Netflix Narnia

Listen, Narnia had never been adapted in its entirety, let alone considering its actual difficulty in adapting it. 

I thought it would be easy as pie, considering how much LWW is the easiest to adapt. Other adaptations run the risk of 

What I do have an issue with is the updating of the times. No, LWW and LOTR were born out of WWI. To delete an important part of an intrinsic part of LWW and why CS Lewis wrote the thing, it's stupid. There's a reason why nobody in the book mentioned just how much older the kids are after Narnia, because it was something everyone knew at that time.  Today, it's weird that such a thing is never mentioned, but it's something that everyone knew back then. 

It's pretty why they are updating because they want to get with the times. I'm just asking why this one, when the setting makes sense, and why the setting makes sense. It's not like we spent that much time in the human world, just set up, and whatever payoff when they come back, if there's something in the human world they need solving. 

This is not like Stranger Things and IT, the latter of which updated the late 50s to 80s because of ST and how the nostalgia at the time is demanding the 80s in general. The updating is so unnecessary when Percy Jackson is fine being updated to a new time. The updating of the times worked most of the time, except when it came to why the time period even mattered in the first place. 

I have nothing against updating to the current times, but what I do have an issue with is the definite influence of what CS Lewis and his experiences entailed. Even the LOTR movie has some influences of how the director, who had not experienced WW, sees things differently than their own war, seeing an unchanged Shire when the characters themselves changed so much. I understand the changes made there, but LOTR takes place in a fantasy world. 

Narnia is not ST and IT. These are four kids who need to evacuate during the London Blitz and were sent to the countryside, where they went through Kirke's wardrobe. 

Each book is divided into protagonists and even timelines. Horse and His Boy took place during the reign of the Pevensies. Silver Chair took place well after Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Magician's Nephew took place when Kirke was still a young boy with an ailing mother during the 1900s. It's really fun to see LWW adaptations use MN callbacks. 

I honestly have weird feelings seeing Kirke's mom in a hospital when the NHS finally established itself. It's flat-out weird to even think of the Pevensies in modern times when the point of them was to be evacuated during wartime. Adapting the WW2 era London is far easier just because one can easily adapt that, and to be fair, it's long ago, but still not ancient history. 

Really, how does war translate to the Narnian war? Peter, in the original Disney movie, has him turn his experiences with the Blitz into the eagles dropping rocks and boulders on Jadis' charging army. 

Y'know, I was really excited to see a new Narnia with the actual want to adapt the whole series. I already spoke about the problems of the initial problem of adapting when there isn't a throughline of character development. 

Again, half the series has not been adapted in any kind ever. LWW is by far the easiest to adapt to any medium. Heck, it's basically the first thing you can imagine the very thing Narnia comes to mind. 

I can’t believe we’ll be getting Magician’s Nephew, and it isn’t even the correct timeframe because this is CS Lewis’ fix-it for his own mom. Older Professor Kirke is based on J.R.R. Tolkien, but younger Kirke is CS Lewis, wanting to save his mom. 

Narnia is CS Lewis playing Legos. He’s having fun and not a lot of cause and effect is in his mind. Tolkien is about meticulously creating worlds for his languages. 

Hence, there is film-only stuff in the movies because there is so much character development that is only left in one book and not in the other, or if there are characters with their own conflicts. Hence why Edmund is a really popular character because he's complex and shows that development in later books. 

People who felt there were problems with the original Disney movies did not see the initial difficulties that the book presents because they aren't epic in their storytelling consistency. Of course, CS Lewis was having fun, but he was not thinking of the cause and effect. 

Of course, I do have to talk about Neil Gaiman's A Problem with Susan is just bad. Never mind that CS Lewis never intended it in that way, considering how much he puts himself in Susan's shoes, as well as her name's meaning, as well as 'once a queen, always a queen'. Seriously, what is up with the ending?! It's horrifying. I never understand other than shock value because it adds nothing, and to say Narnia is bad and always been, when the point of Narnia and Aslan's country is basically a different universe for Christianity, some allegory, but an alternate universe and telling. 

CS Lewis outright approved of fans writing Susan’s story. Heck, he’s more accommodating about it because what he said is basically how fanfiction has always done: write what I didn’t write. Any subtext, unexplored, and controversial things will be explicit and brought to the foreground. 

I mean, timeline updates aside, I don’t think Gertwig would do a better job when what was accepted had been the whole Susan being kicked out because she likes frivolous girly things. If they look at the context, Jill Pole, a tomboy who disdains girly stuff, would suggest that. While it is bad that her siblings didn’t clarify or that there is much clarification at all on the narration, it was left to that interpretation all these years. Susan does deserve better, but not at this expense. To be ‘feminist’ when there are more nuances than this.

They really cannot extract the Christianity from CS Lewis and Narnia. Even Susan is carefully chosen to tell his story that he walked. 

Narnia has difficulties adapting, unlike LOTR, which, despite its length, still has some things down pat and is easier to adapt once known themes.