I hesitate to post this because I think the Narnia film very, very good. The film captured the major ideas of the book, which is all you can ask for. The second time I saw it, I liked it far better than the first time because I had more perspective as far as evaluating the film in its own medium.
But the one thing I haven’t heard anyone talk about yet that truly bothered me both times I saw it was the constant sarcasm amongst the children as well as the desire to go home. My guess is Andrew Adamson, director of Shrek, has a sense of humor and a framework that is prone to sarcasm. Also, I’m sure at some point in the making of the script someone suggested Lewis made his characters too good and they needed to make them more “realistic.” That is why in the film we have Peter being condescending to Edmond even towards the end, we have the sweetest of little girls, Lucy, making a sarcastic comments to Susan when they all get into Narnia and when she calls her older sister “boring.”
The beauty of the characters of the children in Lewis’ books is that they conjure a deep desire in you to be good. The books show that morality is the truest adventure: one does not have to be “edgy” to find fulfillment. Lewis accomplishes this in his books in a completely believable way – it wouldn’t be so inspiriting otherwise. I missed this theme in the film, but they have plenty of chance to make it up in subsequent films in the chronicles.
