“Extraordinary things only happen to extraordinary people,” talking mouse Reepicheep states in the third installment of the “Chronicles of Narnia” series. “Voyage of the Dawn Treader” continues the story of the Pevensie siblings and features a fun adventure and great visual effects. However, two supporting characters steal the show in this family-friendly adventure.

As the story begins, Lucy (Georgie Henley) and Edmund Pevensie (Skandar Keynes) are living with their relatives, including their annoying cousin Eustace (Will Poulter). The siblings try to avoid Eustace but he often interrupts their plan.

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When Lucy and Edmund are discussing a painting in their cousin’s home, Eustace suddenly appears and tells them how lousy it is. As an argument ensues, the waves in the painting come alive and flood the room. The three relatives are then sucked into the world of Narnia. They are rescued by the crew members of the Dawn Treader, a magnificent ship carrying Prince Caspian (Ben Barnes) on a quest. Eustace, in his first visit to Narnia, is agitated and frightened when he discovers that he is onboard a ship with talking animals and strange characters. He annoys nearly every passenger onboard including Reepicheep, who eventually challenges him to a duel.  

The ship is headed towards a group of mysterious islands. Prince Caspian is on a mission to find some of his father’s supporters, who were exiled when Caspian’s uncle became King. The story then follows a series of adventures as the crew search for the friends of Caspian’s father. Along the way, the characters are tempted to make bad decisions that could set them off course.  (more…)

Some of you might remember the interview Walden Media president and co-founder Michael Flaherty did with us a couple weeks ago. Here’s are some clips from a piece he wrote for the WSJ. You’ll want to read the whole thing.

WSJ: 

Since Katie Couric first asked the question a couple of years back, journalists continue to pepper Sarah Palin with that classic ice-breaker: “So, what are you reading?” The subject came up again in a recent profile in the New York Times Magazine, and last week Barbara Walters returned to the question in interviewing Mrs. Palin as one of her “10 most fascinating people of 2010.”

In both interviews Mrs. Palin cited C.S. Lewis as a favorite author she looks to for inspiration. This prompted talk-show host and comedienne Joy Behar of “The View” to deride Mrs. Palin and her choice of reading, asking: “Aren’t those children’s books?” …

Mrs. Palin is on the right track by giving C.S. Lewis a prominent place on her reading list. Yet Ms. Behar and other Palin critics have dismissed Lewis’s work, forgetting that Lewis was a medieval and renaissance scholar at Oxford and the author of several brilliant Christian apologetics. Ms. Behar’s dismissal of children’s books as less than important makes her a modern-day Eustace, the type of bully who mocks readers of fairy tales as simpletons.

Lewis thought quite the opposite. He thought that fairy tales were the best way to convey truth for children and adults alike. He wrote about this quite often in his letters, and took no shame in reading fairy tales out loud in British pubs with his friend J.R.R. Tolkien, author of the epic “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. (more…)

Walden Media is the production company responsible for “Waiting for Superman,” “Amazing Grace,” “Bridge to Terabitha,” and many more titles most film-goers and especially parents are familiar with. The company is owned by Philip Anschultz who has made clear he wants the company’s output to be entertaining, but also to be life affirming and to carry a moral message. Few would argue Walden’s been successful at that and few would argue that Walden is one of the few film production companies able to make big-budgeted Christian-themed films that enjoy wide releases. Among them, the film adaptations of C.S. Lewis’ beloved and unapologetically Christian “Narnia” series.

With the third “Narnia” film, “Voyage of the Dawn Treader,” scheduled to land in 3500 theatres today a controversy developed this week that’s probably dampened the enthusiasm of more than one member of the franchise’s most enthusiastic and loyal supporters: we Christians tired of Hollywood’s relentlessly bigoted and unfair portrayal of us and our beliefs — those of us who look to the “Narnia” series as the rare and respectful allegory that lovingly portrays the beauty of our faith and what it truly stands for. 

Unfortunately, two of the main players involved in “Dawn Treader,” appear to disagree, not only with our interpretation of what the “Narnia series is all about, but also with C.S. Lewis, the creator of the source novels. Saturday we reported that Neeson, who portrays Aslan, the lion and obvious Christ figure in the story, said the following:

Aslan symbolises a Christ-like figure but he also symbolises for me Mohammed, Buddha and all the great spiritual leaders and prophets over the centuries.

And Wednesday, no less than “Dawn Treader” producer Mark Johnson told the Hollywood Reporter he wasn’t sure if the “Narnia” novels were Christian:

But Dawn Treader producer Mark Johnson agrees with the, shall we say, more inclusive analysis from [Liam] Neeson, telling The Hollywood Reporter that “resurrection exists in so many different religions in one form or another, so it’s hardly exclusively Christian.”

“We don’t want to favor one group over another … whether these books are Christian, I don’t know,” Johnson added.

So what are we in for this weekend. Has Hollywood twisted “Dawn Treader” into just another touchy-feely, multicultural, PC production that pleases no one in an attempt to please everyone?

Michael Flaherty is the President and one of the co-founders of Walden Media, and was good enough to reach out to Big Hollywood for an interview to discuss the controversy and set the record straight about the film.

(more…)

[Ed. Note: As of right now we are in the process of securing an exclusive interview with one of the "Dawn Treader" producers -- who was good enough to reach out to us -- regarding the recent controvery stirred up by actor Liam Neeson and producer Mark Johnson.] 

“The Voyage of the Dawn Treader,” the highly-anticipated third entry in the “Chronicles of Narnia” film series, arrives in theaters nationwide tomorrow. It continues the story of the Pevensie siblings who were previously featured in “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” and “Prince Caspian.” I recently had the opportunity to interview Douglas Gresham, the stepson of author C.S. Lewis.

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In addition to being the stepson of the author of  ”The Chronicles of Narnia,” Gresham also served as co-producer on the previous two “Narnia” films and executive producer of “Dawn Treader.” I asked him why these stories continue to resonate today with readers and viewers alike. He noted:

It lies in the fact that we are created as a species with an inbuilt love of truth, whether it’s conscious or unconscious. When we see absolute pure truth in front of us, we recognize it and welcome it. These books and therefore these movies contain great episodes or great stories of pure truth and I think that’s why they will last as long as people read books and as long as people watch movies.

I also asked Gresham about his favorite part of making “Dawn Treader” and he told me that he enjoyed the “whole process.” He added, “I suppose for me, the best part of the movie was actually being out there and shooting it and being on the set…” He noted that his favorite part of the new movie itself is an “incredibly moving scene at the end.”

Gresham later told me what his stepfather was trying to achieve with “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader:” (more…)

If you’re wondering why during the Golden Age of Hollywood, in the era of the studio system, actors were, in a word, “managed,” look no further than the below. Actors certainly didn’t like being controlled — who does? —  but part of the reason the Cary Grants, Katherine Hepburns, Barbara Stanwycks and John Waynes now live forever in the stratosphere of legend (and there was a Golden Age to begin with) is due to the fact that this kind of stupidity – the kind of stupidity that shatters images and deflates box office right along with audience anticipation — was simply not allowed:

Today’s Daily Mail:

Ahead of the release of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader next Thursday, Neeson said: ‘Aslan symbolises a Christ-like figure but he also symbolises for me Mohammed, Buddha and all the great spiritual leaders and prophets over the centuries.

‘That’s who Aslan stands for as well as a mentor figure for kids – that’s what he means for me.’

Neeson, 58, who grew up in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, is a practising Roman Catholic and was named after his parish priest. His actress wife Natasha Richardson died in a skiing accident in March last year.

Two years ago, he teamed up with an order of American Catholic priests to bring out a CD of spiritual meditations for Lent.

Walter Hooper, Lewis’s former secretary and a trustee of his estate, said the author would have been outraged.

‘It is nothing whatever to do with Islam,’ he said.

(more…)

Before Season 6, my wife was a die-hard “Lost” fan.  For five years, during the appointed hour, I wasn’t allowed to so much as breathe.  And heaven help me if I had to walk past the TV screen.  Suddenly, my normally mild-mannered wife could hurl the remote with notable precision and ferocity.

Five years of secret hatches.  Ancient four-toed statues.  Teleporting cabins.  A string of lottery numbers popping up everywhere.  Weird pseudo-science. Steampunk technology.  The Dharma Initiative.  (Remember that?)  And what the heck was a polar bear doing on a tropical island?

“Lost” was a major brain tease, too.  Naming so many of the characters after philosophers (Locke, Rousseau, Hume, etc.) was a stroke of genius – paper-thin genius, I later learned, as few of the characters had much to do with their namesakes.  (My favorite character name was Charlotte Staples Lewis, i.e., C. S. Lewis – incidentally, his middle name really was Staples.)

As the show’s intellectual promise faded, my interest flagged, but it really took a tumble during Season 5, when time travel, the last refuge of a desperate sci-fi writer, reared its inevitable head. (more…)

At the very heart of the Christian way of life is the belief that we individual Christians, no matter what our faith, can best effect society with gentle nudges towards God by living a Christ-like life the best we possibly can, while recognizing at the same time that there has in fact only ever been one real Christian to walk the Earth – Jesus.  We’re not capable of that kind of perfection. We know this. We are merely asked to try.

Secularists don’t know that simple fact about faith and feel threatened by their own ignorance, which quickly spirals into enmity as a defense against what they deeply fear is the truth. After all, Pride is what made the Devil. And the Devil’s main goal is your total separation from any kind of relationship with God, which can easily be described as anxiety, loneliness, fear, panic attacks, suicide…anything to get you away from sincerely trying to follow God. In other words, people of faith go to church while secularists go to therapy.   (more…)