Dawn Treader Trailer Premieres

The first trailer for The Voyage of the Dawn Treader premiered this Saturday at the Biola Media Conference. Speakers included songwriter Adam Watts ("This is Home") and Walden Media president Michael Flaherty.

Early in the day, Watts participated in a panel discussion in a seminar about scoring motion pictures. His work includes such famous songs as "Slow Fade" and "This is Home", the latter of which was featured in the closing credits of Prince Caspian.

My surprise came when I introduced myself to Mr. Watts after the panel, intent on asking him why he had been inspired by a line from The Last Battle to write a song that would appear in Prince Caspian. I have always assumed that "This is Home", which includes lines such as "created for a place I've never known" had sprung directly from Jewel the unicorn's rumination that he had found the land he had been looking for all his life (the New Narnia) but never known it till now. Mr. Watts, however, said he was unaware of that passage. He and his co-songwriter had been given themes that they were to expand on in the song they were commissioned to write, and also met with the musicians from Switchfoot, ultimately combining two songs (I'm still not totally convinced that the song was not in some way inspired by Jewel's line, considering the number of other people involved in the writing process, including Switchfoot, the co-songwriter, and the people from Disney or Walden who gave them the notes.).

Later in the day, during the closing session of the conference, Walden Media president Micheal Flaherty spoke and presented a rough cut of the upcoming trailer for The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

He and Biola host Phil Cooke apparently intended to prank us excited audience members who had been waiting all day for a sight of the first trailer. Last night, we were told, Flaherty's son and daughter appeared in a play of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe at their school, and Flaherty meant to catch them on video and show that as the trailer instead, to give us a shock. Unfortunately, his camera's battery died and he was forced to relate his brilliant plan instead of actually executing it.

(For the curious, his son played Aslan's Army #6 and had one line: "Shh! She's coming." and his daughter played a unicorn, but forgot her horn when she went onstage.)

Flaherty also related his experience upon first meeting Douglas Gresham, C.S. Lewis' stepson, to discuss film rights for The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. When Doug asked him which illustration in the book was his favorite, Flaherty said it was the one of Aslan and the White Witch debating over the fate of Edmund. Doug asserted immediately that this was the worst picture in the series, and that the only person who hated it more than himself, was Jack (It is, from any perspective, a unique illustration. I believe it is the only one that depicts Aslan walking upright.). Flaherty jokingly stated that he (Flaherty) was removed from the proceedings thereafter.

After these anecdotes, we were presented with the trailer itself.

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS SEVERAL SPOILERS

Effects for the trailer was still in rough form, with two shots of Aslan not yet looking quite himself, and one more polished shot of Reepicheep scurrying toward the helm.

Below follows a description of some of the content from the trailer, not necessarily in the correct order:

The trailer opened with the 20th Century Fox and Walden logos, then showed us a shot of a window, oddly tilted 90 degrees, and the camera began to pan out and the window return to vertical. As it did so, more and more of a large, heavily ornamented building was revealed, featuring some attractive masonry including lion heads (My guess would be this is a shot of some place in Oxford, but I'm not entirely sure how it fits into the story.).

At Eustace's house, we're shown a scene in which Edmund asks Lucy if she's seen the painting in the room they're in, and she says yes, and that it looks like a Narnian ship. The painting in question shows mostly water, with a miniscule ship far off in the distance near the right edge of the horizon. As they look, the waves begin undulating and Lucy cries, "The painting!" Eustace, seeing the movement within the frame, says something about destroying the picture and pulls it off the wall as water starts gushing out and Edmund warns him to stop. Eustace drops the painting and soon the room is flooded until the children are underwater. When they surface, they are in the Eastern Sea and the prow of the Dawn Treader is pointing directly toward Lucy and rapidly approaching, at which point she calls out "Edmund!"

We soon see a shot of Lucy and Edmund being hoisted out of the sea on some sort of wooden construct (perhaps the sort of thing they would use to load cargo?).

In one clip we see Eustace sitting on deck, attempting to start up a conversation with a seagull. When a minotaur standing near the helm asks him what he's doing, Eustace says, "I just naturally assumed". The minotaur let's out a bellowing laugh and says, "He talks to birds!" (You know it's a bad day when even the mythical creatures are mocking you...poor Eustace.)

In Caspian's cabin (or perhaps Drinian's) Edmund, with Lucy standing by, expresses confusion to the effect of, "If everything's all right and nobody's attacking Narnia, then why are we here?" Caspian: "I've been wondering the same thing."

On the Island of the Voices, we see Lucy approach Coriakin's Book. At first, it bears a number of scrambled letters placed at random on the cover, but once unclasped, the cover reads "The Book of Incantations."

At one point, standing before the book, Lucy apparently causes it to snow, covering the room in white and bringing a smile to her face, reminiscent of her first foray into Narnia. Later in the trailer, she looks into the book and sees a picture of herself that morphs into the face of her sister Susan.

In one clip, Coriakin, apparently casting a spell, blows a handful of flakes toward Eustace, who looks unsettled. Lucy asks Coriakin, "What was that?" "Lint," he says, "but don't tell him."

In another clip we see Coriakin unfurl the enchanted map.

We see a couple of interactions between Lucy and the little girl other sources have identified as Gael. In one scene, Gael says, "When I grow up, I want to be just like you." Lucy replies, "No, when you grow up, you should be just like you." Later, Gael says, "I miss my mummy." Lucy says that she misses her mother too, and reassures Gael that they'll be reunited. Gael asks how Lucy can be sure. "You have to have faith about these things. Aslan will help us."

There appears to be an addition of a new overarching plotline to tie the voyage together, something beyond the search for the seven missing lords, however it is unclear from the trailer exactly what this is. The importance of the Dark Island seems to be played up, with a great deal of importance given to overcoming the darkness without by overcoming "the darkness within."

Giving direction to their quest, the travelers are told (I'm not sure by whom) to follow the Blue Star to Ramandu's Island. We are shown a shot of the star overhead. Later, on Ramandu's Island, the star appears to morph into or connect somehow to Ramandu's Daughter, who glows a very luminous blue and welcomes the strangers to Aslan's Table.

There is one voiceover in which Caspian says, "Think of the lost souls we are here to save." It's unclear whether he is referring here to the Three Sleepers or some as yet unknown additional characters, though the latter seems more likely.

Throughout the trailer we hear a number of voiceovers of Liam Neeson as Aslan, including:

"You have returned for a reason."
"Your adventure begins now."
"You're all about to be tested."
"The fate of Narnia depends on you."

I suspect that some of these lines were created specifically to add drama to the trailer and may not make the final cut, similar to the line "All that you know is about to change" line from the trailer for Prince Caspian. This is merely an assumption on my part, as I don't know when Aslan could possibly be present to say all these things.

This is a small matter, though, as we do get to hear him say the crucial lines that fans of the book have been waiting for, that in our world he has another name, and that the children must learn to know him by it.

As any true Narnian will know, that's the part of the story that really matters.