MESSAGE IN THE MOVIES

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader Rated PG

Directed by Michael Apted.  Starring Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes

Photo © 2010 20th Century Fox
Movie Review by Rev. Bruce Batchelor Glader

The seven Narnia fantasies that Christian writer C. S. Lewis wrote fifty years ago continue to be popular with young readers and have made many appearances in spoken word books, radio shows, television series and even an animated adaptation. 

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is the third film in the latest franchise, following The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (2005) and Prince Caspian (2008). 

In this adventure, which begins in London during World War II, the two youngest Pevensie children, Lucy (Henley) and Edward (Keynes) are staying with their mean-spirited cousin Eustace (Will Poulter) and his family as war rages on in Europe. 

It’s an uncomfortable situation that quickly turns into something else when a picture of the sea literally washes all three of them back into the parallel world of Narnia and aboard The Dawn Treader, a ship with King Caspian (Ben Barnes) as the captain. 

The Pevensie children are much loved by the Narnians, so they are invited to be part of many seafaring adventures, accompanied by some old friends, including Reepicheep (Simon Pegg), a courageous fighting mouse. 

The moral lessons are focused this time on the theme of temptation and our ability to ward it off with the help of God (the great lion Aslan – Narnia’s Christ – makes his usual appearance).  And bratty cousin Eustace will have a life-changing experience as well.

This film has a different director and different special effects companies but retains the same production and writing crews from the first two films. 

I think it’s much more entertaining than Prince Caspian and does a nice job recreating the joy of fantasy films from the fifties (when these books were written). 

The mouse Reepicheep is a fully-drawn character in this movie, and the film works as pure adventure as well as a Christian allegory. 

Each chapter in this series has yielded diminishing box office returns, so this may well be the last film in the series. 

Nevertheless, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is one of the better family films of the year.  The 3D effects were added after the film was completed, so you can save some money by seeing a 2D showing; nothing is lost.



Pitchfork/Halo Ratings:
Four halos.
Moral lessons abound in this entertaining C. S. Lewis fantasy

One pitchfork.
The sea serpent is quite scary for younger children.

COMMENTS!

"We saw the Dawn Treader with our nine year old this weekend.  It was very well received and offfered great springboard for discussion as allegory.  The farewell with Aslan, where he talks to Lucy about being prepared for her own world was a great opening.  Who is Aslan?  Who can help us make good decisions in our day to day life?

"I give it five halos for this age child.  The serpent was scary, but so it life!"

Linda Bloom
Macedonia UMC

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