Narnia at Comic-Con Sunday

The first of many news stories about the events of Sunday evening at San Diego’s Comic Con has been posted on Comingsoon.net’s home page. The following is an excerpt from that article.

“Opening the panel up to questions from the audience, they had another surprise in that the Weta guys had “Narnia” memorabilia to give out for the best questions. During the Q ‘n’ A, Adamson answered the question on many people’s minds about whether the religious aspects of Lewis’ books will be prevalent in the film version. “These days, people either read it with the spiritual meaning that C.S. Lewis intended or they read it as a great adventure story,” he said. “What I was really doing was making a movie that was true to C.S. Lewis’ book, so if you found spiritual meaning in that, you’ll find the same in the movie; if you enjoyed it as an adventure story, you’ll enjoy the movie as an adventure story.”

After a few questions, Adamson presented a special montage of footage edited together especially for Comic-Con, including the normal disclaimer that it was a “work in progress.” It opened with a scene of Mr. and Mrs. Beaver telling the children the story of Aslan’s return, followed by scenes of Aslan himself in action, and a few shots of Tilda Swinton’s White Witch and General Ottman. There were also a few scenes showing the build-up to the great battle that would be the climax of the film with Peter wearing his armor, eagles dropping rocks on soldiers, as well as the Gryphon and a few satyrs.

Adamson closed the panel by making it official that actor Liam Neeson will indeed be providing the voice for the lion king Aslan and that his parts have already been recorded.”

Read the rest here, on comingsoon.net’s page.

Thanks to NarniaWebber Dooby for the link.

The montage clip is where it’s at. My criticism of the trailer and poster is that the film didn’t seem to have it’s own identity, but the look and tone of other fantasy films. I want the movie to be as great is the material promises it could be, so I keep looking for something to grasp onto. Today I saw some footage that gave me more hope for a stand out flick.

In the clip we see the kids having tea with Mr. and Mrs. Beaver. The beavers were completely CG and not totally photorealistic, but a lot less cartoony than I was expecting them to be. The effects are done on them, either, so I don’t have any worries when it comes to these guys. They tell the kids of the prophecy of the 4 sons of Adam and daughters of Eve taking over Narnia and that the White Witch will stop them at all costs because if the prophecy is fulfilled then she will lose her power.

The sequence show that really got my juices cooking was a bit about 40 seconds long that had Aslan walking through the creatures of the black up to the stone table. Those who have read the book know where this is headed. A bat-like creature taunts him as he nears the steps leading up to the stone table. He doesn’t growl or roar at it, but his stare stops the taunt and sends the creature retreating.

The look on Aslan’s face is 90% sadness and 10% humiliation. It was heartbreaking. The effects on Aslan were d*** good. Still not 100% there, but really close.

Read the rest on aintitcoolnews.com’s page.

Thanks to NarniaWebber dougscar56 for the link.

Finally, we also have a link to IGN’s report which fills in a few more details. Click here.