Should The Film Have A Narrator?

[Rhindon]

I think this is almost necessary. Picture this:

The film "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" starts-
The movie opens up on the interior of a very interesting house-
A narrator's voice starts off "Once there was a boy named "Eustace Clarence Scrubb". And he almost deserved it..."

[Specter]

I think if the narrator was a good voice, it could be wonderful. I'd go with a voice like Anthony Hopkins for that. He's got a wonderful voice for story-telling.

[JadistarkilleR]

this actually never occured to me, but yeah it would be nice to have a narrator.

[Rhindon]

Anthony Hopkins would be good. Especially since he's played C.S. Lewis before.

[AlwaysHis324]

For the Narnia films I think a narator would be a good thing.
As a playwright I often find that using a narrator is an easy escape. A simple and less challenging way to get your point across... but it can work if its done right.
I am always cautious about films using narrators, and I often wonder if they could get away with out it. Its more of a challenge in some cases and also proves the talent of the screen writer.

However, like I stated before, while it would be a challenge and show excellent writing to not use a narrator, I almost feel as if the movies would benefit from it.

I especially like the idea for the starting line in VDT about Eustace... what a hoot!

I vote for the middle choice. Yes, only at beginning and end.

[Y. Fish]

Yes, some narration at the beginning and end of the movies would make them feel like you're being read to, like a kid with a storybook. Warm fuzzy happiness all around. Yay :) (And the Scrubb line is great, too!)

[Rhindon]

Especially since this book is written as if Lewis is telling you the story. You can see a lot of his wit come through the story. I agree that sometimes having a narrator can be an "easy escape" but I think that having Galadriel as the narrator in LotR was a good idea.

[AlwaysHis324]

Some one had the suggestion of King Frank being the narrator (only would work if all 7 films are made).

Personally I think Digory/Professor would be a good narrator for the films. If we are going with a character. Otherwise just some stock british male voice over type actor... someone 'posing' as Lewis. (I've always imagined that he is the one telling the stories)

[Dragon]

I think it'd be nice (I myself was thinking of Digory before I saw your post, AlwaysHis), but I think it'd have to be very sparingly used. Like how on LotR, Galadriel narrates the intro of FotR, but not the end. She sort of narrates in the middle of TTT, and I don't remember her narrating in RotK.

But there are some parts of Narnia that are written very much like a narrator. For instance, I love the way he writes stuff to the reader like, "Have you ever done this?" and stuff (not that I want to see that in the film, just good for the book), but definitely the first line about Eustace in VoDT would be good spoken out, but by someone in the stories, preferably a man ('cause it feels more like CS Lewis is telling us the story).

hm, in TMN, the first two paragraphs could be used.

LWW could start out "Once there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmond, and Lucy. This story is about something that happened to them when they were sent away from London during the war because of the air-raids. They were sent to the house of an old Professor who lived in the heart of the country, ten miles from the nearest railway station and two miles from the nearest post office. He had no wife and he lived in a very large house with a housekeeper called Mrs. Macready."

In HHB, I could see some alteration, maybe something like "In the Golden Age of Narnia, Peter was High King in Narnia, and his brother and his two sisters were King and Queens under him. In those days, far south in Calormen on a little creek of the sea, there lived a poor fisherman called Arsheesh, and with him there lived a boy who called him Father, though whether he was his father is another matter. The boy's name was Shasta."

I can't think of how PC could be narratated unless they start from Prince Caspian's view before he blows the horn, calling the Pievensies. It could be narrated by Dr. Cornelius.

In VoDT, not really sure, but I would definitely like to hear the first sentence about his name.

I don't know if there'd be a good way to start TSC with narration. I think that'd look nice if it just goes straight into Jill crying behind the gym.

TLB could either go right into it or could start with the first several sentences describing Shift and Puzzle.

Anyway, I know I got a little carried away, but that's how I think the narration could be done for each of the stories.

[NiennaTinuviel]

I think narration would be cool if used sparingly. And the guy doing it would have to be really good.

[Biantai]

Narration would be a mistake.

A good film-maker, when tackling a prokect that started as a book should try as hard as possible to see beyond the literary aspects of the stoyr, to the cinematic. Voice-over narration is a cop-out of the last resort.

Consider these two beginnings:

Literary: [Voice-over] Once there were four children. There names were Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy. This is a story of what happened to them during the war, when they were sent to a house in the country ... blah blah blah

Cinematic:

[Shot of black sky]

[Title] London, 1941 - The Blitz

[Sound of airplane engine]

[Suddenly a Misherscmidt (sp?) flies right by the camera - the black of the screen is actually the night sky over London]

[Camera falls behind the airplane to see bombs dropping with a whistle, then follows one of the bombs down to explode in a dark London street as people scream and run]

[Cut to the interior of a house as the noise of falling bombs continues. A youngish man and woman are hurrying their young family through a trapdoor into the cellar]

Mrs Pevensie: We simply must send them somewhere safe.

Mr Pevensie: Yes, but where?

Mrs Pevensie: I received a letter from the Porfessor this afternoon.

Mr Pevensie: Kirke? His country house would be perfect

That's not perfect, but conveys all the information a voice-over would have, and is much mroe cinematic.

[Rhindon]

I don't know. Most books aren't written as if the author was telling the story to you in person. J. K. Rowling doesn't do this. C. S. Lewis does. And "The Lord of the Rings" worked great with a narrator at the beginning and it was handled really well.

[Dead Rain]

i think not. if it's a good movie, it whould not have to have narroration. well actually that depends and it would take me a long time to explain. so never mind. but my vote is "no."

[Rhindon]

Originally posted by Dead Rain@Sep 21 2004, 09:23 AM
i think not. if it's a good movie, it whould not have to have narroration. well actually that depends and it would take me a long time to explain. so never mind. but my vote is "no."
I think it's necessary to keeping many of the funny story elements in? How else will the audience find out that the head mistress at Eustace's school eventually went into parliament where she lived happily ever after?

[GrayCloak]

I would prefer a narrator (especially someone like the professor, or a man acting as Lewis himself) They don't have to narrate the whole movie, or interrupt the storyline i.e. "And then they walked through the snow for a while...." but someone to introduce you to the characters at the beginning, and maybe at the end depending on the book. (LWW probably doesn't need it, but in SC and HB you would loose out on the endings, like Aravis and Shasta fighting so much, and then making up, that they decided to get married)

As already stated, a good example is Galadriel in LOTR.

[cslouis]

Yeah, my favorite part of the books -- and also my fave thing about AA Milne as well -- is that you have a real feel for the voice of Lewis himself as he "tells" the story to his niece. That's who it is to, right? So, it would not bother me if there was storytelling all the way through. to add color to story.

[Rhindon]

I definitely understand those who dislike the idea of a narrator. Especially in LWW where it could be very easily avoided. But there are some books that would be difficult to do otherwise. Think of "The Horse and His Boy". It is very important in that story to know that it does not start off in Narnia. And the same goes for endings where, without a narrator, you would not know what happened to the beloved Narnians afterwards. Even the BBC version had a narrator towards the end with Mr. Tumnus informing us on what happened in the years of the four children's reign.

[faeriechylde]

I voted "beginning and end," because I can see how that could possibly be effective, like Galadriel's narration of the prologue of LOTR.
I don't know if it would really be necessary, though. I've often seen screenwriters putting things that were narrative in the book as lines for some of the characters.
Either way would work out well if they do it right.

[rosymole]

I wasn't too sure about the narrator idea at first, but after ready some very persuasive posts here i'm thnking that it could be done, but i'm just not sure how, someone will have to work hard to get me convinced!

[cslouis]

Yes. Childrens books are very effective and work very well with children, when there is a reassuring narrator. Especially if the narrator has a good voice for it.

[LucyGoosey]

I think that it could work..though I certainly don't want the narrator to take over the film..I like how they had Galadriel doing the narration in LOTR and hopefully if they have a narrator it will be something like that.

[I'mbigger/you'reolder]

When I saw LotR, I had actually never read the books, and having Galadriel start everything out like that, helped. I didn't feel as lost when she narrarated. No matter how much we may love the books, and think that there should be a law that every man, woman, and child should read them :lol: , there will be a large number of people that will be as lost as Lucy in LWW saying "Narnia, what's that?" Having a narrator might help the audiences feel like they aren't going into the movies not knowing anything.

[Dead Rain]

but they might do the MN too. so then that wouldn't be a prob.

[cslouis]

Yeah. Unlike Harry Potter where EVERY ten-year-old knew the books by heart, the LOTR and the Narnia books have been around a little longer and not everyone has read them, so there might be a little bit of catching up to do for the people who no longer have it on their reading list. I did an informal poll and lots of people over 40 have very strong memories of Narnia, but people younger -- and surely under 15 and not Christian -- will need to be either reacquainted to introduced to the Chronicles. What do you think?

[Dead Rain]

i agree. but i am under 15 and a Christian, so i don't fall into either catergory. but yeah. most ppl i know have either never heard of them or have read them when they were young(er). so...yeah.

[cslouis]

Yeah, Anthony Hopkins would be brilliant. Or someone like that. Someone definately with a kindly british accent.

[Diva]

I say a narrator for the prologue and/or epilogue, or not at all. I think narration strewed through the entire film would take away from the emotional/visual aspects of the film and would prevent the audience from becoming fully engrossed. That is, a narrator throughout the film would constantly bring the audience to reality in a type of "you need someone to tell you the story, because it'snot as if it ever did, could, or will happen."

Despite the way I wrote it, this is of course all opinion, I'm not a psychologist or anything special like that. B)

[Rhindon]

Another thing with narrations, is that they help to convey the feeling that this story really happened. "The Ghost and the Darkness" was very interesting with the short bit of narration at the beginning and the end.

[white_witch87]

I wanted British rocker Sting to be the narrator. He has such a good voice. :)

[Dead Rain]

:roleseyes: oh please..... :rolleyes:

[cslouis]

My rational is that the story was writen to be read to a child, so it can be told easily by a narrator. Like we viewers were being read to.

[Bitter Milton]

This is a tough one. The narrator made the books, but cinematicaly i doubt it would work.

[crjr9833]

Yes, I agree that there should be a narrator at the beginning and end.

[crjr9833]

I also believe that it should be someone in the story doing the narration.

[eeyorebrat]

I think one at the beginning and end is a good idea. Didn't they sort of do that at the end in the BBC's LWW with Mr. Tumnas?

[Rhindon]

In a recent interview the producer, Mark Johnson, had this to say.

In the book there’s a lot of narration, did you take the narration out?

Johnson: I don’t foresee any narration at all.

Malik: (Laughing) Nicole’s [Kidman] going to narrate all seven books.

Johnson: You know, the crazy thing about that is, she was never approached, we never talked about her. I heard that she read these books and loved these books, I just heard that from the press, I don’t know if that’s true and we had a scout here October of…exactly a year ago, we were here and there were a bunch of us in a helicopter on the South Island, and somebody reported that Nicole Kidman was with our scout. Andrew Adamson has really long blond hair, so we don’t know if someone saw him, and if so, if I were Nicole I’d be upset. Andrew’s an attractive man, but he’s no Nicole Kidman. All of a sudden, I found myself apologizing to her agent - and I know Nicole, I didn’t talk to her, and to her publicist, apologizing for something we didn’t do, because we were reading this, that Nicole was going to do it, and the great one was that she was going to narrate all seven books for 94 billion dollars.

Malik: Whatever it was, the kid that plays Edmund, Skandar Keyes, said: “I want to renegotiate my contract.”


I guess that clears that up.

[Valin Kenobi]

Hm. If it was up to me, it would be only at the beginning and end. Like everyone else, I point to the Galadriel example.

[Narnia_at_OSU]

I wouldn't say that a narrator is a bad idea, but I personally hope that the movie is without one. Sure enough many lovers of this tale learned of it by having someone else read it to them. I am not saying that is bad. Tradition is always nice. However some of us fell upon this book and the series on our own. I personally created the scenes in the book in my head so everything was first person. Narrating would make it third person, and I have waited too long to see a good adaptation of this book to feel like it was a third person script.

[Crimson]

i think the movie is better without a narrator

[LifeMaiden]

i think the movie is better without a narrator


I agree, as that would be distracting, and a great movie never needs someone to tell the story...the characters and the plot do that.

[Queen Swanwhite]

Narrator?? Wll, I never thought of it, but I suppose, as Specter said, if he had a good voice, like Liam Neeson, etc. it would be quite good, but not throughout the whole movie...beginning and end. But I accidently voted No. LOL ;)

[Narborg]

I voted no cos the film is good the way it is. It dsent need one.

[narniafreak216]

I said no. I think the movies are fine without one. I think it might ruin the feel of it if they had a narrator. but if they did it should only be at the beginning and the end.

[SlpNarniaQueen]

NO! I like it without the narrators...it makes them more interesting...more intruguing!

[LifeMaiden]

If the film did have a narrator, who would you want it to be? Would you want it to be the Pevensie kids, telling the story when they were 'older' and looking back on their youthful adventures in Narnia? Or would you want the narrator to be Aslan?

[golden narnia]

there should be a narrator at the beginning and at the end but ok fine

[Skandar's Girl]

I think it well yes and no

[Skandar's Girl]

Does anybody agree with me?? :)

[Skandar's Girl]

I think i'm right

[Skandar's Girl]

Like i think it should have one in the beginning and in the end right

[Skandar's Girl]

I have the hiccups people so i will s pace everytime i hiccup. B ut the re are no people on right now and it's not fair

[Kate12whisper13]

Nah, I wouldn't like the thought of a narrator, the film strings togther perfectly without it!

[LifeMaiden]

I have the hiccups people so i will s pace everytime i hiccup. B ut the re are no people on right now and it's not fair


I'm online, darn it :D


But yeah, as I was saying, a narrator would be sort of distracting. I say let the great story unfold and it will narrate itself. :D

[QueenSusanofNarnia]

I think this is almost necessary. Picture this:

The film "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" starts-
The movie opens up on the interior of a very interesting house-
A narrator's voice starts off "Once there was a boy named "Eustace Clarence Scrubb". And he almost deserved it..."
Well I think someone's gone and bashed their head. Trying to get onto Platform 9 3/4 were you?