Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader was one of my least favourite Narnia books. It involves the two youngest Pevensie children and their annoying cousin Eustace transported to King Caspian’s ship. He is on a meaningless quest to find some lords, a shoestring of a plot that is eventually jettisoned when Lewis gets bored and has all the rest show up at once, and they meander about in a vague echo of The Odyssey until they reach the end of the world, a privileged few are chosen to go on and have to sacrifice one of their number, while the rest of the brave sailors have to sit in the boat and wait, which they actually argue about. It struck me as very unfair – as did the story of poor dwarfs cruelly punished by a supposed good guy to be monopods. They were so ashamed they turned themselves invisible, until Lucy revealed them, presumably much to their shame. Even the presence of Reepicheep hardly made the vague, uninteresting story palatable, and he was about the only character I truly liked.

So I was surprised and rather delighted that all the things I disliked were changed, the insipid fantasy elements looked phenomenal in a high-budget feature production, and capable actors made the characters far more likeable than I could have hoped for. Starting with a gorgeous twisting shot of one of my three favourite sights from Cambridge, the porters’ lodge of King’s (followed soon after by a brief shot of another, Trinity Great Court), the familiar faces of Edmund and Lucy were joined by brattish, stuck-up Eustace. Will Poulter is absolutely perfectly cast; I never saw Son of Rambo, but I remember remarking upon how impressive he was as an actor in School of Comedy, where his natural delivery and wide range set him out – for me – as a brilliant character actor in the making. This will be another great step in his career, and I hope he’s given a chance to fully develop. He pitches Eustace perfectly, and despite the fact that much of the crucial character development is done in CG, the slow transition from hideous prig to likeable, warm young man that forms the heart of the film couldn’t have been done better. I look forward to seeing him interacting with Puddleglum in the next film. He’ll be a major character in two more films yet.

Much of the story has been reworked or expanded to make the story flow better and develop properly, as well as converting Lewis’ somewhat distant and aloof portrayals of his characters into accessible, modern, sleek Hollywood character arcs. Lucy is given an insecurity issue, while Edmund rankles at being second in command. Caspian, who has lost his funny accent, is now a strong leader but has a hot temper. And Edmund isn’t simply punished into changing by his suffering: he starts to open up to Reepicheep first, and learns bravery and self-sacrifice.

The films are tied neatly to their predecessors. Edmund even gets given back his torch. Numerous actors who may not have expected to appear are given cameo roles, as fantasies or hallucinations allow for the appearances of Peter and Susan, The White Witch and Miraz. One slightly incongruous change is that Eddie Izzard did not reprise his voice acting role as Reepicheep, it falling instead to Simon Pegg, who may have been trying to sound like his predecessor, but who honestly I much preferred.

There are odd moments. The story has been improved by an evil force that must be overcome by the daft collection quest of the original, which while workable and better than the alternative, is still somewhat awkward. Some of the CG sequences are the best I have ever seen – Reepicheep and Aslan in the final scenes look incredibly real – but at other times it falls short, such as when there are water spirits halfway between naiads and mermaids but mostly looking like jerky computer games graphics. And I am convinced the film has been cut to hint at romantic tension between Caspian and Edmund, with strange reaction shots to proclamations of brotherhood and such. Odd!

But for its faults, Dawn Treader redeems so much more than it gets wrong, and is helped along by what have become excellent characters and very beautiful eye-candy. The Narnia books have many problems left yet, ultimately including trying to make horrific death sound glorious, and the well-known ‘problem of Susan’. But I would much rather watch Dawn Treader five times back-to-back than watch the latest Harry Potter again. Genuinely impressed!