To Narnia, or not to Narnia?

[bunn]

I have a bit of a thing about Disney films. I don't normally take random grudges against multinational corporations, but just from time to time there seems to be a need, and Disney is #1 on my 'world would be better without' list.

I am being tempted to go and see Narnia. The clips look entertaining, the reviews are mostly good (apart from the Guardian one, which seemed to have a rather politicised beef with the book, rather than the film).

My memory is that the allegory is less in-your-face in "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" than in the later Narnia books, so my childhood disappointment when I realised Lewis was trying to sneakily Do Me Good should not be too much revived.

But it's *Disney*... Hmmm.

Comments

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

You could always go and see it, and then ceremonially burn an effigy of Mickey Mouse afterwards, or something, to salve your conscience.

I've not seen it, but would like to. I liked the trailers, even though I did keep forgetting I wasn't watching the trailer for a LOTR film. Pellinor even made approving grunts about the armour, which is very rare.

I totally failed to notice the allegory in "The Lion..." when I was little. When I was told some time later that it was "a religious book", I didn't believe it. I re-read it with great scepticism, and still wasn't at all convinced.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

If I had to buy a Mickey Mouse to burn, I feel that would be somehow counterproductive though.

I didn't see the allegory in the 'Lion' first time round. But I was sort of fighting not to see it by 'the Voyage of the Dawn Treader', and then once I'd read the Last Battle I went back and read the Lion again, and was gloomily forced to accept that it was in there after all. Which made me sad.

[king-pellinor.livejournal.com]

I'd say go and see it.

With something the size of Disney, absolute boycotts are silly IMO. They're split into too many divisions for it to be meaningful. Encourage the things you favour and boycott the bits you really don't like.

What do you have against Disney, anyway? Other than their assimilation of public domain stories, of course.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

It's not really anything so political as a boycott.

It's just that almost all their works, their style, their logo, their approach to life and even their spokesmen when they appear on the news creep me out bigtime.

It's like having a spider in the bath: I am not against spiders, I appreciate their many fine qualities and their good work against flies, I can even understand that a spider in a bath is small, sad and scared, and needs to be rehoused in a more appropriate environment. It still makes me go 'ICK!'

This is a rare work that seems like it might not have 'ICK', but there is still a sort of ambient ickiness to the Disney name that deters me, in the same way that I would feel a reluctance to eat woodlice.

[king-pellinor.livejournal.com]

Presumably in the way that you'd feel reluctance to eat woodlice even if they were actually made of chocolate, but just came in a box labelled "chocolate woodlice"?

I hope I'm not giving MailMaiden ideas here, by the way... :-|

But weren't Toy Story and so on worth watching?

Try telling yourself it's NOT a Disney film, it's a Narnia film with Disney sneakily trying to take the credit because that's what they do, the icky sneaks ;-D

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I haven't actually seen many Disney productions at all - because they make me go 'Ick'.

Toy story I have actually seen, I think - and was not soooooo bad, but it was still a bit Twee Flavoured, and it would have been much worse if I'd had to see it in a cinema where the Twee can get all around you and you can't easily bugger off and do something else if it all becomes Too Much.

[king-pellinor.livejournal.com]

Philistine :-D

[chainmailmaiden]

Hmm, Chocolate woodlice, now there's an idea ;-)

Actually I think woodlice might be a bit earthy tasting like beetroot so I'm not sure how well they would go with chocolate. A dark chocolate with a high percentage of cocoa solids might work, but I think they'd be better made into a savoury snack. Dry roasted with chili and garlic would probably be nice...

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I read somewhere that they are very like prawns. That's why they were a good example: I love prawns, but I think I'd have to concentrate hard to eat 'things that are like prawns but I know they are really woodlice'.

It's something about the word 'lice' I think. If they were woodprawns, they'd sound much more appetising!

[chainmailmaiden]

I agree the word 'lice' is somewhat off-putting, but it wouldn't stop me trying them. I don't think I'd like to eat them straight out of the garden though. I'l prefer to rear them myself and then I could control what they ate. Unfortunately I haven't managed to find a supplier in the UK for edible insects/invertebrates yet.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

I will never forgive Disney for buying Winnie the Pooh. Never. When I see children with Disney Pooh toys, I want to rip them from their hands and slash them to pieces with a sharp knife.

I actually hadn't noticed that the Narnia film was Disney, and had I known, I would definitely have been prejudiced against it. I'll just have to quietly stick my tongue out at the logo when it appears at the start of the film.

[the-marquis.livejournal.com]

Would this be a bad time to mention how they're adding a new character into their version of Pooh?

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

Aaargh! What's it called? *snarls with incoherent rage*

[the-marquis.livejournal.com]

Er I don't recall a name being abndied about but there's a news piece on it at the BBC here (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4512770.stm).

Apparently its all part of a "rebranding" and Christopher Robin will be swapped for a young lass. It certainly sounds vile but sadly Ms Milne has yet to win a court case regarding getting the rights back

Aghast of Wolverhampton.

[the-marquis.livejournal.com]

Oddly I recall seeing the allegory in TLTWATW* when I read it as a kid, although it really only comes through in the last third (or so) of the book. I've seen reviews from Taruithornies that loved, it and form others who thought the FX were awful. I'm not fussed about the allegory as I supect it is less obvious in the film. Hollywood is very secular and not at all (oh no!) above making out there's more in there so as to grab a big chunk of "tub-thumping Southern Baptist" audience share (to pick a very general example).

*Is it me or does that sound Aztec?

[bunn.livejournal.com]

It does sound Aztec!