The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Walden Media has staked out a sometimes difficult market: They adapt children’s books for the big screen. It can be a daunting enterprise. Serious fans must be satisfied, but the film should also be accessible to someone who has never cracked the book’s cover. When the book is from C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia series, the stakes are even higher. Bordering on sacrosanct for a large number of fans, each little tweak to the stories feels like an edit to sacred texts. The third movie, “The Dawn Treader” hits theaters Friday and has all of Christendom, or at least Evangelicaldom, holding its breath.

Exhale, folks.

“The Dawn Treader” is an enjoyable movie which stays true to the spirit of the books.

Edmund (Skandar Keynes) and Lucy (Georgie Henley) are forced by wartime conditions to stay with their cousin Eustace for the duration. Eustace (Will Poulter) is the kind of boy who hordes collections of pinned insects and wins awards at school for personal hygiene. He doesn’t think much of his cousins’ sighings for Narnia and never misses a chance to torment them. He’s a whiner, tattle-teller, and all around snot.

Narnia isn’t going to leave him that way. The magical country, and its ruler Aslan, have plans for Eustace. Before he can say “I’m telling,” he’s swept into a painting of the sea with his cousins. Finding themselves in the briny deeps of Narnia, the trio is hauled aboard a masted sailing ship, the Dawn Treader. Lucy and Edmund rejoice to find themselves reunited with Caspian (Ben Barnes), now King of Narnia, and with the valiant mouse Reepicheep.

As so often happens to the happy land, an evil threatens Narnia. It comes in the form of a green, whispering sea mist which tempts and frightens each mariner with his own nightmares and darkest desires. Caspian has set off on a voyage to seek seven missing Narnian lords, a task that is part of the key to defeating the dark mist.  Everyone will face temptation, from Edmund to Caspian to the coxswain. The film expands this theme of temptation beyond the scope of the book, but builds on the themes Lewis wove into the narrative. For instance, Lucy’s desire to be beautiful like her sister Susan becomes her Achilles heel. The greatest consequence, however, falls on Eustace. Temptation conquers him and leads to a transformation so complete, he will need profound assistance to be freed.

The movie has some genuinely thrilling moments. The opening scene, in which Narnia draws the children through a painting in bedroom, is full of wonder. The film is available in 3D, but I saw it both ways and didn’t find the 3D added much. It’s beautiful enough in 2D. The character of Eustace, as a spoiled and selfish child who has read all the wrong sort of books, comes off as just the sort of person no one would want as a shipmate. This is also Reepicheep’s story, and the film captures his valiant, if overblown, chivary, his adventurous heart, his humor, and his underlying compassion. They got him right.

Fans of the books will smile at a few parts in passing, but wish they were more full-blown. An island of creatures called Dufferpuds, for instance, is briefly visited in an amusing, but short, scene.

To get Narnia right you have to get Aslan right. The great lion who is lord of Narnia and who sacrificed himself for Edmund in “The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe,” is at the heart of the battles the seafarers fight. His code of goodness arches over everyone’s choices and his help, both seen and unseen, comes in the times the characters can’t help themselves. His roar can still move heaven and earth. He tells Lucy he brought her to Narnia so that, in knowing Him a little there, she could know him well in her own world.

The Chronicles of Narnia has not yet been recognized by any religion as infallible. Lewis, himself, would have been horrified at the thought. The filmmakers, however, in making some changes in the narrative, have delivered an exciting movie that retains the profound insight that Lewis poured into his stories. Perhaps that’s another sign of Aslan on the move.

Note: Micheal Flaherty, President of Walden Media, is a friend of SixSeeds, but had no involvement in this review.

Also, read our interview with SixSeeds' own Mike Flaherty, the President of Walden Media.  Win free tickets to the movie too!