**Comparing Narnia and LotR**

[Kuruharan]

I think I can say without fear of contradiction that in the Avoidance of Stupid and Incomprehensible Plot Deviations category The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe wins hands down.

including the effects that come from the same workshop

It is funny you should say that, but there were some pieces of armor (I'm particularly thinking of the helmet of Aslan's centaur general) that just had LOTR influences all over them. On the whole, I admit that I generally prefer the armor designs in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe as being more in character than some of the stuff that appeared in LOTR (which in some cases was rather silly in my opinion).

I do think that the humor in the Narnia movie tended to be better done and more fitting in the movie - some of the humor in LotR bordered on too forced or too corny (coughGimlicough).

Amen. The Beavers were hilarious...even Maugrim had a bit of a giggle or two. I found the exchange between Edmund and Philip to be pretty funny as well. It was one of those, "Oh yeah, that's right!" moments. (Those who have seen the movie will know what I am talking about.)

LotR is definitely the more dark in tone between the two (four?) movies, which I suppose is to be expected. While both movies depict a good vs. evil struggle, Narnia isn't quite as dire about it.

I think that while Narnia does have a more lighthearted tone, it may also have something to do with Narnia already having suffered the worst and not having any place to go but up. In Middle earth the heroes were trying to preserve and protect. In Narnia the heroes were trying to overthrow an already established tyranny and start fresh.

If there was anything I was “disappointed” about was that Liam Neeson would not have been my choice for the voice of Aslan. I would have preferred somebody with a deeper voice.

[mark12_30]

Originally Posted by Kuruharan

I found the exchange between Edmund and Philip to be pretty funny as well.

I thought it was a perfect little offhand addition, in line with Lewis' themes, understated-- unlike some of the additions that made it into PJ's movies. It was like a foreshadowing of The Horse And His Boy... really well done.

Originally Posted by davem

What interests me is the way Evangelicals have grabbed onto Narnia but didn't bother with LotR (ok, some did, but not to any extent in the same way).

Heh! Latecomer.

[Mister Underhill]

Originally Posted by Lal

Ah, but according to the same writer, LotR is also evil:

Those articles evoke nothing so much as pity. I mean, you have to be pretty out of it to think that this little bit of satire is the real deal.

[Thinlómien]

I'm maybe a bit late to comment the Narnia movie, but I hope that it doesn't matter. It's also been a while from the day I saw the movie, so I might do mistakes about the plotline etc.

Generally, the movie was okay, in my opinion. I didn't like emphasizing in every turn, that Edmund was different. The book doesn't do so, why should the movie? I think there were too many close shots from the children crying; they (especially the girls) were crying all the time. It was annoying. Only after seeing Narnia I realised how well had Peter Jackson managed with crying in Lotr movies.

The battle was well made, and after seeing other fantasy or historical movie battle scenes (LotR, Troy, King Arthur etc.) it was really amusing with all the colours and beautiful creatures. The humour (as said before) was also better in the LotR movies. I, too, really liked the Philip-thing. I was also left wondering, why on earth do they hunt the white stag? Didn't animals speak in Narnia and be equals with them? That they were chasing an evil stag, wouldn't be a good theory.

Maybe something about the movie may also tell that when going back home from the movies, I, my sister and my dad were talking about the creatures. I said: "I liked the bat-creature in the scene where Mufasa was killed". You can only imagine how hard they laughed. There were actually very much same in movie-Aslan and Mufasa. And the scene where Aslan tells Peter (they're standing on a cliff) what to do if he won't be there and so on, it's just like the scene in lion king where Mufasa shows his kingdom to Simba and tells about being king. (I'll stop here, because this isn't Comparing Narnia and Lion King -thread...)