Experiencing Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Note: Please do not read this post if you plan on going to see the Dawn Treader.  I don't want anything to be spoiled for you.  :)

I got to go see this third installment in the Narnia series last night with my youth group - and Margaret Rowena :) I had been waiting two whole years for that moment, and oh...the shivers of excitement I felt as I saw the Dawn Treader plunging over waves... it was worth every day of those two years.

I loved the swordfighting - especially between Eustace and Reepicheep.  I loved the minotaur.  I loved little Gayel.  I loved the dragon.  I loved Lucy's longing to be beautiful (if she got any prettier, I'd scream :D).  And I loved the parts that seemed to fly you over the sea like an albatross.  Quite frankly, I'm afraid of the sea and hold it in the highest respect - drowning is one of my greatest fears.  But after VDT, I wanted to hop on a ship just like that one to battle huge sea serpents and risk my life swinging from the rigging.

It was great inspiration for Seaspear.

But....they changed it way too much, at least that's how I felt.  They switched all of the adventures around and added this whole "fighting the darkness" aspect, which made the whole thing seem pretty cliche.  I did not like the green mist, or that Coriacan - the "Oppressor" - told them about all the adventures they would have before they had them.

And Gayel - she was adorable, but what was her point? She was just there...she eventually made Lucy feel needed, but that doesn't seem like a good enough reason to have her on board.

I think they should have done more on the Lone Islands - where the slave-traders are - and had the part with Governor Gumpus, which I was really looking forward to seeing :(

But my biggest pet peeve was in Prince Caspian as well.  It is the underlying message that Aslan doesn't matter.  Coriacan tells the travelers that to destroy the darkness in the world, they must first destroy the darkness inside themselves.  And I sat there thinking, NO! Aslan has to destroy the darkness inside of them! And he already did that in LWW! But it seemed as if they had to fight everything by themselves, and then when they met Aslan at the end, he was just approving them.
And I suppose that will happen to us...God will say, "Well done, good and faithful servant."  But it's not because of ourselves that we are good - it's because of Jesus.

There's so much more I'd like to say about it, but since I have the Narnia Radio Theatres and almost all of their dialogue memorized, you probably wouldn't agree with my little nitpicking.  :D But it was really just great.  :) Eustace was fantastic! I loved when he was a dragon, and I was all right with the fact that he stayed a dragon for most of the journey.  His friendship with Reep is so sweet.

And now...in a way, I feel like Narnia is over.  Lucy and Edmund can't come back - I almost cried at the end when Lucy shut the door on the old guest bedroom containing the magic picture.  It's all Eustace now, and Jill Pole, who we'll see in The Silver Chair in two more years or so.  I can't help wondering what Georgie and Skandar will go on to do.  Whatever they do, we'll miss them in Narnia!





Love,

Ellyn

Here's the trailer - it gives me shivers up my spine! :D