Vintage21 Church in Raleigh, North Carolina, has a satirical video series on YouTube originally developed for a four week teaching series on Jesus developed in 2003. The four videos dub satirical voice overs on scenes from a classic Jesus film, highlighting what are regarded as preconceived notions from a staunch starched Sunday School era of the past.
Hide and Seek
“No Peter I wasn’t playing hide and seek. I only told you that so you would leave me alone. You see I’m an important guy…”
Church Meeting or Football
“Rule number two. You’re not allowed to have any fun unless you’re laughing at how dumb the devil is”.
Naming the Sinners
“Frank we all know what you did, but I can’t repeat it…because I’m Jesus”.
“John you drank too much wine the other night, not way too much just enough to make me angry”.
Jesus in the Temple
“Okay get me off this thing, if i can walk on water i can walk to the door”.
I managed to see a preview of Prince Caspian at the movies on Friday May 9, as a member of the press. Having read the Narnia books as a young boy, I was reasonably familiar with the story and expected a swash-buckling effects-laden experience. I was not disappointed. Here’s the trailer.
Filming was shot by NZ director/producer Andrew Adamson, whose earlier work includes Shrek I, 2 and 3, and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Familiar NZ scenes for me were the Dart River near Glenorchy (I spent a week walking through there in 1991) and Cathedral Cove on the Coromandel Peninsula (I spent Christmas there in 1982). Studio shots were filmed in Barrandov Studios, Prague, Czech Republic. Other scenes were filmed in Slovenia and Poland.
As Trumpkin says, “You may find Narnia a more savage place than you remember”. Adamson takes the stories of battle hinted at by C.S. Lewis and brings them to the foreground. People and creatures die, though without any clear bloodshed. This is a family movie after all. A whole new sequence is added to the plot - the storming of the Telmarine castle. Battle scenes are provided with elaborate plot twists.
In the book the Pevensies (Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy) connect up with the Narnians towards the end. For the sake of dramatic interplay between the characters (including tension between Peter and Caspian) that meeting is introduced much earlier.
Adamson brings the story into the 21st century with an alternative to the C.S. Lewis sheltering of the female gender. Susan is clearly engaged in battle in the movie and enjoys a romantic attraction to Caspian. “It would never have worked out”, she says.
There are subtle flavours added by the casting team. Caspian, Miraz and the other Telmarines speak with Hispanic accents, a reference to their pirate origins. The centaurs appear to have an African origin. It makes good sense in terms of increasing the ethnic spread of the audience, but runs the risk of perpetuating the English jingoism that formed the backdrop of C.S. Lewis’ world.
My favourite character would have to be Trumpkin, played by Peter Dinklage. This dwarf has a deeply cynical, humorous and yet reflective character that appears to have been developed through years of patient long suffering.
The theology of this C.S. Lewis novel is subtle, with hints of questions relating to the absence and invisible nature of Jesus. Why can some see him and others not? Would the plot have been different if Lucy and her siblings had responded to Aslan’s guidance earlier? Aslan twice reminds Lucy that things don’t happen the same way twice, once in a dream sequence and once in waking mode. Was that a glitch in the script or an example of dramatic irony?
Be prepared for a long movie with stunning cinematography, simmering effects and a storyline that will keep you guessing.
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, will be released in cinemas nationally in Australia on June 5. Heritage HM will also be delivering a range of resources to churches and schools Australia wide. For details contact 07 5445 6865 or email info at astounded.tv.
