On Friday, the much anticipated Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe opens in theaters nationwide. I am pumped! Last week, I posted a recently uncovered letter that C.S. Lewis had written concerning his thoughts on a live-action movie based on his beloved stories. Lewis told a then BBC producer that he would be oppossed to a live-action TV version. Of course, there was no such thing as CGI back in 1959. The illusion and mystery of Narnia would have been lost on the small screen back then. Today that is not the case. I am quite postitive, based on what I have seen and heard about this production, that Lewis would be delighted with this adaptation. We shall see on Friday.

While I was perusing the internet this weekend, I came across a rather humorous picture. I decided to again post the letter that Lewis had written to the BBC concerning a live-action Chronicles and place a link to the picture as an example of what Lewis may have been oppossed to. I don’t think that Disney/Walden Media have anything to worry about. Enjoy.

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