The Dark Island

And all at once everybody realized that there was nothing to be afraid of and never had been.

--Chapter 12, British edition 

One of my greatest issues with the film adaption is the addition of the green mist plotline, but I hadn't previously considered the loss of the original Dark Island. It's one of my favorite parts of the book, and the audio version by Focus on the Family's Radio Theatre is absolutely brilliant. You can faintly hear the death of Aslan in the background,  the sharpening of the White Witch's knife, and other strange noises. When they begin to despair, Lucy calls for Aslan, and an albatross appears. The bird leads the ship into bright daylight.
In the British version,

And all at once everybody realized that there was nothing to be afraid of and never had been.

 The original American text reads differently,

 And just as there are moments when simply to lie in bed and see the daylight pouring through your window and to hear the cheerful voice of an early postman or milkman down below and to realise that it was only a dream: it wasn’t real, is so heavenly that it was very nearly worth having the nightmare in order to have the joy of waking, so they all felt when they came out of the dark. 

Furthermore, the Dark Island completely disappears in the British, whereas it merely disappears from sight in the American text. Most publishers go with the British text, which I prefer.  No matter how many nightmares I have of Weeping Angels or returning to high school,  fear is groundless when you really understand the power of God.

Lucy's Temptation

While rewatching VOTDT, I was remembered how much I disliked Lucy's temptation scene. Oh, the magician's house is absolutely beautiful, especially with the snow, but by the Lion's Mane, why did her temptation scene have to deal with physical appearance? It's not entirely invented--she did see images of herself beautiful in the book, but far more than that--

She saw herself throned on high at a great tournament in Calormen and all the Kings of the world fought because of her beauty. After that it turned from tournaments to real wars, and all Narnia and Archenland, Telmar and Calormen, Galma and Terebinthia, were laid waste with the fury of the kings and dukes and great lords who fought for her favour. Then it changed and Lucy, still beautiful beyond the lot of mortals, was back in England. And Susan (who had always been the beauty of the family) came home from America. The Susan in the picture looked exactly like the real Susan only plainer and with a nasty expression. And Susan was jealous of the dazzling beauty of Lucy, but that didn't matter a bit because no one cared anything about Susan now.

She has a strong feeling that she shouldn't say the spell, but looks at the words anyway.  However, in the middle of the page she sees the face of Aslan, and instead, enacts a spell which lets her know what her friends think of her.  When she hears two of her friends belittling her, she thinks

I wonder are all my friends the same? There are lots of other pictures. No. I won't look at any more. I won't, I won't' and with a great effort she turned over the page, but not before a large, angry tear had splashed on it.

To be honest, I think this scene would have been far more interesting. I know a lot of girls struggle with  appearance, but it doesn't fit Lucy's character. She is concerned about other peoples' opinion, but in a different way. Both in LWW and in Prince Caspian, she is deeply hurt when people don't believe that she is telling the truth. Also, a temptation involving friends hits much closer to home for me. During high school, I had acquaintances, buddies, but no peers I would classify as friends. Even now, at college, I feel unreasonable panic when one of my friends chooses to hang out with another and I'm left alone. Not always, but in certain circumstances..

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

After a two-year wait, we can finally drool over the trailer for Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Though it has been out less than a week, fans are already dissecting and analyzing it. While it may be unfair to judge a movie based on 2:08 minutes, directors are counting on favorable impressions to attract viewers; so we may assume the clips are an accurate impression of the movie.
Based on the trailer, several issues immediately pop out. Edmund seems to have the same problem as Peter in Prince Caspian--an inability to re-adjust to daily life. Jardis is seen in a ghostly green scene, again mimicing the last movie. And a shot of Peter and Susan seems out of place.
Other issues include the presence of a minotaur on the ship, a flying map, and a glowing girl (presumably Ramandu's daughter.) Also troubling is the absence of any reference to the seven missing lords, who form the reason for the voyage.
I fear that this movie will fall prey to the same errors as Prince Caspian, dispite the replacement of Adamson as director.
I have been looking forward to this movie for a long time. It just seems that Andrew Adamson left too much of a mark on the previous movie for the new director to have the courage to return to accuracy, which made the first film such a success. Narnia is not and never will be LotR. Why can't the director appreciate it for what it is, instead of trying to pander to other fans? While I am a LotR fan, I do not want Narnia to imitate it.