The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader [Blu-ray]

C.S. Lewis is a brilliant writer/theologian! I have listened to this book series twice in the last five years and will certainly revisit it again in the future! I cannot think of a better family classic for all ages that offers adventure/excitement with a steady dose of biblical narrative and gospel. It celebrates virtue and integrity in a way that people of all ages can grasp. Top notch, all around read!

Peter and Susan were cast too old and Susan is supposed to be gentle LOL. But still, I watch it regularly because it's a good production and Lucy is so cute and Liam as Aslan is perfect.

December 10 was a date I had eagerly anticipated, as it was the world wide release of "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader", the movie based on the C.S. Lewis classic from "The Chronicles of Narina" series. After watching the movie I left the theater thinking the same thing as I did when I read the book for the first time, "What just happened? What is it all about?" After re-reading the book, I went back to see the movie a second time. This time I didn't leave the theater scratching my head because finally it all made sense. In the world of movie making the job of a director and screenplay writer is to tell a story in a visual format. Screenplay writers Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely and Michael Petroni and director Michael Apted had a daunting task set before them. Their tale of the Dawn Treader's voyage is a stark contrast to the C.S. Lewis classic. Which in and of itself can be a good thing. In the original works by Lewis there are parts which don't flow together and you begin scratching your head trying to figure out what is going on and where the storyline is going. The screenplay writers bridged the gaps within the storyline. Their onscreen tale gives the story continuity so it flows smoothly on the ultra screen: The beginning where the children are taken into Narnia via a painting in Lucy's room in the Scrubb home. Landing on the Lone Islands with the capture and escape of the children from the slave traders. The evil green mist which has invaded Narnia and seeks to destroy all goodness within the land. Lucy's capture by the Dufflepuds. The Dawn Treader's crew meeting with Coriakin where they learn they must conquer the fears within themselves, so they can conquer the evil which has invaded Narnia. Eustace Scrubb's transformation from a boy into a dragon. The Dawn Treader crew journeying to Dark Island, where they encounter the White Witch for a final confrontation between the forces of good and evil. Eustace's restoration from a dragon to a boy by Aslan. The laying of the seven swords at Aslan's Table. Caspian's choice to accept responsibility and the kindgom his father died for. Reepicheep's journey into Aslan's Country. Aslan's final scene with Lucy and Edmund before they leave Narnia for the final time. The children's exit from Narnia back into Lucy's room at the Scrubb home. How the tale is told at the beginning from the perspective of Lucy and then at the end is finished from Eustace's perspective.The purpose of actors in a movie is to engage the viewer in the storyline with their performance.The acting performance by Georgie Henley recaptured the awe and wonder of her performance in "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe." Sadly this is Georgie's last performance as Lucy until her character reappears again in "The Horse and His Boy." Will Poulter( Eustace), Skandar Keyes (Edmund), Tilda Swinton (The White Witch), Ben Barnes (Caspian) and Simon Pegg (Reepicheep) gave outstanding performances in their respective roles.Special effects are included in a movie to assist/aid in the story telling of the screenplay writers and director.A considerable amount of thought/effortenergy of making "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" was spent on the focus of special effects. The end result was a "visual feast" set before the viewers which I highly commend.The spiritual journey of the Christian faith and triumphing over evil is the major theme of "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader." The storylines of Lucy struggling with vanity, Edmund facing the temptation of the White Witch, Eustace coming to grips with his greed/arrogance, Caspian accepting responsibility and Reepicheep's hope to see Aslan's country were exceptional. Each character faces a test, which as a result of keeping their eyes on Aslan and fighting the good fight, they emerge victorious.If there is one thing I could change, it would be to see Andrew Adamson return to the helm as director and screen play writer of the Narnia movies. He is a master storyteller and his presence was greatly missed in the adventure of "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader."

UPDATE 2012: This does not change my 5 star rating, because the movie itself it excellent. However I wanted to note that I PURCHASED the Amazon Instant Video of this movie and when I wanted to watch it again, I received an error message that Amazon no longer has streaming rights to Voyage of the Dawn Treader!!! It didn't matter that I had legally purchased this movie and it should have been mine fair and square. IT WASN'T AVAILABLE FOR INSTANT STREAMING ANY MORE AND THEREFORE IT WAS NO LONGER MINE!!!! With all the hoopla about Hollywood going to extreme lengths to stop video pirating, I find it shocking that this movie company is doing the exact same thing in reverse! The movie was rightfully mine, but the STOLE it back from me with no notification, no offer of compensation, not so much as a "how do you do"!. I call that video pirating. When I called Amazon to ask what was going on, the Customer Service agent said that the movie company is issuing a new edition of the DVD and wanted to "encourage everyone to buy the new DVD". I wonder if they broke into all the homes of people who had purchased ealier physical DVDs and took back that merchandise, too? What a scam! I was actually starting to build a virtual video library on Amazon.com and phase out my physical videos, but now I no longer trust that system. In the end, I had to demand a refund from Amazon, and they gave it to me, but if I had never tried to watch this movie again, they would have kept my money forever and I wouldn't have even known the difference. Shame on them. BLECH!Original Review:THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER has always been my favorite of the Narnia books and this movie didn't dissappoint me (at least not much)! It is such a fun story, but more than that, the underlying themes hit so close to home that I couldn't help but love it. It is amazing that the primary lessons of this book still came through, even in the hands of a movie company whose bottom line is profit.The visual effects were beautiful, and even though it is a bit scary we took our stout hearted grandchildren (ages 4 and 6) to see it. We had already read them the book series, and they sort of knew going in what to expect, but to have it displayed in living color right before their very eyes was a lot for them to handle. There was some eye hiding, but with guidance, they coped very well and it didn't give them nightmares. I do advise any adults who are thinking about taking kids to see this movie to watch it alone first and determine if it suitable for your particular young ones. There are some scenes that could be extremely scary for a small child and ours did plenty of eye hiding at intense parts. They knew they were free to ask to leave, and they chose to stay the distance. There was no crying, and once we talked about it they wanted to see this movie again and handled it fine the second time around.My only regret was that the feature film time slot required that some great parts of the story had to be pared from the finished product. I really missed the sub-plot about how Prince Caspian finds a wife. I was disappointed in the whole Susan/Caspian romance that was inserted into the last movie and maybe that is why the real Caspian romance with the daughter of a star was dumbed down in this flick. Movie makers are notorious for taking liberties with much beloved stories, and this is no exception.

How can you not love Narnia coming to life in a movie?! After reading all the books and finding out there were movies, the kids were begging to see them! They absolutely loved this one.

C.S. Lewis came up with a gem of a story that involves magic, ancient lore, and an awesome story about brothers and sisters who find adventure in a wardrobe.

Movie was great quality and our daughter loved it.

Terrific movie. Great for a children, teen or we watch it on Family Nights in our home. Nothing inappropriate, only the good stuff!

Top film, wel levering vertraagd dus vandaar maar 4 sterren ipv 5

Pitcher and soundVery good.Thank you.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is by far and away the best of the three Chronicles of Narnia films.The artistry is superb and a number of scenes from the book have been imaginatively visualised to the viewer's great pleasure. Coriakin's island of the Dufflepuds and his mansion with the evening sunlight streaming through the hallway merit a special mention for evoking a haunting atmosphere. The soundtrack has memorable moments. In particular the score for the scene where Aslan `undragons' Eustace is both grave and moving; and conveys, in a way words never could, the majestic pity in the grace of this act of charity of the King of all Narnian Kings. Will Poulter is worth watching for his performance as the boy with the almost-deserved name. And there's the cameo role for Douglas Gresham (who is also the voice of the newsreader in the first film).However, all true Narnians will be sad that this is very likely the last of the big screen versions of these tales. This can be seen in the fact that the scriptwriters and producers have done a very clever job of incorporating significant stylistic elements from the other books into this film without altering the story too much.Narrowhaven, deserted in the evening light, is Charn under its red sun. Bells announce the arrival of danger, as the ringing of one does in The Magician's Nephew . The hall of the governor is modelled on Charn's hall of images. The `snakes' of green mist do the service of representing the green snake that kills Rilian's mother and, in human form, abducts him, in The Silver Chair (the mist `abducts' the Narrowhaveners). Eustace slashing with the sword at the enveloping `snakes' of green mist is Rillian fighting the Green witch-turned-serpent (and this scene serves as Eustace's reappearance to save Narnia, which occurs in The Silver Chair).The Green witch herself appears in the form of Tilda Swinton's green-tinted White witch. She dies when Edmund kills the sea serpent (a snake), in the same manner as the Green witch when Rillian attacks her with his sword. Ramandu's daughter is their guide, doing the service of Puddleglum who is the children's guide in The Silver Chair. She descends from the sky like the stars in The Last Battle. Lucy speaking the spell beautiful, and then waking, is Jill Pole in the castle of the giants when Aslan makes her see clearly, in a dream during a rainy night (there is a storm at sea), what she see ought to have seen (and Jill is given her own inclusion at the end of the film).The Calormenes and their defeat at the fight at Anvard get a mention in Caspian's summation of the state of Narnia. Gale is reminiscent of Aravis from The Horse and his Boy, who likewise leaves home for an adventure. Susan's liking for lipstick is given a graphic representation - and a reversal when she wants to go back to Narnia (it should have been because she is 'once a queen in Narnia, always a queen'). And the flooding of the bedroom, and by implication, Earth, at the beginning of the film is the flooding of Narnia in The Last Battle; both are the same apocalyptic image.So there we have it: five books in one film.If there should be a major criticism of the film it would have to be about its underlying ethos. Everyone knows that Lewis was a Christian and his stories are `about God'. Yet the alterations in the story that have been made to give the film a necessary flow of tension and relief suggest something else.Dark Island is described as a place of `pure evil'. It sits opposite Ramandu's Island, where Aslan's Table is located. This implies the existence of two equal and opposite powers competing for control of the world. This is dualism, something Lewis argued against. For Christian cinema-goers, the idea that darkness is in itself evil or is the symbol of evil is certainly not scriptural.The seven swords of Aslan (invented for this film, but perhaps inspired by the tree of protection that Aslan once plants) have to be aligned to release `healing' energy and put the world right. This is a typical motif of a philosophy called monism. Its religious derivative, pantheism, is something Lewis wrote strongly against. However if the seven swords are intended to be representative of the seven novels then that would be an appropriate tribute.There is another problem with the addition of the seven swords. Coriakin tells the travellers that they must lay the seven swords on Aslan's table on Ramandu's Island in order to destroy evil. He sent the six lords to do just that. However at that point in the film one sword has already been left behind on the Lone Islands and another on Goldwater Island. So the lords could never have fulfilled their mission. This illustrates the problem of scriptwriters trying to change and complicate the original plot of a book. What was obviously necessary for the film version was to make a visible and central evil opponent. This has been done by orchestrating the sea serpent and Dark island into a crescendo. The book lacks this as it is simply a journey (an illustration of the journey of faith).This inconsistency with the seven swords could never have been passed off in a book. This is because the reader has to constantly use his or her imagination as they read. That it can pass unobserved in a film shows how much the medium of film hoovers out the audience's imagination.Then there is confusion about where temptation comes from exactly. Does it come from the 'darkness within', as Coriakin says? Or does it come from outside, as Lucy says to Edmund and Caspian by the underground pool that turns everything to gold? The Gospel view of the source of temptation is the human heart (a person's conscience, will and affections). The book, illustrating the journey of faith, was in a strict sense about resisting temptation. The idea that there is light and dark within each person, and they only have to turn to the light, is an idea that begs the question that Lewis asked: What makes light so attractive? Why turn to the light when the dark can get you what you want equally well (as the pantheist Nikabrik turns with alacrity from Aslan to the servants of the White witch in the story of Prince Caspian)? The attraction to the light must come from without.After being `undragoned', Eustace says, "It wasn't all bad being a dragon. I think I was a better dragon than a boy". Why, then, be `undragoned' at all? His speech implies that a dragon is someone who has good and bad inside them, and all that is required is to turn them inside out like an old sock for them to be as right as rain. Whatever this idea is, it is not the Christian theology that Lewis wrote about. The spell that Lucy recites to make the unseen seen equates psychology, psychiatry and theology as acceptable means of making things visible. What can `enquiring within', the practice of the first two of these three things, reveal to you if out of the human heart come evil thoughts?The scene where Lucy uses the spell on board the ship to make herself beautiful has been illustrated in a striking way in this film. The change from the stormy weather to the complete calm of a sunlit morning is very evocative of Lucy's change of mood from disturbance to resolute action. But is it what Lewis really intended? Lucy does not 'doubt her value', a morally neutral act, but rather commits the sin of jealousy. Nor does her action in the book wish herself away. In the book Lucy becomes a Helen of Troy figure; the face that launched a thousand ships, and a war.All this may seem to weigh heavily against any possible enjoyment of the film. However, I think we can use one of Lewis' own metaphors here. All these things objected to above can be regarded as the wasps that buzz around while you are having a picnic in a beautiful part of the countryside. You needn't let them stop you having the picnic or enjoying the view.All true Narnians who will miss Lucy and Edmund until the end of time can certainly enjoy this film until that time when time does indeed end.

Wonderful story sequence written by CS Lewis, the same which helps children and those in their early teens, how to deal with their own short-comings with the help of Azlan.. Azlan is a Turkish name, which is why Turks find this entire series so delightful; even Muslim Turks do so, realizing that the Lord Jesus Christ depicted as the Lion of Juda in Narnia, was given a Turkish name rather than a Jewish or Greek one.,

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