Why BBC not make all Narnia videos

G

GoatyLegs

New member
why did the bbc not make all the narnia videos they should have at least made LB,HHB and the MN they only made 4 of them whats the deal
 
Without getting into a great kerfluffle over who had the best special effects, the BBC struggled with Aslan in his brief appearances. Mouth open, words came out, mouth closed.

Imagine an entire movie about The Horse and His Boy...Yeesh!
 
Simply put they had a limited budget, and limited special effects. It was taxing and not terribly rewarding (financially) to make the films. So we should be happy that they went as far as the Silver Chair and didn't give up after LWW. I like the BBC version, while it may not be as polished as the new version it was done with a lot respect to the book.
 
I'd also be interested to know why they only choose four of the books, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and The Silver Chair. Even if they were in fact limited to four, the question remains - why those four?

The three which are left out are also the three which Lewis wrote last - The Magician's Nephew, The Horse and His Boy and The Last Battle - though reading order is quite different. I can see why they didn't put on The Last Battle; there is a great deal in that book which could easily be interpreted as extremely bigoted in a whole variety of ways. It is also the most overtly religious; indeed, its arguable that it is a depiction of a clash between faith groups. The Horse and His Boy could similarly be seen as racist for its depiction of a people who sound rather Arabic, perhaps even Islamic, though certainly not to the extent of The Last Battle:

The Last Battle said:
...these men were not the fair-haired men of Narnia: they were dark, bearded men from Calormen, that great and cruel country that lies beyond Archenland across the desert..."Get on, son of sloth! Pull, you lazy pig!" cried the Calormenes, cracking their whips. The horse was already straining himself as hard as he could; his eyes were red and he was covered with foam.

"Work, lazy brute," shouted one of the Calormenes: and as he spoke he struck the horse savagely with his whip...
Click to expand...

The Last Battle said:
...Then the dark men came round them in a thick crowd, smelling of garlic and onions, their white eyes flashing dreadfully in their brown faces...
Click to expand...

Of course, this was written shortly before the BBC saw the arrival of the infamous (and at the time, very popular) Black and White Minstrel Show, so perhaps Lewis thought little of it when he wrote those characters. In 1988, it would be inflammatory to say the least (true of 1988, but truer than ever today) to have a story in which the antagonists, frequently described as 'cruel', have brown skin, wear turbans, and worship a different god - the conclusions that could be drawn are obvious.

As to The Magician's Nephew, it has a creation episode which again seems rather religious, even Biblical. England is generally speaking a secular country, so it may have been that the producers of the BBC series decided to go for books which were less obvious in their religious intonations:

The Magician's Nephew said:
...If you had seen and heard it, as Digory did, you would have felt quite certain that it was the stars themselves which were singing, and that it was the First Voice, the deep one, which had made them appear and made them sing.

"Glory be!" said the Cabby. "I'd ha' been a better man all my life if I'd known there were things like this."

The Voice on the earth was now louder and more triumphant; but the voices in the sky, after singing loudly with it for a time, began to get fainter. And now something else was happening..
Click to expand...

Its hard to say exactly what Lewis 'meant', if anything, by his writings, particularly as they are children's books. However, it is a simpler matter to see what would and what wouldn't be appealing for a public broadcaster.
 
I wished they had made The horse and His Boy, The Magician's Nephew and The Horse and His Boy, but i just watched the bbc version and Aslan and all the specila effects looked really funny compared to the lastest movie out!
 
from what i've heard they simply didn't have a big buget, so that's why they didn't even attempt to make the others, plust religious asspects too i recon
 
Budget issues, I'll toss my lot in for that one.

As far as religious issues goes, that may have been a concern. However, we haven't really made a big deal about the books, and they're more or less already writing for folks who are fans of the books.

You know people are going to make a big deal about it, but I just have to say Get a life. (nods to Shatner) Someones gotta be the bad guy and if anyone takes notice, they'll see that every nation/ethnicity has it's times to shine...and not. This paticulary ethnicity may not be PC to be a bad guy right now...so what? The countinuity should not have to suffer for the whims of these folks.

Actually on a personal note, given what's going on in that section of the world they shouldn't be too surprised. That's like an American complaining b/c Americans are shown and rich, cruel and rather stupid CEO types. Um, duh...?

-Cuz ;)
 
Back
Top