The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

“The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” was a great experience for me. Despite the fact that “Prince Caspian” was just a little bit of a let down, I wasn’t too disappointed. Usually when it comes to franchises, I have a movie marathon in preparation for the new installment. Before seeing “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader”, I chose not to re-watch the first two films because of a lack of time. The third Narnia movie was not terrible but the decisions made concerning its story and continuity affected my enjoyment. I went into the theater with no expectations and when I came out, I did not have a huge problem with my experience. Just like the Harry Potter films however, the third film is different from the first two.

The story is not bad but considering that this is an adaption, I would have to guess that the original book was better. As with “Prince Caspian”, the children return to Narnia quite soon in the film. We don’t get much time to feel a contrast between the real world and Narnia because of this lack of “prologue”. “The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe” adaption maintained a traditional story structure while the next two films seem to take us back to Narnia a little too soon. This time, Lucy must learn about the importance of self worth while Edmund must find out where he truly belongs. As for Eustace, well, it is obvious what he need to learn from Narnia. The danger of temptation is powerfully portrayed and as a result once we get to Aslan’s Table, we have lost almost all ability to tell evil from good. Lilliandil and the food on the table seemed to be too good to be true. Even Lilliandil’s assurances did not help all my doubts and the filmmakers should have done something more to assure the audience that this was not just another bunch of temptations. I find it funny how producer Andrew Adamson includes a joke in “Dawn Treader” from his film “Shrek”, which is that getting Reepicheep to shut up is the trick. I believe however that the joke works ten times better in “Shrek”. I like how the Christian allegories are still present in this film. Aslan mentions that he is known by another name in our world and it is obvious what that means Christian-wise. To have that conclude the film is powerful for me. I am glad that Aslan looks realistic again as opposed to his appearance in the second film. Another great use of special effects among many in the film is the water coming out of the painting even though it is off the wall.

I noticed continuity changes introduced with “Dawn Treader” both in front of and behind the camera. As a fan of continuity, these changes disrupted my enjoyment. Caspian’s accent has changed and Simon Pegg now performs Reepicheep. Disney no longer distributes the Narnia franchise and there is a change in the composer also. The change that I dislike most of all however is that Andrew Adamson does not direct. At least he is still the producer. All these changes affected my enjoyment of the third film, even subconsciously. "Dawn Treader" not exactly the same as “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” or even “Prince Caspian”. Even though hundreds of years passed in Narnia between the first and second films, there was a better connection between them than between the second and third films even though only a few years this time have passed away in Narnia. These changes that are introduced in the third film did not completely ruin the overall experience; things just aren’t the same anymore. I think subconsciously, I could sense that the film was not as faithful to the book as the previous films. That could be the reason why I don’t like “Dawn Treader” as much as “Prince Caspian”. Speaking about the use of 3D in the film, director Michael Apted said, “I think we'll get very good value out of it. They won't see anything cheap or nasty. Rest assured on that." Despite this, I saw a cheap conversion. If you are going to put a film into 3D you should film it in 3D and not convert it in post-production. Consistency was lacking. In some shots, the characters’ faces were more three-dimensional than in others. Also in some shots when you look at a character or background item, there almost appears to be a two-dimensional copy directly “behind” the character or object as if during the conversion, they forgot to “erase” the original filmed image. After “Avatar”, you would think that films would not cut any corners or at least try to live up the spectacle of that particular film.

Despite the change of the voice actor for Reepicheep, Simon Pegg did very well. I liked him very much in “Mission Impossible III” and “Star Trek”. Pegg was able to perform the same Reepicheep from the second film and I am grateful for that. Liam Neeson never fails as Aslan also. The film was nice but I miss very much the power felt from the first film. The change of style that occurred in the third installment of the Harry Potter franchise was much more noticeable than was the case with “Dawn Treader” but that doesn’t mean that the aforementioned changes were completely invisible. Just as the Shrek franchise failed after Adamson left the director’s chair, the Narnia franchise follows suit. It turns out that I did not enjoy “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” any better as part of a Narnia marathon. I wonder if "The Magician's Nephew" will turn out alright.

3 Stars