 10-Oct-01 3:52pm","format":false,"excerpt":"One of the most popular attractions at either Magic Kingdom in the States is Splash Mountain. (My company actually did engineering work on the one in Anaheim. Could I tell...","rel":"","context":"In "Animation \/ Cartoons"","block_context":{"text":"Animation \/ Cartoons","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-cartoons"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":45697,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/08\/the-last-suit-of-krypton.html","url_meta":{"origin":8398,"position":1},"title":"The Last Suit of Krypton","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 8-Oct-14 4:26am","format":false,"excerpt":"The Supreme Court not only declined to hear the gay marriage appeal, they also declined an appeal by the heirs of Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel, the guys who created Superman, bringing to an end their attempt to take back the copyright for the character.Of course, unlike some other work-for-hire\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32007,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/12\/31\/tweets-from-2012-12-31.html","url_meta":{"origin":8398,"position":2},"title":"Tweets from 2012-12-31","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 31-Dec-12 9:45pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Lovely date night with @MargieKleerup at Catal in Downtown Disney. But, damn, it's cold. # RT @DeathStarPR: Kim Kardashian is pregnant with Kanye West's baby. Is now a good time to tell you about our very reasonable planet expl ... # Off to see Les Mis with the in-laws. #\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~Tweets"","block_context":{"text":"~Tweets","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/tweets"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":44609,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/08\/25\/the-woman-who-gave-the-1984-olympics-color.html","url_meta":{"origin":8398,"position":3},"title":"The woman who gave the 1984 Olympics color","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 25-Aug-14 4:54pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Sad to hear that Deborah Sussman has passed. Her signage and decor inspirations for the '84 LA Olympics were inspired, fun, and worked great. (Yellow, vermilion, magenta, and aqua? Inconceivable, but it worked!)What I hadn't realized until I read this article is that she was also the designer behind the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":130641,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/05\/10\/sic-transit-disney-infinity.html","url_meta":{"origin":8398,"position":4},"title":"Sic transit "Disney Infinity"","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 10-May-16 4:18pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I never got into this ( +Kay Hill already has a \"Skylanders\" setup), but I loved the figures they put out for it -- various Disney animated characters, but also from Marvel and Star Wars. Sorry to see it go. Disney Infinity shuts down as Disney drops out of game\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":133622,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/06\/06\/wonder-woman-as-disney-princess.html","url_meta":{"origin":8398,"position":5},"title":"*"Wonder Woman" as Disney Princess?","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 6-Jun-17 4:42pm","format":false,"excerpt":"An interesting article (FULL OF SPOILERS) about the parallels -- and differences -- between Diana's story and the typical Disney princess, esp. in more recent years. To be honest, though, it's difficult for me to decide if the similarities are accurate, or simply indicative more general story-telling tropes that WW\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8398"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8398\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43001,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8398\/revisions\/43001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}