Grief, I am so out of the loop! I was completely unaware that this project had started, let alone was filmed and ready for a summer 2008 release. Until I caught a fleeting glimpse of it in a quick roundup of 2008 releases at the end of Film 2008 last night.

Dashed over to YouTube to see the trailer. It's looking terrific!

Can't wait!

LabRat

Oh, waaaaayyy cool... I knew they were making it and I'd seen a poster, but this is the first look I've had at a trailer. It looks awesome. I confess, I was wondering how they'd do the story line -- I tried reading the book to my kids and they lost interest early... but this looks beautiful and exciting...

Wonder if it's too early to reserve a baby-sitter? Probably not -- I wanted to go to see TL,tW,&tW when it was first released, but my babysitter was busy going to the movie with *her* family!

PJ

I've seen a few complaints already from the purists. "Who's the water guy at the end - he isn't in the book!" and so forth.

Personally, I suspect he's probably just some minor water sprite involved in a battle or something and no one major anyway, but, regardless, I don't really expect a line by line adaptation of the book and don't really care if I get one.

So long as the major characters, events and elements are there and they capture the magic of the book, as they did with TLTW&TW, that's all I need.

LabRat

Originally posted by LabRat: Actually, I don't know why people are asking who the 'water guy' is... I just re-read all the Chronicles recently, and it seems to me that he has to be the river god that Aslan awakens! At least, that's who I immediately thought he was...

I'm really looking forward to the release of Prince Caspian (I downloaded the trailer from NarniaWeb.com the day it was released - Dec 5th). For LWW, we had a 'Lion Party' at one of the cinemas here in Chch and dressed up, had quizzes, ate turkish delight and got prizes etc. Then we went to the first, midnight showing of LWW.

I'm wondering if they'll do the Lion Parties around the world again this time around... I hope so.

~Anna (who is gleeful about Prince Caspian).

Want to see, want to see, WANT TO SEE! I was this way about LWW, and I'm excited about this one. I know they've made some story changes, so I want to see how it works. The Water Guy is most definitely in the book, if he's who I think he is, and I'm quite sure he is. Anna's right. The way they did the dryads, though, is still throwing me off, since I always thought of them as a bit.. Entish, before I knew what Ents were.

I haven't read Caspian in years, but if that's in the book, Anna, you're right, it seems obvious that's who it probably is. No idea what those guys are on about then.

I actually need to read the book again, because I've been racking my brain trying to recall how the children get into Narnia in that one and the train at the start of the trailer is throwing me because I don't remember that being it. It probably is, though and it will all come flooding back to me pretty shortly.

LabRat

The trailer shows almost how it happens in the book. The kids are at the train station getting ready to go their separate ways to school, and they're "pulled" back into Narnia. I can't remember if CS Lewis described the change from the station to Narnia, though.

I read the books earlier this year, and I have a good memory for detail... though not for everything else.

IIRC, they were waiting for a train when they suddenly got summoned and poofed out.

My first thought was that the waterguy was the rivergod, too. He is definitely in the book, and so is Bachus and a whole bunch of other people. The Lucy-dangling-over-a-cliff is what threw me, though. What scene is that from?

The cliff, I can't think of, unless it's on the way to the mound. But since they made some changes to the story, it may have been added.

Oh, higher quality versions of the trailer can be found at http://www.narnia.com . It makes it a bit easier to see some of the smaller details.

It's all coming back to me now. <g> At first, the only train I could recall was in The Last Battle. I think what threw me off is that it's the Underground. In my head, in Caspian, they were sitting on a bench on the platform of a little country station, out in the open air. Whether that's the book version or just what my head imagined I've yet to discover.... I got some great books for Christmas, but Caspian is next on my reading list for sure, once I've finished the Jeffrey Deaver I'm reading.

I've never yet managed to watch that trailer on the Disney site because it takes forever to load. I have zero patience with slow websites, I'm afraid. I'm like, I want click and get. NOW, dammit! But I'll persevere. Thanks for the link, Karen!

LabRat

Did you ever see the old BBC Chronicles of Narnia, LabRat? I believe that that's where they showed them being in that. On a platform of a little country station. Then they get 'pulled' into Narnia.

I think it's possibly also how it is described in the book. Oh, how I love the Chronicles. They're my favourite series of books. The Last Battle is my favourite book ever.

~Anna.

Yeah, back when I was a little kid. In fact, I have memories of re-enacting several scenes with my friends afterwards. Just down at the end of the road we have a long metal underpass, which always doubled nicely as a Dalek or Cyberman spaceship. I seem to recall it did a nice turn as the castle of the White Witch at some point, too.

LabRat

OMG!! You did this too?! not meaning to change the subject so much, I want to see Prince Caspian too, but it's so funny you mention acting out scenes. My friends and I did that too, from the LWnW animated movie, but when I think back on it now I feel kind of embarrassed (I always wanted to be Susan) *snork* ah memories....

Oh yeah. It was a favourite past-time of the neighbourhood kids when I was growing up to play Dr. Who or Narnia or...well, just about any show or movie we'd seen that week. I can recall acting out the Jungle Book after being taken to see it and for some reason I have a really strong memory of trying to capture an invisible lion and yelling at someone to 'Get a net!' only to have them reply, 'Who's Annette?'

No idea why that one moment sticks, but it has.

LabRat