Favourite aspects of the Walden Films

[Ajnos]

There's a lot we could complain about when talking about the Walden Media/Disney/Fox films, but this thread is for parts that you liked and things they got right.

[Ariel.of.Narnia]

LWW:
Aslan. *squee!* His voice. I love-love-love his voice! Nice, deep, rich. Like Mufasa from The Lion King. Also, the Aslan graphics were WAY amazing, unlike his appearance in PC and VDT. Not to mention that I loved almost every moment of his screentime (minus the Beaver hat joke... that seemed weird).
Jadis. I don't think there's much I'd change about her. I do recognize that her hair, crown, wand, and castle are non-canon, but I like ice theme and I think the blonde works well with her since sudden black in all that white would be quite the contrast. Oh, and the lack of blood-red lipstick was nice. And the really-pale skin tone still works well and looks more appealing than straight-out white. I think the only thing (at the moment, anyway) that I'd really change is her response to Edmund's request for more Turkish Delight. That was just way too obvious. I prefer the book's excuse of "the magic only works once" rather than "NO! Don't want to ruin your appetite."
The kids. The casting was perfect in my opinion, even on the physical level. I'd imagined the kids as something very, very close to the actors even before I knew a movie was made. (Yes, this means I was perfectly fine with Lucy not being blonde. I blame Lewis for that because I went through the whole book imagining her as a brunette before he finally said she was blonde.) I loved the interactions between them. Peter was... well, he's my favourite character second to Aslan, so I had high expectations and I thought they were met pretty well. Edmund was amazing. Susan was perfect. Lucy was... well, Lucy.
Tumnus. Minus the odd strip of hair down his back, I really liked him. He was friendly and sweet (though not the same sort of sweet as he was in the book). I also liked the (implied) slower manifestation of conviction he had as opposed to suddenly bursting into tears. And his stand against Jadis was a nice peek at his motive for having freed Lucy.
The waterfall. Totally non-canon, but I think the movie (and Peter) needed it (movie structure and all that).
Father Christmas. Very much okay with the lack of holly-berry-red because the rest of him was spot-on: a balance of jolly and serious.
The battle. Loved the battle!
The Stone Table. Wow. His death was good and intense and meaningful. And his resurrection was beautiful. That's one of my favourite shots in cinematic history.
Overall, LWW has the least complaints in my book.

PC
Telmarine decor themes. I like how their decor reflected their ancestors' sea-faring lives, even if they themselves fear the water. (Speaking of the Telmarines, I didn't mind their accents all that much, though I do most certainly complain about Caspian's suddenly perfect British accent in VDT.)
Prunaprismia. Yes, I know, she's not a red-head, but frankly, I never could quite picture that. And canon or not, I liked how she pointed the crossbow at Caspian for the lives of her husband and child.
Sorcery and Sudden Vengeance. This and the duel are my favourite scenes from the book and I've always wondered what might have happened (see what I did there? ) if they had started bringing back the Witch and then were interrupted. And though my favourite part of the movie hinges on my least favourite parts (the butchering of Peter's character and the overall lack of Aslan), I love Peter's confrontation with the Witch and Edmund's destruction of the ice wall. That part is loaded with so many spiritual connotations, it's beautiful. And that shot of the carving of Aslan between those two pillars of ice... no other shot in any movie has touched me that much. It was a shot to the heart. One of those "ohhhhh"-mixed-with-"whoa..."-mixed-with-"YES!!!!*major-squeeage!*"-mixed-with-"Jesus-You-are-the-definition-of-awesome" moments. Also a major favourite shot of cinematic history!
The duel. 'cause it was a favourite part of the book.
The river god. I was really pleased with his watery look as opposed to the reed-crowned man look.
Trumpkin. Nowhere near as cheerful as in the book, but I still liked him.
Reep. What's not to love? And the cat was hilarious!
Trufflehunter. Still the most faithful of badgers!
The door in the air. Loved how it was an actually tree as opposed to three sticks. Also, I rather liked the fact that Glozelle (whose loyalties are obviously conflicted in the movie and whose motives are at least a little less selfish than in the book) was the first to go through.

VDT
Eustace. Before this movie, I've never said that I've loved a brat for being a brat. Here, I was obliged to. That kid was scary-perfect. Also... "investigate legal ramifications for impaling relatives". And then... he cried when Reep left. I was deeply moved.
Reep. Again, what's not to love?
The ship. Gorgeous.
The combination of Dragon and Deathwater Islands. They fit together pretty well.
Drinian. Totally non-canon, but I like him as a seasoned old salt (... no pun intended?).
"Another Name". Favourite. Line. In. The. Whole. Series. I'm biased, okay? Plus, to add to that, I am massively grateful to Douglas Gresham for fighting as long and hard as he did for that one line. The movie wouldn't have been the same without it.
The transition. I loved how the room flooded and they swam up into Narnia. That was just cool.
The duel. I like it mostly for the music, but it was a funny scene and I liked how Reep went from "hand over the orange, you little -- DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH MY TAIL!" to "it's a dance, boy, a dance! that's it, that's it!"

[Tenethia]

hmmmm

The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe

The Beavers were adorable. I just loved them immediately (especially Peter's clicking at Mr. Beaver and his line "I ain't gonna smell it if that's what you want.") They were so cute and laid back and *daaaws* And Jadis. The opposite of the innocently adorable beavers. She was so evil and heartless. *shivers* And Susan's archery was epic, and so was Lucy's dagger throwing. And the Stone Table scene I loved too. It was very creepy and much preferred over the BBC version. The soundtrack was awesome.

Prince Caspian
The horse-back riding was really good. Cheers to Ben Barnes for almost-proper riding techniques. And the soundtrack was cool.

Voyage of the Dawn Treader
Well, the ship was nice.

[jesusgirl4ever]

*doesn't have much to say cause Ariel said it all*

[exTarkheena]

I loved basically everything in LWW. But honestly, I loved Diggory in LWW. I like how they really incorporated the fact that he had been to Narnia before, which was hinted at in the books, but not as outright since MN hadn't been written yet. The designs of the wardrobe were also AMAZING and heavily alluded to the events of MN. In fact, the scene when the Pevensies tumble out of the wardrobe is one of my favorites, because since the Professor tosses Peter the cricket ball they had broken a window with earlier in the movie, you can assume it was his footsteps that forced the children to hide in the wardrobe, and then I just imagine him seeing them go in, and then waiting for a couple of hours, knowing what fabulous adventures they'd have, and then right after they come back telling them about his adventures. I just sort of imagine that was the beginning of the Friends of Narnia.

Casting was EXACTLY as I imagined the characters. They were all fabulous, and I appreciate that they were all the ages of their characters. I also loved the coronation scene which just hit me right in the heart. And all the CG was amazingly done for 2005. It was pretty revolutionary. Overall, LWW was my favorite because it so captured the magic of Narnia.

I loved Edmund's character in PC, and even though they messed with Peter's character a bit more than I would have liked, I did appreciate how they portrayed the struggle the children had with being kings and queens and then just ordinary children again.

Eustace was SCARY perfect. I thought they did an amazing job with the dragon character development and the entire scene on Aslan's beach at the end of the world. And….I understand the sword thing for cinematic and dramatic reasons, and it didn't interfere with any of the canon characters or events really. So it was well done. I also like the fact that the Green Mist could…potentially…be setting up the LotGK in SC. Maybe, in SC we could get some non-canon LotGK backstory, which I would kind of like as long as they don't try to pretend that LotGk and Jadis are the same person.

[Ajnos]

They showed VDT on television last night so I watched with my family. I think it may have been my parents first time watching.

I think I like it better every time I watch, because I no longer expect it to be a true adaptation, so I treat it as an independent story in its own right. And it does have some great moments. It is actually pretty good (faithful to the book) up to when they land on the Lone Islands. Eustace's intro is brilliant, Edmund trying to sign up to the military, the silly rhymes (even if they unfortunately leave out the "assonance" line) and the falling into the painting scene are all excellent. I do think it was clever of them to combined Deathwater and Dragon Island, especially since both involve line. Dragon-Eustace is just brilliant, and the Reep/Eustace relationship is lovely. Even some of the changes aren't so bad, when you've gotten used to them. The Lucy wanting to be Susan scene I've always liked (it is after all only an enlargement of what happens in the book).

Things I didn't like were the way the green mist was the source of temptation (as though it wasn't their own sinfulness but an external force that made them do bad things), the fact that the swords (and not leaving a sailor at the end of the world) broke the spell and not seeing Ramandu or the wedding. We told my dad at one point in the movie that Caspain married Liliandil and he was most disappointed not to see it

I wonder if they'll show us something of their wedding (obviously with new actors) at the start of SC? (actually, I'm going to make a thread for that).

[HermitoftheNorthernMarch]

Every little nod to the books was really fun in all the films.

LWW:
In the beginning, we see a young man not much older than Peter, boarding a train to go off to fight, since they had a sort of older Peter in this movie, that was really a great foreshadowing of Peter later going off to defend the Narnians.
Mrs. Pevensie was really well cast. Her hat is beautiful, too.
The music when Lucy enters Narnia the first two times is perfect.
Jadis is an ice queen, at first I didn't like this but the visual aspect it provides turns out to be very good.

I personally don't mind what color of hair the actors have, I do, however, mind length. I had stayed away from previews and things for this movie, and happened to see an interview with Skandar and Will on tv. I was sort of surprised because they'd grown their hair out sort of raggedy, so when I found that they'd stuck to 1940's styles for the actual movie, I was happy. Also, I'm not even sure what hair colors the characters have in my imagination. For example, sometimes Caspian has brown hair, and sometimes he's blond, and sometimes his hair is white (well, when he's old).

Mr. Tumnus' flute is very interesting, the detail they put into his cave and the Beavers' dam was great.

Aslan: the animation looked better in this one, the other movies do not capture the emotions as well; every scene that had Aslan in it in the theater was so well done and it was so amazing to think, they computer generated ALL of this! Aslan's lines were also done well, and Liam Neeson's rich voice was great.

Aslan's camp: It's nice how vibrant the colors are, and the banners are made very well. (I went to the Narnia exhibition and they had the banners all along the hallway, they were about 7 feet tall.)

I liked the gryphons a lot too, I don't think there are any in the books.

The colors of Susan and Lucy's dresses are very nice too.

I also think the addition of the scene where they are eating breakfast after Edmund is rescued is timely.

When Peter and Orieus are charging at Jadis' army, the music has this great theme, then, before the armies meet, the music vanishes away, this is good, because it reminds you that for the characters in the story, this is not just a pretend battle, it is real.

The addition of compass directions in the coronation was one I appreciated. Peter, later defends Narnia's Northern borders; Susan, at one point wants to move South to Calormen; and Lucy, looks for Aslan who always comes to Narnia from the East. I;m not sure, though, what Edmund has to do with the West.

[jesusgirl4ever]

@ Hermit: It's the only direction left?

[Lily of Archenland]

@Hermit: Wasn't West the direction of the Wood where Lantern Waste was? Duke of Lantern Waste is canonically one of his titles, if I remember right. And I guess you could say that he's always remembering his own entry into Narnia, and hence his salvation after treachery and his need to be just to others who fall, in his title. Although that could be a stretch on my part.

[hansgeorg]

Speaking of Music, I loved it when it was possible to get the tune for Tumnus' flute music over a youtube video. I think it went down due to "copyright infringement". But the tune was so right for a faun - or anything else very rural and not too Northern (its about halfway between Norway and Roumania, musically).