Up Old Narnia!

As promised, a post about Narnia on film vs. Narnia of the books. The title of this post is taken from chapter 14 of Prince Caspian, which I just finished reading to my favorite six-year-old. The scene is like this: Peter the high king is in an arranged battle against Miraz, tyrant/king/usurper of what could be called 'Narnia of the Telmarines.' The Narnia that Peter is fighting for could be called 'Old Narnia'; the land of talking beasts and wakened trees and waters, the land that Aslan, the Great Lion, Son of the Emporor-beyond-the-sea, established. Peter gets in a good jab on Miraz and King Edmund (Peter's brother) takes up the cheer: "Up Old Narnia!"

The book unfolds to reveal that the Land of Narnia under Miraz has become something quite different than the land that Aslan created. Much of what should have been valued and cherished has been forgotten or destroyed, many new things were added to the governing of the land to make it just like any other land ruled by men.

So it is with the movie version of the first book in the series. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe(the movie), for me, was a huge disappointment. So much was left out that should have been included. The Aslan of C. S. Lewis was allegorical to Jesus Christ, the Aslan of the movie was just a magical lion. This was the biggest disappointment for me; I completely submerged myself in Christ that Lewis filled out in his books and found I could breathe there (except for a gasp or two toward the end of the last book). The lion of the movie had no mystery, no majesty, no eternity, and no Trinity about him.

I did like some things in the movie that they did to accentuate the story, but they could have done that with any movie. What they should have done was to make it more of Lewis's Narnia and less Disney's.

I wish there were a way to do what the J.R.R Tolkien fans did. They made (or pestered) Peter Jackson to make a version that was true to the original. He didn't exactly, but he probably got closer than he would have had they not spoken up. Has somebody already tried to do this, or must I start it? Any help would be appreciated.