The Song Fight Bulletin Board

:/

I thought he was kinda cute. For, y'know, a faun. But either way, never trust the cute ones. Especially if they lure you into their creepy rock cavern home.

oh, spoiler warning:

well, he had been planning on making her sleep then taking her to the white witch, so i think bjam's caution is warranted
-bill

Not bad. The beavers were good.

I thought the kids acting was OK - especially the 2 younger ones - but at the end of the day - I really don't like CS Lewis' stuff much. The book made me want to vomit.

To tell the truth - I actually missed a large part of the movie - I was in the Gold Class lounge in a comfy chair with a bottle of red wine and I dozed off. So, all-in-all, it was a nice day out.

I just finished introducing this to the girls. They are way young (4 and almost 3), but the elder was super into the book. We did a chapter a night and she would remember vividly what had happened the night before. When we finished the book, we watched the movie, which took 2 evenings.

(some spoilers follow:)

They shockingly seemed to prefer the book. The elder even kept comparing them. She was particularly upset that the narrator in the book made it so clear that the kids were smart enough not to shut the wardrobe door behind them, but that the kids in the movie apparantly weren't.

But the 2-year-old's face when she first saw Aslan was priceless.

The whole thing left me cold. I loved all 7 books when I was 9 or 10. But somehow, Santa (!) handing the kids weapons (and in the book, telling the girls that war is man's work) was awkward and kind of ugly.

So we've done The Wizard of Oz, and now The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. What's next? Any other fantastical, semi-classic kid books turned into movies? (Besides The Hobbit: I don't think I can bring myself to watch the cartoon again.)

Mostess wrote:She was particularly upset that the narrator in the book made it so clear that the kids were smart enough not to shut the wardrobe door behind them, but that the kids in the movie apparantly weren't.

Heh, that's kids for ya! They focus on the most interesting things. That's awesome.

The whole thing left me cold. I loved all 7 books when I was 9 or 10.

The book and the movie both? I just finished 'reading' the series again (books on tape in the car) and still really enjoyed them, especially now that I can see the parallels to Christian themes in them (things that went right over my head at whatever age I read them first, probably similar to you).

So we've done The Wizard of Oz, and now The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. What's next? Any other fantastical, semi-classic kid books turned into movies? (Besides The Hobbit: I don't think I can bring myself to watch the cartoon again.)

The LotR movies were very good, I thought, but too adult for your kids' ages. It would be nice if there was a modern Hobbit. Anyway, turning kids' fantasy books into movies is a hot commodity these days. When we went to see Harry Potter there were 4 or 5. One of them is Phillip Pullman's "The Golden Compass", which I am reading now and very much enjoying; however I can't vouch for the movie or, really, anything in the second half of the book. The previews don't seem to capture what's interesting and different about the setting of this book, weird. Another book I read recently that got made into a movie that I haven't seen was The Bridge to Terabithia, but again I think the kids should be somewhat older. For the ending particularly.
-bill

Mostess wrote:What's next?

mrs. frisby and the rats of NIMH was an amazing book that was made into a pretty ok animated movie (big plus that it was not a disney movie).

when i was younger i really liked the two alice in wonderland books too.

the mouse and the motorcycle, maybe also?

The Secret Of NIMH is a good suggestion. Don Bluth Films did that one, I think.
Also, James And The Giant Peach was not bad.

jimtyrrell wrote: Also, James And The Giant Peach was not bad.

Ooooh! Excellent! I might do The Witches first because the 2-year old loves little mice. But maybe not. I really liked the Peach movie.

I'd actually started this with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, though we didn't get through the book (the elder, then 3, just wanted to hear the part about the blueberry girl over and over). I couldn't tell if they preferred the old movie or the new one. They were surprisingly not charmed by Gene Wilder, though.