Narnia, Christianity, and Movie Magic
The Movieguide Faith and Values Awards, which was founded by theologian Ted Baehr may not be an award ceremony as prestigious as the Oscars; however, these awards only go to films noted for their Christian message, morality, or “family-friendliness.” This year’s top rated film at the awards, was The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Other notable films, which were honoured at the event were Toy Story 3, Secretariat, and Mao’s Last Dancer.
Winning the title of “Most Inspiring Movie of 2010,” The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader takes home a 100,000 dollar prize, which was raised by the awards themselves (as tickets for the event are 1,000 dollars each!)
In the article announcing Narnia’s success, David Weil (CEO of the Anschutz Film Group, which is the parent company of Walden Media) is quoted as saying the following:
“We are hoping to do another Narnia film. We are in discussions right now with our studio partner Fox about a fourth one which would probably be Magician’s Nephew. In addition to that, our mandate as a film company is to continue to do family friendly films with uplifting messages.”
Whatever the reasoning, it seems as if a fourth Narnia film would do well at the box office due to it’s Christian morals. This article, which also mentions Narnia’s victory, includes several interesting statistics concerning modern films, and has found that Christian-Themed films are doing better at the box office than films with heavy language, and with atheistic views.
As the glittering award season draws to an end, Narnia may not have won the prestige of the press or the Oscars, but it has won for it’s Christian values. Along those lines, fans of the franchise have won as another exciting installment of the Narnia films, prepares to “set-sail”
You can read more by clicking here.
That's very cool. Those are sure expensive tickets 🙂
ON TO MN!
If the studio gets the 100 G, then does that makes up for their advertising? AND puts the "total" money collected at about 500G (NOT including the percent of money that they have taken away)? However way to go Dawn Treader! It was without a doubt one of the best 🙂
-Sail On Dawn Treader!
Magician’s Nephew . . . that honestly makes no sense to me. I know they want to include the Witch (of course), but Tilda Swinton will age much less (looks-wise) in a few years then Will Poulter will. I'd much rather have Silver Chair now and Magician’s Nephew after that.
NARNIA 4 HERE U COME!!!! YES!!!!!
I would have rather won this over an Oscar. This is great!
That's great. If Narnia should win any award, it should be a Christian themes one. Although of course it would be fantastic if the next movie wins more awards–here's hoping!
It's time for Narnia 4 to be announced! Woohoo!
Glorious! ^_^ Christian films really ARE better then all those pointless films. 🙂 Like Harry Potter for an example. . .
YES! So much better than an OSCAR!
I so agree!
I agree with everyone else- more films rather than Oscars. 🙂 Bring on MN. 🙂
Yup!
make way for NARNIA 4!!!!!
As long as we eventually get all the books made into movies, I don't care what order that they come out in!
I noticed something funny in the original article. In quoting Weil, it actually says,"…Musician’s Nephew…" Time to educate the general public. 🙂
http://www.charismamag.com/index.php/news/30308-the-voyage-of-the-dawn-treader-most-inspiring-faith-family-and-values-movie-of-2011
What exactly is a movie with "an atheist view"? For that matter, what is an "atheist view"?
By definition, atheists don't have a doctrine. Atheists are individuals, they all have their own views, the only thing they have in common is a lack of belief in god. So "Atheist views" are a total misnoma.
Regular movies don't push some sort of atheistic morality doctrine on people, they're just movies. They're simply there to entertain as a whole, and reflect whatever the writer wanted them to be about. Sometimes the subject matter necessitates a character who uses bad language, like in this year's "The Fighter" for example, which also has characters using drugs, and who fight. This doesn't mean the film is encouraging people to take drugs, swear or become boxers.
People can be so oddly manicheistic sometimes…
But still, poor Will Poulter!!
this is all great, but an Oscar would've been better for publicity, and it would've given Narnia a better future too.
So stinkin awesome!!!!
Huh, that's cool. Glad to hear that Christian morals are being awarded. Though I don't know if I want another Narnia movie. If they make one more Narnia movie, they better just make the entire series. VDT made a close to the Pevensies story. If they make another, letting audiences know there is more to tell, I'd hate to see them not finish the chronicles. However, MN is a prequel, so it doesn't exactly make you think there's more to tell after the Pevensies stories. Oh well. *shrugs*
Advertising would be way more than $100,000. We're talking millions.
I tend to agree Chris.
Indeed, while I don't have any issues in particular with a Christian organization handing out awards to films with messages and values they like, it seems incorrect to me to suggest that Lewis intended the books (and therefore movies based on the books) to have purely "Christian" values.
Anyone who has read Lewis's The Abolition of Man would come to realize that Lewis believed in a Universal moral code that is at the core of most religions.
Something else sort of struck me in the article as odd. I wondered why Maria Canals-Barrera (who plays the mother on Wizards of Waverly Place and presented at the awards), would even take a role on WoWP. That programme (like a number of shows on the Disney Channel) has some of the shallowest values on TV. WoWP promotes a very consumerist greed and pride based set of values which seem very non-"Christian" (or generally non-Spiritual/Religious) to me. I doubt CS Lewis himself would have approved of that sort of programming.
Sweet! I am glad that Christian movies are being made! 🙂
Onto Narnia 4! 😀
ALRIGHT!
🙂
True but this is soo great! 🙂 😀
Religion is something the world needs less of. All it causes is hurt and suffering and hate and prejudice. Narnia is great without bringing that rubbish into it. Yes it is possible to read and enjoy without being a believe in falsities.
WOW soooooo cool!!!! I was so afraid it hadn't been recognized anywhere but I see differently. I LOVE it that Christian movies were actually made well. :D:D
awesome! VDT did have alot of beautiful christian messages (which most of them came from Reepicheep 😉 ) and i especially loved that. Secretariat was an AMAZING movie! i absolutely LOVED it! so inspiring and powerful. i nearly cried at the end
my bad i thought of 100g instead of 100 million 🙂 well that's how my brain must work when i am sick. Thank you for the correction 🙂
well, that's very good news, I suppose. I'm sure C.S. Lewis would have been proud that the film crew kept the family-friendly and Christian themes present (although an Oscar may have been better for the franchise as a whole 😛 )
I have no idea what it is that is supposed to make this a "Christian" film. It's more like Philip Pullman's version of VDT than anything else.
Even the ending???
I love how everyone is saying "On way for Narnia 4" whenever The Magician's Nephew is Narnia 1, but instead The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe was Narnia 1 (movie wise of course) instead of being Narnia 2 (which it is). Suppose though when people are mentioning numbers they are going just by the number of what film it is of a Narnia novel. I really hope they know what they are doing by making The Magicians Nephew next instead of The Silver Chair. I swear if The Magicians Nephew doesn't make expectations on what Walden Media and FOX want, I don't want to hear them complain.
Yay! I am glad they won the award. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader really was an awesoe movie. I love Narnia!
I agree.
Me too!
This makes me happy beyond words. The Magician's Nephew! I never doubted they would make The Silver Chair next. I love that book so much… but I understand the need to make MN next. It'll probably attract more people to Narnia if it's explained how everything started and all. This will finally be a movie where people will be happy to see the White Witch. 😀 SC can wait for now. Now I've got to go back and reread MN to get myself back into the story. Narnia, I await you!!!!
I was reading Magicians Nephewm today and I swear I caught a vivid glimspe in my head on what the Hall of Images in Charn will possibly look like. weird huh? anyways. Further up and Further In,Inspiring beautiful line
haha you're funny jill pole!
just off by 1000… nothing much 😀
Really GP, it seems that you really never understood the movie your more into, how they (film makers) got it right from the book, such a shame, maybe you should read this really great review, although she hate the changes she did a great job analyzing the christian theme http://www.aslanscountry.com/2011/02/dawn-treader-movie-review-living-in-another%E2%80%99s-shadow/
Get ready to go Further up and Further In!!!
But WoWP is on Disney Channel, and Disney Channel is completely family-friendly!!! (I'm being sarcastic, by the way. I hate Disney Channel).
Good thing Christianity isn't a religion then.
i so agree with you Andrew!
Don't forget that atheism can be a religion…
I had wanted SC to be made first, but I'll be happy with this. I'm just glad that they want to continue the series.
I think I agree with glumPuddle, the Narnia films have at least tried to be "Christian", but failed to convey Aslan's deity properly as well as get the themes right. The script writers always seem to go back to this default message about, "you just have to have faith about these sort of things". Obviously they must not have any real understanding of Christianity, or they're just afraid to write anything of real substance for fear people will bash the film for being too preachy.
All you who disagree, it's probably because you've read the books and you know what certain scenes are supposed to convey, but the common movie goer is not going to get the same message, because it's just not implemented right.
I think what Narnia needs is better script writers who actually understand the books, that's probably where a lot of the issues start.
An interview is an interview. A movie is a movie. Whatever the filmmakers intended, the film that resulted is more humanistic than Christian.
In the movie, Aslan's line "there I have another name" could mean anything. In the book, Aslan takes the form of a lamb, and gives Eustace a kind of baptism to undragon him. In the book, it is also Aslan who destroys the Dark Island (in the movie, all the credit is given to Eustace). In the book, it is Aslan who enables Caspian and Edmund to resist Deathwater; in the movie it was Lucy.
Aslan in the VDT movie is little more than a sidekick.
In the book, the crew must rely on Aslan. In the movie, Aslan encourages them to rely on themselves ("don't run from who you are") and they listen: "WE did it. I knew WE would."
I can not stand that show. A subect like that is evil. And WoWP's not the only show on Disney Chanel. There's Phineas & Ferb. All the sister wants to do is get her brothers in trouble. I don't thinks that's a good message to be sending out to kids.
Yes!
You're still missing the point, GlumPuddle. If you ask people what Aslan ment by "There I have a different name" and they would probobly say Jesus. And the Undragoning showed that we need to ask God for help. This movie was Christian.
yes…..
but still, an Oscar is more prestigious. Just look at how far Lord of the Rings got, it won an oscar, if i am correct.
Twinimage does actually make a couple good points. I agree that having scriptwriters who understand what Lewis was up to would make for better movies, but this applies not only to the Christian themes, but the allusions to literature, and his opinions of society in general.
"All you who disagree, it’s probably because you’ve read the books and you know what certain scenes are supposed to convey, but the common movie goer is not going to get the same message, because it’s just not implemented right."
Actually, it's not that we've read the books, but that we have the background in Christianity that helps us bridge that gap. There are those who have read the books and did not realize they were meant to have Christian themes. So, that argument seems rather weak to me.
Yay!
Yes, a religion is an organized way of thinking, belief, and/or way of life. People who believe in atheism make it a religion.
P.S. I don't want to be controversial or anything. I'm just saying.
Yeah, and I couldn't care less even if it did win an oscar
Good point. If it weren't for my own Christian background, the Narnia series would just be another fantasy series to me.
I've watched secular movies and got some spiritual stuff out of them because of my Christian point of view. So, I guess you could say it's in the eye of the beholder as well as your definition of a "Christian movie".
I guess a good question is: should a Christian movie get it's message across to Christian and non-Christians?
You see the Christian themes there because of your point of view and your own beliefs. You know they should be there, thus you interpret it that way. But what will an Atheist get from this movie?
Will he see that the point of the scene was for the charactersto depend on Aslan to help them?
Does he see that Eustace must rely solely on Aslan to deliver him from his dragon form?
a studio is more concerned with the bottom line than the storyline. the MOOLAH. luckily for us, they love narnia too. but ya gotta be real in this evil age and make a few concessions to get things done.
maybe that's a good sign, it doesn't win Hellywood's seal of approval 🙂