No, No, Narnia
C.S. Lewis did not like the idea of turning his "Narnia" stories into movies. See his protest letter below to BBC producer Lance Sieveking.
Disney will release a film version of "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" on 9 December, 2005.
We shall see.
The Kilns,
Headington Quarry,
Oxford
18 Dec. 1959
Dear Sieveking
(Why do you ‘Dr’ me? Had we not dropped the honorifics?) As things worked out, I wasn’t free to hear a single instalment of our serial [The Magician’s Nephew] except the first. What I did hear, I approved. I shd. be glad for the series to be given abroad. But I am absolutely opposed – adamant isn’t in it! – to a TV version. Anthropomorphic animals, when taken out of narrative into actual visibility, always turn into buffoonery or nightmare. At least, with photography. Cartoons (if only Disney did not combine so much vulgarity with his genius!) wld. be another matter. A human, pantomime, Aslan wld. be to me blasphemy.
All the best,
yours
C. S. Lewis
[Letter to BBC producer Lance Sieveking (1896-1972), who has written at the top: ‘The Magician’s Nephew’ and, after the address, the phone number “62963”.]
Source: nthposition.com
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2 comments:
Interesting letter. Undoubtably, a Disney film version of "Narnia" would have been better were Walt Disney still alive. If Lewis thought the old stuff buffoonery, what would he think of Disney 'toons produced since his death? It's unfortunate Lewis isn't alive not only to approve of the movie, but to make it. Of course, literature in general is nearly always superior to the film versions.
Good points on the Disney's film making the post-Walt era, Blonde. I think Lewis' would be surprised by joy, if he were asked to make the Narnia movie.
On another subject,if not an imposition, tell me what your think of Prince Myshkin in Dostoyezsky's "The Idiot."
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