When we last left Lucy, Edmund and Eustace, they had resurfaced to find that they were no longer at Cambridge but in the open sea with the sailing vessel from the painting looming over them. I’m pleased to report the ship, the Dawn Treader, looks much as the book describes.
Her prow was gilded and shaped like the head of a dragon with wide open mouth. She had only one mast and one large, square sail which was a rich purple. The sides of the ship — what you could see of them where the gilded wings of the dragon ended — were green.
I’m displeased to report that…it doesn’t look very good. In fact, I distinctly remember when I first saw it, my heart sank. To my eyes, the colors, red, green and gold, clash with each other and the whole thing looks overly shiny and fake, plastic even. It’s very obviously a prop and doesn’t give the illusion of reality that, say, Tumnus’s cave in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) or the Telmarine castle in Prince Caspian (2008) give. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if it started out shiny and grew gradually more weathered looking as the titular voyage progressed, but I can’t see that that’s the case.
This may be nitpicking, but the dragon design of the prow strikes me as more like an Oriental dragon when a European one would make more sense for Narnia.
Our heroes desperately try to swim out of the ship’s path. (Eustace is noticeably a less capable swimmer than Edmund or Lucy.) A couple of sailors dive off the ship’s deck and swim after them. There’s hardly enough time to build suspense as to whether they’re enemies before it’s revealed that one of those sailors is Caspian (Ben Barnes.) As you’ve probably guessed, they’re in Narnia. Edmund and Lucy are happy to be rescued but Eustace hysterically fights off the sailor holding onto him, yelling, “I don’t want to go! I’m going to go back to England! I’m going back to England!” That’s not from the book but it sounds exactly like Eustace and it’s hilarious.
Lucy and Caspian are pulled aboard the ship in some kind of pulley contraption and Ben Barnes fangirls enjoy the sight of him in a wet shirt. The crew quickly wraps them in dry blankets. “That was thrilling!” says Lucy because that’s exactly what someone would say after almost drowning. “How in the world did you end up here?” Caspian asks her. “I have no idea,” says Lucy. By the way, Barnes no longer uses his “Telmarine accent” from the last movie. For some viewers, that’s a relief. For others, maybe it’s a distraction. I don’t care either way. Ben Barnes, perhaps because he’d only been in one Narnia movie prior to this, gives a much better performance than Georgie Henley or Skandar Keynes. If anything, he’s kicked his Caspian game up a notch and is one of the best things about this adaptation. Anyway, once Edmund’s on board, he and Caspian throw their arms over each other’s shoulders and talk about how great it is to see each other again. This is kind of weird since they barely interacted in the last movie.[1]To be fair, you could say the same of Lucy and Caspian in the books. At first, I thought the screenwriters were trying to make amends to fans of the books for how unfriendly they made Peter and Caspian towards each other. In retrospect, I think their goal was to make a later conflict between Caspian and Edmund as shocking as possible.
“Didn’t you call for us?” Lucy asks Caspian. “No, not this time,” he says. “Well, whatever the case, I’m just glad to be here,” says Edmund. You know who’s not glad to be there? Eustace. The conversation between the monarchs is interrupted by a shrill scream of his. They turn to see him flopping around on the deck, yelling, “Get this thing off me!” That thing is none other than Reepicheep (voiced by Simon Pegg rather than Eddie Izzard in the only example of an actor being replaced in these movies) whom Eustace manages to push off of himself.
After exchanging pleasantries with Lucy and Edmund, Reepicheep asks about what they should do with “this hysterical interloper.”
Eustace: That giant rat thing tried to claw my face off!
Reepicheep: I was merely trying to expel the water from your lungs, sir.
Eustace: It talks! Did you see? Did anyone just hear that? It just talked!
A Sailor (Tony Nixon): He always talks.
Caspian: Actually, it’s getting him to shut up that’s the trick.
Reepicheep: The moment there is nothing to be said, Your Highness, I promise you I will not say it.
By the way, I’m sure that last line of Caspian’s was stolen from another movie; Shrek, I believe.[2]Though when Caspian lost his temper with Reepicheep in the book, he did say that he promised to be a good lord to the talking beasts of Narnia, not beasts that never stop talking.” Since we’re on the subject of Reepicheep talking, I should give my opinion on Simon Pegg’s vocal performance. That’s hard though since I consider it a mixed bag. When he’s delivering dramatic dialogue, he’s great and to this movie’s credit, it gives him more dramatic dialogue than the Prince Caspian movie did. I should stress that I like what this movie is trying to do with the character better than what the last one did. Even when Reepicheep gets a humorous line, it sounds more like the quip of a swashbuckling hero than that of a snarky malcontent.[3]I wouldn’t describe the Reepicheep of the books as a swashbuckler but it’s better than the snarky option. However, the way Pegg delivers those humorous lines makes Reepicheep sound like a goofy British stereotype. (Think of a swashbuckling Bertie Wooster.) While Eddie Izzard’s Reepicheep had a less dramatic role, he oddly had more dignity.
Anyway, Eustace continues to rant and rave hysterically and hilariously. “Perhaps we should throw him back?” jokes Reepicheep. Edmund looks like he’s considering it and has to be chided by his sister. That’s also an old joke but I can see why the writers found it hard to resist with these character dynamics. Eustace’s rant ends with the words, “I demand to know just where in the blazes am I!” Or rather it is interrupted by a minotaur (Narnia veteran Shane Rangi) saying, “You’re on the Dawn Treader, the finest ship in Narnia’s navy.” Eustace passes out. “Was it something I said?” asks the minotaur. Caspian tells him to see to Eustace and the minotaur obeys though once Caspian’s out of sight, he grimaces over the job. There actually were no minotaurs or any other specifically Narnian creatures besides Reepicheep on board the Dawn Treader in the book. You could argue that made no logical sense and the movie was right to change it. I’d argue though that a human crew made for a better contrast to the fantastic locations they encounter on the voyage. And you’ll remember I never liked making Narnian minotaurs good guys. Still, having more nonhumans in the crew is far from the worst bit of artistic license this movie takes with its source material.[4]If only it were!
Caspian gives a speech. “Men, behold our castaways, Edmund the just and Lucy the valiant, high king and queen of Narnia.” This is another minor thing, I guess, but Edmund and Lucy were never called the high king and queen of Narnia in the books. The title of High King was reserved for Peter. I guess the screenwriters thought calling Edmund and Lucy the ancient king and queen would sound weird. While Caspian speaks, by the way, we get our first look at the ship’s captain, Drinian (Gary Sweet.) He looks a lot older and more grizzled (and grumpier) than I imagined from the book. Mind you, Drinian was always supposed to be older than Caspian but in another Narnia book, The Silver Chair, he was still alive and kicking when Caspian was in his old age. Oh well. This is, again, not the dumbest change to make.
Anyway, everyone bows to Edmund and Lucy as the heroic theme for the Pevensies from the last two movies’ soundtracks plays and we get some establishing shots of the ship. It’s kind of a cool moment.
Caspian leads Edmund and Lucy, now changed into Narnian clothes, into the stern cabin. (Eustace, by the way, remains in his English clothes throughout the movie despite how they must stink. Unrealistic but a good visual way to symbolize his contempt for Narnia.) Lucy notices something the book mentions, a golden image of a lion’s head[5]Though it was on a different wall, I believe., and smiles. “Aslan,” she whispers. OK, there were plenty of images of lions in Narnian art in the last two movies. If Lucy only just now realized they’re supposed to be Aslan, she’s pretty slow.
Let’s talk about this cabin. The book describes it as being beautiful and ornate with pictures on the panels and I’m glad production designer Barry Robison stayed true to that. But I feel like they went a little too far. The cabin ends up looking not so much beautiful as gaudy in my opinion or at least like it could be described either way.
“Look!” says Lucy. “Susan’s bow and arrows!” Susan’s horn isn’t on display, something I appreciate as a fan of the book, since C. S. Lewis specifically wrote that Caspian left it with his regent, Trumpkin. Caspian takes out a box and shows its contents to Lucy. “My healing cordial!” she exclaims. “And dagger!” Henley’s delivery of that line is not good, but I’ll defend her in that…well, you try saying that line, especially in an excited voice, and making it sound natural. Edmund notices Peter’s sword. “Yes, I’ve looked after it as promised,” says Caspian. He takes it from the place of honor where it hangs and hands it to Edmund, saying, “Here. Hold it if you wish.” Edmund declines. “No, it’s yours,” he says, “Peter gave it to you.” This makes it incredibly obvious that there will be a conflict over who gets the sword later. “I did save this for you though,” says Caspian. He takes Edmund’s electric torch from the last movie out of a cupboard and tosses it to him. I have a theory that it really bugged the screenwriters that Edmund never got a special Christmas present in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe like his siblings did. In an early draft of their screenplay version, they had Lucy ask Father Christmas about it and where the other Pevensies had images of their gifts on the back of their thrones, Edmund had an image of the White Witch’s wand smashed by him. The torch is their biggest attempt to balance what they perceived as an injustice.[6]Heh, there’s got to be a joke to be made about Edmund the just somewhere in there. I don’t say that to criticize them by the way. If anything, it kind of makes them endearingly human. And while a torch isn’t as cool as a magical cordial or horn, that arguably fits with Edmund’s implied inferiority complex in this movie.
A bit later, Caspian gives Edmund and Lucy a little update as they look over some maps. “Since you left us, the giants of the north have surrendered unconditionally,” he tells them, “And we defeated the Calormene armies at the great desert.” As you can guess, the northern giants and the Calormenes are antagonists of other Narnia stories and it’s nice to imagine them still existing in Walden Media’s Narnia universe even though they would never get to adapt those stories.
Caspian: There’s peace across all of Narnia.
Edmund: Peace?
Caspian: In just three years.
Lucy: And have you found yourself a queen in those three years?
As Lucy says that line, she grins and brushes her hair behind her ears as she saw the nurse do back in her own world. If the movie was trying to imply that she has a crush on Caspian though, it completely forgot about it after this scene, thank goodness! Caspian looks down, a little embarrassed. “No,” he says, “not one to compare with your sister.” You may remember I thought creating a romance between Caspian and Susan in the last movie was a stupid idea but I’m actually fine with this callback to it. You see, at around this point in the book, Drinian mentions that everyone was hoping for a marriage between Caspian and the duke of Galma’s daughter, but that Caspian found her unattractive. This subtly sets up the idea that Caspian is on the lookout for a wife which he will eventually find by the end of the story. The line about Susan serves the same purpose.
Edmund: Hang on. If there are no wars to fight and no one’s in trouble, then why are we here?
Caspian: That’s a good question. I’ve been asking myself the same thing.
That is an unusual aspect of this story. In another Narnia book, we’re told that “the Sons and Daughters of Adam and Eve were brought out of their own strange world into Narnia only at times when Narnia was stirred and upset.” This is not the case in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. The fact that the script is emphasizing it at this point though is an ominous thing for book fans wanting a faithful adaptation. While Hollywood might make an adventure movie without a big villain to conquer[7]Though it’s worth noting the book does have minor antagonists that show up for a chapter or two., they’d never draw viewers’ attention to the lack of one[8]Actually, that’s not quite true. I haven’t seen Disney’s Strange World, but the internet informs me it contains a meta commentary about stories not needing villains., so lines like these are a promise that there will be a big overarching conflict of which the characters aren’t aware yet. But let’s not worry about that now. “So where are we sailing to?” Edmund asks. “Before I took back the throne from my uncle, he tried to kill my father’s closest friends and most loyal supporters, the seven lords of Telmar.” While he doesn’t give the names of these lords at this point, as he does in the book, he does show drawings of each of them, the closest things they have to photographs in Narnia, which I think is a nice idea on this adaptation’s part.
“They fled to the Lone Islands,” Caspian continues. “No one’s heard from them since.” In the book, the lords weren’t fleeing per se. Miraz actually sent them on an exploratory voyage, hoping they’d never return. I’m fine with this simplified backstory since long scenes of exposition are better on the page than the screen. “So you think something’s happened to them?” asks Edmund as he looks at the pictures of the lords. “Well, if it has,” says Caspian, “it’s my duty to find out.” Lucy asks what’s east of the Lone Islands though she should really know the answer as someone who was once empress of those islands for at least a decade and probably more than that. “Uncharted waters,” says Drinian. “Things you can barely imagine. Tales of sea serpents and worse.” Edmund expresses incredulity at the idea of sea serpents and Caspian affectionately tells Drinian, “that’s enough of your tall tales.” I’m not really sure why sea serpents would be more ridiculous than other fantastical creatures in the world of Narnia, but I won’t press the point since the book could be criticized along those lines. It mentioned sea captains telling “wild stories of islands inhabited by headless men, floating islands, waterspouts and a fire that burned along the water” when what the Dawn Treader actually encounter beyond the Lone Islands was only marginally less crazy.
We get a cool tracking shot passing over the Dawn Treader and its crew[9]I may not like the look of the ship, but I concede it can be filmed in cool ways. but I can’t enjoy it as much as I’d wish since there’s an irritating song in the background. It’s being sung by Reepicheep whom we find on the dragon head of the ship’s prow, a location the book describes him as frequenting. Here are the words to his song.
Where sky and water meet,
Where the waves grow ever sweet,
Doubt not you Reepicheep
To find all that you seek.
There is the utter east.
In the book, this is supposed to be a very haunting song and it fulfills the same function in the movie, so I’m somewhat baffled as to why they give it such a perky, peppy tune. It doesn’t really fit the tone at all.[10]The lyrics are ever so slightly different from those in the book by the way. I hope that’s just because the writers were working from memory and not because they changed them to fit that tune. “That’s pretty,” says Lucy, coming up from behind Reepicheep. Georgie Henley’s line delivery almost makes it sound like she’s trying to find a polite way to say, “Reepicheep! Please stop that horrible singing,” which would be appropriate but I’m not sure if was intentional. “Thank you,” Reepicheep says, “A dryad sung it to me when I was just a mouseling.” There’s actually a big continuity problem here that’s from the book. In Prince Caspian, the dryads had been silent for centuries and there’s no way one of them could have sung over Baby Reepicheep.[11]If I were adapting the book, I might change the dryad to a centaur, Narnian centaurs having prophetic powers. I mention this because I intend to call out the movie on some major lapses in continuity and I don’t want anyone saying I hold it to a standard I don’t hold the book. Now back to the story. “I can’t divine the meaning,” says Reepicheep, “but I’ve never forgotten the words.” In the book, he says, “the spell of it has been on me all my life.” Why you would want to replace that phrasing with “I’ve never forgotten the words” is beyond me but oh well.
“What do you think is past the Lone Islands, Reep?” asks Lucy. “Well, I’ve been told the furthest east one can sail is to the end of the world,” says Reepicheep, “Aslan’s country.” “Do you really believe there’s such a place?” asks Lucy. Um, why not? Lucy has interacted with Aslan, arguably more than anyone else. Why wouldn’t she believe he has a country? I’m not just criticizing this line for being something Lucy wouldn’t say in the book. It doesn’t even make sense for her to say it in the movie! “Well, we have nothing if not belief,” Reepicheep replies, which is an… odd thing to say. It’s like the screenwriters wanted him to say a cool line here but they had absolutely nothing to say. I’ve been ragging on Georgie Henley’s performance in this movie a lot so far, so I should stress that her next line reading, in which she asks Reepicheep if he thinks it’s actually possible to sail to Aslan’s country, is actually really good. “Well, there is only one way of finding that out,” says Reepicheep. “I only hope I will one day earn the right to see it.” There are things I could say about the concept of earning the right to see Aslan’s country, but I’ll wait until the end of the movie to get into them.[12]It’s not exactly wrong but it’s not exactly right either. For now, Reepicheep excuses himself with a polite “Your Majesty” and Lucy looks over the edge of the prow. She sees some water nymphs leaping and diving. One of them waves at her. I think these nymphs were supposed to be sea people AKA mermaids but that wasn’t in the movie’s budget. I also think this moment was likely inspired by an interaction between Lucy and a sea maid towards the end of the book.[13]I actually quoted the book’s description in a post about The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, so I’m not going to quote it again here.
Caspian and Edmund have a friendly fencing match, ending in a draw. “You’ve grown stronger, my friend,” says Caspian. “It seems I have,” says Edmund. A sailor gives him something to drink, and he goes to sit by Lucy. “Edmund,” she says, “do you think if we keep sailing to the end of the world, we’ll just…tip off the edge?” This moment of wondering about the implications of sailing to end of a world that isn’t necessarily round comes from the book though there it comes toward the end, not near the beginning. I feel like that made more sense from a pacing perspective. By the time, we get to the end of the world in the movie, we’ll have forgotten it’s even a thing. Still, realistically speaking, it makes sense for someone to bring up the question before then.
Edmund: Don’t worry, Lu. We’re a long way from there.
Eustace (emerging from below deck): I see you’re still talking nonsense, the two of you.
Lucy: Are you feeling better?
Eustace: Yes, no thanks to you![14]In a deleted scene, inspired by the book, Lucy would have given Eustace some of her cordial for his seasickness. I have a fine constitution.
Reepicheep: As effervescent as ever, I see. Find your sea legs?
Eustace: Never lost ‘em! I was simply getting over the shock of things. Mother says I have an acute disposition due to my intelligence.
Edmund spits his drink out at that last line.
Reepicheep confides to Lucy that he doesn’t think Eustace has acute anything. “I’ll have you know,” says Eustace, getting back into ranting mode, “as soon as we find civilization, I’m contacting the British consul and having you all arrested for kidnapping!” I’m delighted to hear Eustace referring to the British Consul here. The lack of one in Narnia is a major sore spot for him in the book. As Eustace tries to storm off, he bumps into an amused Caspian.
Caspian: Kidnapping, is it? That’s funny. I thought we saved your life.
Eustace: You held me against my will!
Reepicheep: Ha!
Caspian: Did I?
Eustace: And I must say in one of the most unhygienic quarters-it’s like a zoo down there!
Reepicheep (to Edmund and Lucy): He’s quite the complainer, isn’t he?
Edmund: He’s just warming up.
This is one of my favorite humorous dialogue scenes in any Narnia movie. Maybe my favorite bar none. One thing I enjoy about the book is that everyone reacts to Eustace differently. Edmund vocally despises him, Lucy tries to be nice to him, Caspian initially finds him amusing and Reepicheep also despises him but is more aloof about it than is Edmund. The movie is happily true to that though Lucy doesn’t so much try to be nice to Eustace as tolerate him and Reepicheep, like Caspian, is more amused than angered by him. I’m not a fan of that last change since it means there’s less of a variety of reactions but still the movie does a nice job of differentiating the characters here.
In fact, I’d like to say that this movie’s first fifteen minutes or so are probably closer to the book it’s adapting than the first fifteen minutes of either of the previous Narnia movies are to the ones they adapt. Mind you, I’d say I strangely enjoy the beginnings of those movies more due to things like music, visuals and acting. But as far as fidelity to the source material goes, there hasn’t been anything majorly wrong with this voyage. Edmund and Lucy’s unhappiness at staying with their relatives and Lucy coping with it better than Edmund. The painting of the ship coming to life. Caspian’s quest for the seven missing lords. Reepicheep’s desire to reach Aslan’s country. Eustace’s personality. It’s all been a relatively faithful and perfectly pleasant adaptation so far.
The reason I stop to emphasize that at this point is that a lookout calls, “Land ho,” and, as you may have guessed, the adaptation is about to take a very wrong turn.
Next Week: All Is Not Well on the Lone Islands
References
| ↑1 | To be fair, you could say the same of Lucy and Caspian in the books. |
|---|---|
| ↑2 | Though when Caspian lost his temper with Reepicheep in the book, he did say that he promised to be a good lord to the talking beasts of Narnia, not beasts that never stop talking.” |
| ↑3 | I wouldn’t describe the Reepicheep of the books as a swashbuckler but it’s better than the snarky option. |
| ↑4 | If only it were! |
| ↑5 | Though it was on a different wall, I believe. |
| ↑6 | Heh, there’s got to be a joke to be made about Edmund the just somewhere in there. |
| ↑7 | Though it’s worth noting the book does have minor antagonists that show up for a chapter or two. |
| ↑8 | Actually, that’s not quite true. I haven’t seen Disney’s Strange World, but the internet informs me it contains a meta commentary about stories not needing villains. |
| ↑9 | I may not like the look of the ship, but I concede it can be filmed in cool ways. |
| ↑10 | The lyrics are ever so slightly different from those in the book by the way. I hope that’s just because the writers were working from memory and not because they changed them to fit that tune. |
| ↑11 | If I were adapting the book, I might change the dryad to a centaur, Narnian centaurs having prophetic powers. |
| ↑12 | It’s not exactly wrong but it’s not exactly right either. |
| ↑13 | I actually quoted the book’s description in a post about The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, so I’m not going to quote it again here. |
| ↑14 | In a deleted scene, inspired by the book, Lucy would have given Eustace some of her cordial for his seasickness. |
