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edenfallingThis is part 4 of a rambling compare-and-contrast on the BBC miniseries and Disney feature film versions of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, with extensive reference to the book (since the book is my only true canon). As of yet, I have no preference for one filmization over the other, since both have elements that make me happy and elements that annoy me to no end.
link to part 1
link to part 2
link to part 3
link to part 4
link to part 5
jump to some thoughts on Prince Caspian
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Deeper Magic:
Interestingly, I think the BBC background music for Susan's and Lucy's approach to Aslan's corpse is a sort of minor variation on the music for the opening credits. I like that; it shows nice aural continuity. There is no time between their failure to untie the knots and the appearance of the mice, and Susan is oddly passive when complaining about the mice. (It does no good to tell dumb beasts to get away if you are standing on the other side of a clearing and make no move to physically dislodge them.) But the rest of the conversation is basically from the book, and then the girls walk off into the woods until dawn. The rearrangement of hopeless waiting vs. the appearance of the mice simply cuts the number of required scenes while keeping the overall timing of events correct.
Disney Lucy, upon reaching Aslan's corpse, has the logical idea of trying her magic cordial. Susan points out, equally logically, that it's too late; the cordial is for healing, not resurrection. The sisters actually sit on the Stone Table and lean against Aslan's dead body as they grieve. It's kind of morbid, but understandable. This also means that when the mice appear, Susan is in position to at least wave her hand at them. (As with the BBC, the mourning is compressed so the mice appear almost immediately.)
Because Disney Aslan did not previously drop heavy hints that he might not be around for the battle, Disney Susan realizes she and Lucy have to tell the free Narnians about his death. Lucy refuses to leave Aslan, and comes up with the idea of using the tree spirits as messengers. This is an interesting idea, but it would not be necessary if Disney had not been rearranging story elements willy-nilly.
I have to say, the BBC's broken Stone Table looks remarkably like plastic. Also, it is hard to be properly awe-struck by Aslan's resurrection when he just stands there like a lump, and his dramatic roar is so wimpy. *sigh* But, you know, budgetary constraints.
I haven't mentioned this before, but not only is BBC Aslan's voice too high, his line delivery sucks. The voice actor is trying to sound wise and portentous, but what he more often achieves is pomposity and a vague sense of, I dunno, constipation. This is not improved when he is playing across from Susan, Lucy, or Peter. It is not that those kids are bad actors. It's just that all the BBC asks them to do is shades of earnestness -- earnest sorrow, earnest worry, earnest enthusiasm, occasionally earnest stiff upper lip, or, for Peter, earnest nobility. Edmund is the one who has to do actual acting, and the BBC got ridiculously lucky with Jonathan Scott. Disney requires more range from all four kids, but they also got very lucky with Skandar Keynes.
Once again, the BBC softens the allegorical aspects of the story. Where Lewis has Susan ask what it all means, the BBC has the girls say that they saw Aslan dead and ask how "it" happened. And then Lucy accuses him of knowing all along, to which Aslan replies that he knew of the incantation (note that he refers to it as magic, not, say, the Emperor's law) but that it had never been tested before. I am beginning to think this de-emphasis of the parallels between Aslan and Jesus is deliberate. I wonder what implications that has on the BBC's dramatizations of the later Chronicles, where the parallels are less muddled than in LWW.
Disney's Stone Table cracks so violently it also shatters the paving stones and knocks Susan and Lucy to their knees. And Aslan... what is this nonsense? He says Jadis misinterpreted the Deep Magic. He doesn't even mention the Deeper Magic! I mean, yes, it sort of makes the same point -- that her understanding is limited, that she cannot grasp love -- but, oh, this makes such a muck of Lewis's world-building. *gnashes teeth*
Disney skips much of the reunion and explanation. Lucy says she and Susan told everyone that Aslan's dead, and that they have to go help their brothers fight the Witch. Aslan agrees, but says they won't go alone. He tells the girls to climb on his back and to cover their ears, and we cut from his roar back to the already-joined battle.
Meanwhile, BBC Aslan (being two guys in a costume) obviously cannot run off with the girls on his back, so the production switches immediately to fakery and makes him fly! *cracks up*
-----
Battle preparations:
The next several sections -- especially the battle -- take up hardly any time in the book. Lewis is not much interested in the battle, so he does a conjuring trick and focuses attention on the restoration of the statues in the Witch's house, which is happening at the same time. But you can't pull that sleight-of-hand in a movie, not after the build up this confrontation has received.
The BBC follows Lewis and set the battle in the forest. Jadis and the Dwarf (who by this point seems to be her general as well as confidant and driver) discuss the virtues of a night attack vs. a daylight attack, and Jadis threatens to turn her own army to stone if they can't stay silent. She is attacking secretly, you see. (As a happy side effect, Kellerman's melodrama is much reduced when she is forced to whisper!) The BBC then switches back to Aslan and the girls. Once Mr. Tumnus is brought to life, we return to Peter and Edmund, wondering where their sisters are. "With Aslan," Edmund says. Then they take up their positions, and suddenly Jadis attacks! (In a very unconvincing swarm of animation. *sigh*)
Meanwhile, Disney begins setting up the battle before Aslan is resurrected. Peter and Edmund confirm Aslan's absence, and Peter is about to despair; what does he know about leading battles? But Edmund has faith in him. So Peter stares at the map, whereupon we get a nifty effect as the camera rushes down and forward and the map gradually morphs into real life scenery.
Disney, as previously mentioned, stages their battle on an open highland plain at the base of a rocky outcropping. (This is partly for visual effect, I think, and partly just down to geological differences between England and New Zealand.) What is of more interest to me is the way Disney warps Edmund's role. He is meant to be Peter's fellow king. He is meant to participate fully in the battle, to be in the thick of fighting. The BBC shows him directing some Narnian soldiers; he's clearly in charge, along with Peter. Disney has Peter and the Narnian officers relegate him to the sidelines. On the one hand that is more realistic -- Edmund is a child, and Disney makes the age difference between the brothers much more clear than the BBC does -- but on the other, it diminishes Edmund's agency.
...
I suppose, on the third hand, it also shows Edmund's faith in his brother, since he will now let Peter order him around like this, whereas before he would have screamed bloody murder (figuratively) and dug in his heels and made all kinds of trouble. But I don't like it.
Anyway, Disney Jadis has no truck with secret attacks. She drives a chariot up in full view (well, it's an open field; she could hardly help being visible) and arrays her army openly, as a form of intimidation. In both versions the free Narnians hold the high ground or otherwise defensible positions, but Jadis does not seem much concerned. "I have no interest in prisoners," she says. "Kill them all." *swoons over the lovely characterization*
Then there is a battle.
-----
In the Witch's house, part 2:
BBC Aslan flies over some pretty British scenery. Lucy daringly lets go with one arm, and Susan yanks her hand back to keep her safe. It's a nice character touch. The Witch's castle looks very different in summer daylight from the way it looked in winter night. It was intimidating then. Now it just seems run-down. And oddly small; I don't believe an army could hold out there. Then again, the BBC armies for both sides are quite small. Their version of Narnia feels smaller and cozier all round than Disney's version. The courtyard is meant to be stone, whatever the season, but the BBC covers it in grass. I think that is a location shot artifact; they were in an old castle, and the courtyard was overgrown.
Disney Aslan runs through some very pretty New Zealand scenery, until they crest a hill and see the Witch's castle rising from the center of a lake; it had previously been in the center of a flat, frozen plain. From a distance, the castle appears to be melting, but much more slowly than the rest of the country. I wonder if that's because of the sheer density of the ice (it chills itself) or because of residual magic. We cut to the battle; when we cut back, Lucy and Susan are walking through the courtyard, which (judging by the dampness of the statues) really is made of ice, and really is melting.
The BBC stone-to-life effect is as technically brilliant as their petrifaction effect -- they are the same effect run in opposite directions, I suspect -- but while petrifaction should be quick in order to avoid implications of torture, I think the reversed effect is too rapid to have the full emotional impact it ought to convey. It should go slowly to wring out every drop of, "Is it real?" and "What if it stops halfway?" and make you hold your breath until the statues are safely restored to life. Also, the BBC still do not have the other lion... though to be fair, Disney omits all the 'us lions' business as well. I suppose everyone thought it was cutesy and irrelevant. The BBC makes excellent use of the giant, including the lovely, "Once the feet are put right, all the rest of him will follow," exchange. After that, though, the scene is oddly quiet and somber; everyone is supposed to be rushing through the castle shouting their discoveries of various statues, but one might think Lucy and Susan alone in the building.
Disney has Mr. Tumnus standing out in the courtyard, so he's the first to be restored to life. I do not believe in the details of Disney's stone-to-life effect (as with the petrifaction effect, I think this is because the BBC visual is, for me, the 'real' one), but I like that it is gradual, that the restored victims 'shake off' the stone in their initial movements. That's emotionally resonant. Lucy introduces Susan and Mr. Tumnus -- Susan rushes over to hug him -- and then Aslan interrupts to say they need to search the castle, since Peter will need all the reinforcements he can get. This is the last Disney shows us of the Witch's house, which is a pity; I did wonder how the inside would hold up to the thaw.
The BBC almost completely glosses over Lucy's reunion with Mr. Tumnus. Lewis has them dancing for joy and Lucy telling him what's been happening, but I do find that somewhat abrupt after the suffering he's been through, so perhaps cutting the scene short is a good decision. It allows viewers to fill in whatever we want. Anyway, after cutting to the start of the battle, we return to see BBC Aslan standing on the castle steps addressing the multitude. He asks the giant to open the gates, which he does; then everyone rushes out without the comedic interlude about the handkerchief. I think that was a wise cut, especially since we immediately switch back to the tension of the battle.
-----
The Battle of Beruna (or of a random highland plain, if you believe Disney):
The BBC's battle is a confused melee in constricted quarters. It includes much pointless rushing about, very fake-looking hacking at insubstantial animated specters, and Jadis being utter rubbish as a tactician; she just stands there cackling, and occasionally making sweepingly exaggerated gestures with her wand to turn individual fighters to stone. What nonsense! If I were her, I'd be flicking that wand as fast as I could every time I could get someone in my line of sight. Small, sharp movements and calmness are key.
(As I have said before, the BBC is utter pants at realistic violence.)
Disney's battle owes nothing to the books, but it is a brilliantly staged bit of work, and it makes tactical sense as well... except for the glaring, giant, bloody obvious problem. Look. 1) Jadis has a magic wand. 2) The wand turns people to stone. 3) All she needs to use the wand is a line of sight and about two seconds. Therefore, do you fight her in the open where she has a clear view in all directions? No! Of course not! You fight her in the woods, or as a last resort, you assault her castle from multiple sides, so she cannot see all your troops at once and you have a decent chance of getting behind her.
Having made the boneheaded choice to stage their battle on an open plain, Disney has to make Jadis equally stupid and have her fight more with conventional weapons than with her wand. Never mind that this makes no tactical sense. Never mind that it's terribly unfaithful to the book. I suppose they thought it would make for more exciting film. Bah. But once you overlook the problem of petrifaction, the rest of the tactics are, as I said, good. They even include an air force (griffins with rocks) and the magical equivalent of a Greek Fire surprise weapon (a phoenix). Of course, Jadis did not create a hundred years of winter for nothing; she freezes the flames and drives her chariot right through the fire line. (Have I mentioned lately that Jadis is awesome? Evil, unquestionably, but awesome nonetheless... well, in her book and Disney incarnations. BBC Jadis, not so much. *curses Kellerman*)
Disney has swelling martial/romantic background music all through the start of the charge. Then Peter brings down his visor, and we watch the two armies cover the final yards in dead silence, which is broken only by impact and melee noises once contact is made. The music is gone. This is no longer stirring and romantic; it's just butchery. It's an interesting effect. Then we cut to Aslan's resurrection, and when we return to the battle, the music has returned.
The Disney Narnians begin to retreat back to the shelter of the cliffs, but Peter's unicorn is shot (here I should mention that I about died laughing when he showed up riding a unicorn during the training montage -- a glowing white unicorn, at that!) and Peter falls to the ground. The centaur general (I think his name is Oreius?) and a rhinoceros charge into Jadis's advance to protect him. The centaur reaches Jadis... and she petrifies him. This is shown as a much more drawn out process than it ought to be, with dramatic twirling of her wand and physical contact between its focus crystal and the centaur's side. Bah. Then we quick cut from the fake looking centaur statue to the garden of statues in Jadis's courtyard.
Anyway, the other problem with Disney's battle is their use of Edmund. He is meant to be in the thick of things. Disney takes him away from Peter's side and sticks Oreius there in his place. Edmund does get to signal archers a couple of times, but that doesn't feel like enough to me. Also, it feels utterly wrong for a king of Narnia to let Mr. Beaver haul him off like a damsel in distress. Peter couches this as, "Retreat and take the rest of the army with you; save them," but Mr. Beaver seems to interpret it as, "Save yourself; just get out of here." Maybe that's true to Disney Mr. Beaver's character -- as you may have noticed, I have an extremely low opinion of him -- but it drives me up the wall.
But Edmund redeems himself, mostly. He digs in his heels and watches Jadis petrify soldiers. The camera zeroes in on her wand, and as Jadis stalks toward Peter, you can see Edmund decide that this is not going to happen. He runs up from behind, jumps off a rock, and aims for her wand. She dodges. (Probably he should not have yelled and warned her he was coming. *wry*) But as she thrusts out with her wand, he swings again and shatters the crystal in a burst of icy blue light the same shade as the ice castle and the fire-snuffing. It's a nice visual echo. Jadis then uses her sword to whip his blade out of his hand, and stabs him with her broken wand.
The BBC, unsurprisingly, fails at creating a realistic Edmund-breaks-the-wand scene. Their version is stagey as hell, and does not include Edmund fighting through three ogres to reach her. (Is it selfish of me to want to see that version someday?) But they maintain Edmund's role as a full participant in the battle and clearly show him both identifying Jadis's wand as the main threat and deciding to break it. Then she stabs him with the broken end.
It's interesting that both the BBC and Disney decide the wand is the source of Edmund's mortal wound. Lewis never says anything about that issue one way or another, but I like the conceit. It makes sense from a practical perspective, since it was the weapon Jadis had to hand, and it's dramatically appropriate for Edmund to be the last victim of the wand he destroyed. I also find it interesting that Disney changes Edmund's motive for breaking the wand. Lewis has him do it to save the army; Disney has him do it to save Peter. I suppose since Disney has been playing down the threat of the wand, they have to up the stakes again, and family is the easiest way to do that.
Disney then lets Peter fight Jadis blade-to-blade, which is relatively true to the book (though Jadis is meant to be using the stone knife she used to kill Aslan, not two swords...) and also very cool to watch. The BBC has Peter rush over to examine Edmund's fallen body while Jadis hurries away into a stony defile. Why is she fleeing? She is not a physical coward, and she still has her knife.
Disney Aslan interrupts the single combat by leaping on Jadis without a word; Lewis's "expression of terror and amazement" appears on her face as she lies pinned to the ground, her sword just out of reach. Then he snarls and the camera cuts away; presumably he rends her to pieces offscreen. I can get behind that! BBC Aslan, on the other hand, stands in the distance and verbally tells Peter to stand back. Then he roars a lot and I guess the sonic vibration either shakes the outcropping Jadis is standing on or makes her dizzy; she swoons and falls to her death. It is one of the most stupidly anticlimactic deaths I have ever seen.
Disney's battle is still raging as the reinforcements mop up, though an interesting effect speeds up everyone but Peter and Aslan, who stare at each other over a small distance until Susan and Lucy rush up to Peter's side. The BBC suddenly has all the bad guys flee in terror, mostly via more bad animation. I hate the stereotype of the cowardly evil legions who fall apart the moment their leader is dead. Armies, no matter how evil their ideology, are more organized than that. They might fall into subgroups, but that's still plenty organized enough to fight, since battles are so disorganized and decentralized anyway.
(Have I mentioned often enough that the BBC is utter pants at violence? Because they are. They really, really are.)
On a side note, the BBC has a few female soldiers in the battle -- mostly dryads and naiads, I assume -- and while it's good that they have weapons and are present at all, what they do in practice is cower while someone else rescues them or they are turned to stone. Disney also has only a few female soldiers -- centaurs, in this case -- and while they are archers rather than front-line soldiers, at least they are effective at what they do. So... sidelined but effective, or in the thick of battle and utterly useless? Pick your poison. *sigh*
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One last post to go!
link to part 5
link to part 1
link to part 2
link to part 3
link to part 4
link to part 5
jump to some thoughts on Prince Caspian
-----
Deeper Magic:
Interestingly, I think the BBC background music for Susan's and Lucy's approach to Aslan's corpse is a sort of minor variation on the music for the opening credits. I like that; it shows nice aural continuity. There is no time between their failure to untie the knots and the appearance of the mice, and Susan is oddly passive when complaining about the mice. (It does no good to tell dumb beasts to get away if you are standing on the other side of a clearing and make no move to physically dislodge them.) But the rest of the conversation is basically from the book, and then the girls walk off into the woods until dawn. The rearrangement of hopeless waiting vs. the appearance of the mice simply cuts the number of required scenes while keeping the overall timing of events correct.
Disney Lucy, upon reaching Aslan's corpse, has the logical idea of trying her magic cordial. Susan points out, equally logically, that it's too late; the cordial is for healing, not resurrection. The sisters actually sit on the Stone Table and lean against Aslan's dead body as they grieve. It's kind of morbid, but understandable. This also means that when the mice appear, Susan is in position to at least wave her hand at them. (As with the BBC, the mourning is compressed so the mice appear almost immediately.)
Because Disney Aslan did not previously drop heavy hints that he might not be around for the battle, Disney Susan realizes she and Lucy have to tell the free Narnians about his death. Lucy refuses to leave Aslan, and comes up with the idea of using the tree spirits as messengers. This is an interesting idea, but it would not be necessary if Disney had not been rearranging story elements willy-nilly.
I have to say, the BBC's broken Stone Table looks remarkably like plastic. Also, it is hard to be properly awe-struck by Aslan's resurrection when he just stands there like a lump, and his dramatic roar is so wimpy. *sigh* But, you know, budgetary constraints.
I haven't mentioned this before, but not only is BBC Aslan's voice too high, his line delivery sucks. The voice actor is trying to sound wise and portentous, but what he more often achieves is pomposity and a vague sense of, I dunno, constipation. This is not improved when he is playing across from Susan, Lucy, or Peter. It is not that those kids are bad actors. It's just that all the BBC asks them to do is shades of earnestness -- earnest sorrow, earnest worry, earnest enthusiasm, occasionally earnest stiff upper lip, or, for Peter, earnest nobility. Edmund is the one who has to do actual acting, and the BBC got ridiculously lucky with Jonathan Scott. Disney requires more range from all four kids, but they also got very lucky with Skandar Keynes.
Once again, the BBC softens the allegorical aspects of the story. Where Lewis has Susan ask what it all means, the BBC has the girls say that they saw Aslan dead and ask how "it" happened. And then Lucy accuses him of knowing all along, to which Aslan replies that he knew of the incantation (note that he refers to it as magic, not, say, the Emperor's law) but that it had never been tested before. I am beginning to think this de-emphasis of the parallels between Aslan and Jesus is deliberate. I wonder what implications that has on the BBC's dramatizations of the later Chronicles, where the parallels are less muddled than in LWW.
Disney's Stone Table cracks so violently it also shatters the paving stones and knocks Susan and Lucy to their knees. And Aslan... what is this nonsense? He says Jadis misinterpreted the Deep Magic. He doesn't even mention the Deeper Magic! I mean, yes, it sort of makes the same point -- that her understanding is limited, that she cannot grasp love -- but, oh, this makes such a muck of Lewis's world-building. *gnashes teeth*
Disney skips much of the reunion and explanation. Lucy says she and Susan told everyone that Aslan's dead, and that they have to go help their brothers fight the Witch. Aslan agrees, but says they won't go alone. He tells the girls to climb on his back and to cover their ears, and we cut from his roar back to the already-joined battle.
Meanwhile, BBC Aslan (being two guys in a costume) obviously cannot run off with the girls on his back, so the production switches immediately to fakery and makes him fly! *cracks up*
-----
Battle preparations:
The next several sections -- especially the battle -- take up hardly any time in the book. Lewis is not much interested in the battle, so he does a conjuring trick and focuses attention on the restoration of the statues in the Witch's house, which is happening at the same time. But you can't pull that sleight-of-hand in a movie, not after the build up this confrontation has received.
The BBC follows Lewis and set the battle in the forest. Jadis and the Dwarf (who by this point seems to be her general as well as confidant and driver) discuss the virtues of a night attack vs. a daylight attack, and Jadis threatens to turn her own army to stone if they can't stay silent. She is attacking secretly, you see. (As a happy side effect, Kellerman's melodrama is much reduced when she is forced to whisper!) The BBC then switches back to Aslan and the girls. Once Mr. Tumnus is brought to life, we return to Peter and Edmund, wondering where their sisters are. "With Aslan," Edmund says. Then they take up their positions, and suddenly Jadis attacks! (In a very unconvincing swarm of animation. *sigh*)
Meanwhile, Disney begins setting up the battle before Aslan is resurrected. Peter and Edmund confirm Aslan's absence, and Peter is about to despair; what does he know about leading battles? But Edmund has faith in him. So Peter stares at the map, whereupon we get a nifty effect as the camera rushes down and forward and the map gradually morphs into real life scenery.
Disney, as previously mentioned, stages their battle on an open highland plain at the base of a rocky outcropping. (This is partly for visual effect, I think, and partly just down to geological differences between England and New Zealand.) What is of more interest to me is the way Disney warps Edmund's role. He is meant to be Peter's fellow king. He is meant to participate fully in the battle, to be in the thick of fighting. The BBC shows him directing some Narnian soldiers; he's clearly in charge, along with Peter. Disney has Peter and the Narnian officers relegate him to the sidelines. On the one hand that is more realistic -- Edmund is a child, and Disney makes the age difference between the brothers much more clear than the BBC does -- but on the other, it diminishes Edmund's agency.
...
I suppose, on the third hand, it also shows Edmund's faith in his brother, since he will now let Peter order him around like this, whereas before he would have screamed bloody murder (figuratively) and dug in his heels and made all kinds of trouble. But I don't like it.
Anyway, Disney Jadis has no truck with secret attacks. She drives a chariot up in full view (well, it's an open field; she could hardly help being visible) and arrays her army openly, as a form of intimidation. In both versions the free Narnians hold the high ground or otherwise defensible positions, but Jadis does not seem much concerned. "I have no interest in prisoners," she says. "Kill them all." *swoons over the lovely characterization*
Then there is a battle.
-----
In the Witch's house, part 2:
BBC Aslan flies over some pretty British scenery. Lucy daringly lets go with one arm, and Susan yanks her hand back to keep her safe. It's a nice character touch. The Witch's castle looks very different in summer daylight from the way it looked in winter night. It was intimidating then. Now it just seems run-down. And oddly small; I don't believe an army could hold out there. Then again, the BBC armies for both sides are quite small. Their version of Narnia feels smaller and cozier all round than Disney's version. The courtyard is meant to be stone, whatever the season, but the BBC covers it in grass. I think that is a location shot artifact; they were in an old castle, and the courtyard was overgrown.
Disney Aslan runs through some very pretty New Zealand scenery, until they crest a hill and see the Witch's castle rising from the center of a lake; it had previously been in the center of a flat, frozen plain. From a distance, the castle appears to be melting, but much more slowly than the rest of the country. I wonder if that's because of the sheer density of the ice (it chills itself) or because of residual magic. We cut to the battle; when we cut back, Lucy and Susan are walking through the courtyard, which (judging by the dampness of the statues) really is made of ice, and really is melting.
The BBC stone-to-life effect is as technically brilliant as their petrifaction effect -- they are the same effect run in opposite directions, I suspect -- but while petrifaction should be quick in order to avoid implications of torture, I think the reversed effect is too rapid to have the full emotional impact it ought to convey. It should go slowly to wring out every drop of, "Is it real?" and "What if it stops halfway?" and make you hold your breath until the statues are safely restored to life. Also, the BBC still do not have the other lion... though to be fair, Disney omits all the 'us lions' business as well. I suppose everyone thought it was cutesy and irrelevant. The BBC makes excellent use of the giant, including the lovely, "Once the feet are put right, all the rest of him will follow," exchange. After that, though, the scene is oddly quiet and somber; everyone is supposed to be rushing through the castle shouting their discoveries of various statues, but one might think Lucy and Susan alone in the building.
Disney has Mr. Tumnus standing out in the courtyard, so he's the first to be restored to life. I do not believe in the details of Disney's stone-to-life effect (as with the petrifaction effect, I think this is because the BBC visual is, for me, the 'real' one), but I like that it is gradual, that the restored victims 'shake off' the stone in their initial movements. That's emotionally resonant. Lucy introduces Susan and Mr. Tumnus -- Susan rushes over to hug him -- and then Aslan interrupts to say they need to search the castle, since Peter will need all the reinforcements he can get. This is the last Disney shows us of the Witch's house, which is a pity; I did wonder how the inside would hold up to the thaw.
The BBC almost completely glosses over Lucy's reunion with Mr. Tumnus. Lewis has them dancing for joy and Lucy telling him what's been happening, but I do find that somewhat abrupt after the suffering he's been through, so perhaps cutting the scene short is a good decision. It allows viewers to fill in whatever we want. Anyway, after cutting to the start of the battle, we return to see BBC Aslan standing on the castle steps addressing the multitude. He asks the giant to open the gates, which he does; then everyone rushes out without the comedic interlude about the handkerchief. I think that was a wise cut, especially since we immediately switch back to the tension of the battle.
-----
The Battle of Beruna (or of a random highland plain, if you believe Disney):
The BBC's battle is a confused melee in constricted quarters. It includes much pointless rushing about, very fake-looking hacking at insubstantial animated specters, and Jadis being utter rubbish as a tactician; she just stands there cackling, and occasionally making sweepingly exaggerated gestures with her wand to turn individual fighters to stone. What nonsense! If I were her, I'd be flicking that wand as fast as I could every time I could get someone in my line of sight. Small, sharp movements and calmness are key.
(As I have said before, the BBC is utter pants at realistic violence.)
Disney's battle owes nothing to the books, but it is a brilliantly staged bit of work, and it makes tactical sense as well... except for the glaring, giant, bloody obvious problem. Look. 1) Jadis has a magic wand. 2) The wand turns people to stone. 3) All she needs to use the wand is a line of sight and about two seconds. Therefore, do you fight her in the open where she has a clear view in all directions? No! Of course not! You fight her in the woods, or as a last resort, you assault her castle from multiple sides, so she cannot see all your troops at once and you have a decent chance of getting behind her.
Having made the boneheaded choice to stage their battle on an open plain, Disney has to make Jadis equally stupid and have her fight more with conventional weapons than with her wand. Never mind that this makes no tactical sense. Never mind that it's terribly unfaithful to the book. I suppose they thought it would make for more exciting film. Bah. But once you overlook the problem of petrifaction, the rest of the tactics are, as I said, good. They even include an air force (griffins with rocks) and the magical equivalent of a Greek Fire surprise weapon (a phoenix). Of course, Jadis did not create a hundred years of winter for nothing; she freezes the flames and drives her chariot right through the fire line. (Have I mentioned lately that Jadis is awesome? Evil, unquestionably, but awesome nonetheless... well, in her book and Disney incarnations. BBC Jadis, not so much. *curses Kellerman*)
Disney has swelling martial/romantic background music all through the start of the charge. Then Peter brings down his visor, and we watch the two armies cover the final yards in dead silence, which is broken only by impact and melee noises once contact is made. The music is gone. This is no longer stirring and romantic; it's just butchery. It's an interesting effect. Then we cut to Aslan's resurrection, and when we return to the battle, the music has returned.
The Disney Narnians begin to retreat back to the shelter of the cliffs, but Peter's unicorn is shot (here I should mention that I about died laughing when he showed up riding a unicorn during the training montage -- a glowing white unicorn, at that!) and Peter falls to the ground. The centaur general (I think his name is Oreius?) and a rhinoceros charge into Jadis's advance to protect him. The centaur reaches Jadis... and she petrifies him. This is shown as a much more drawn out process than it ought to be, with dramatic twirling of her wand and physical contact between its focus crystal and the centaur's side. Bah. Then we quick cut from the fake looking centaur statue to the garden of statues in Jadis's courtyard.
Anyway, the other problem with Disney's battle is their use of Edmund. He is meant to be in the thick of things. Disney takes him away from Peter's side and sticks Oreius there in his place. Edmund does get to signal archers a couple of times, but that doesn't feel like enough to me. Also, it feels utterly wrong for a king of Narnia to let Mr. Beaver haul him off like a damsel in distress. Peter couches this as, "Retreat and take the rest of the army with you; save them," but Mr. Beaver seems to interpret it as, "Save yourself; just get out of here." Maybe that's true to Disney Mr. Beaver's character -- as you may have noticed, I have an extremely low opinion of him -- but it drives me up the wall.
But Edmund redeems himself, mostly. He digs in his heels and watches Jadis petrify soldiers. The camera zeroes in on her wand, and as Jadis stalks toward Peter, you can see Edmund decide that this is not going to happen. He runs up from behind, jumps off a rock, and aims for her wand. She dodges. (Probably he should not have yelled and warned her he was coming. *wry*) But as she thrusts out with her wand, he swings again and shatters the crystal in a burst of icy blue light the same shade as the ice castle and the fire-snuffing. It's a nice visual echo. Jadis then uses her sword to whip his blade out of his hand, and stabs him with her broken wand.
The BBC, unsurprisingly, fails at creating a realistic Edmund-breaks-the-wand scene. Their version is stagey as hell, and does not include Edmund fighting through three ogres to reach her. (Is it selfish of me to want to see that version someday?) But they maintain Edmund's role as a full participant in the battle and clearly show him both identifying Jadis's wand as the main threat and deciding to break it. Then she stabs him with the broken end.
It's interesting that both the BBC and Disney decide the wand is the source of Edmund's mortal wound. Lewis never says anything about that issue one way or another, but I like the conceit. It makes sense from a practical perspective, since it was the weapon Jadis had to hand, and it's dramatically appropriate for Edmund to be the last victim of the wand he destroyed. I also find it interesting that Disney changes Edmund's motive for breaking the wand. Lewis has him do it to save the army; Disney has him do it to save Peter. I suppose since Disney has been playing down the threat of the wand, they have to up the stakes again, and family is the easiest way to do that.
Disney then lets Peter fight Jadis blade-to-blade, which is relatively true to the book (though Jadis is meant to be using the stone knife she used to kill Aslan, not two swords...) and also very cool to watch. The BBC has Peter rush over to examine Edmund's fallen body while Jadis hurries away into a stony defile. Why is she fleeing? She is not a physical coward, and she still has her knife.
Disney Aslan interrupts the single combat by leaping on Jadis without a word; Lewis's "expression of terror and amazement" appears on her face as she lies pinned to the ground, her sword just out of reach. Then he snarls and the camera cuts away; presumably he rends her to pieces offscreen. I can get behind that! BBC Aslan, on the other hand, stands in the distance and verbally tells Peter to stand back. Then he roars a lot and I guess the sonic vibration either shakes the outcropping Jadis is standing on or makes her dizzy; she swoons and falls to her death. It is one of the most stupidly anticlimactic deaths I have ever seen.
Disney's battle is still raging as the reinforcements mop up, though an interesting effect speeds up everyone but Peter and Aslan, who stare at each other over a small distance until Susan and Lucy rush up to Peter's side. The BBC suddenly has all the bad guys flee in terror, mostly via more bad animation. I hate the stereotype of the cowardly evil legions who fall apart the moment their leader is dead. Armies, no matter how evil their ideology, are more organized than that. They might fall into subgroups, but that's still plenty organized enough to fight, since battles are so disorganized and decentralized anyway.
(Have I mentioned often enough that the BBC is utter pants at violence? Because they are. They really, really are.)
On a side note, the BBC has a few female soldiers in the battle -- mostly dryads and naiads, I assume -- and while it's good that they have weapons and are present at all, what they do in practice is cower while someone else rescues them or they are turned to stone. Disney also has only a few female soldiers -- centaurs, in this case -- and while they are archers rather than front-line soldiers, at least they are effective at what they do. So... sidelined but effective, or in the thick of battle and utterly useless? Pick your poison. *sigh*
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One last post to go!
link to part 5
