Will Vaus

Yesterday my three sons and I went to see Voyage of the Dawn Treader in 3D. I definitely enjoyed the movie more the second time around. This time I wasn't so bothered by the changes from book to movie. In fact, I was more aware of the many elements from the book which were retained and enhanced in the movie. The 3D experience definitely added greater depth and enjoyment to the whole movie-watching experience. This is certainly a movie that everyone should see on the big screen. This second time watching the film I was overwhelmed by the amazing attention to detail in every scene and every set design. One of my sons even noticed Eustace's hygiene award in his room at the beginning of the film! Some of the sets were so well done, especially at the beginning (Eustace's house, the Dawn Treader ship itself) that I wanted to linger awhile and explore. Seeing the movie a second time I was struck, once again, by Will Poulter's excellent job playing the part of Eustace...

"And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth." John 1:14 (NRSV) "The central miracle asserted by Christians is the Incarnation. They say that God became Man. Every other miracle prepares for this, or exhibits this, or results from this. Just as every natural event is the manifestation at a particular place and moment of Nature's total character, so every particular Christian miracle manifests at a particular place and moment the character and significance of the Incarnation. There is no question in Christianity of arbitrary interferences just scattered about. It relates not a series of disconnected raids on Nature but the various steps of a strategically coherent invasion--an invasion which intends complete conquest and 'occupation.'" C. S. Lewis, Miracles

If I were to write a brief review of the new Voyage of the Dawn Treader movie it might go like this.... Return to Magic? Yes, but not C. S. Lewis' magic. Return to Hope? My hope for the faithful continuation of the Narnia movie franchise is dimmed. Return to Narnia? Was it even C. S. Lewis' Narnia? However, I find it impossible to stop with such a brief and too depressing review.... On the positive side, one of my favorite moments in the new movie is the arrival of three children from our world (Edmund, Lucy and Eustace) on the Narnian ship itself. That moment in the film gave me the same feeling I had reading the story as a child—the feeling of wonder and joy at being back in Narnia again. However, this story isn’t really set in Narnia. Rather it takes place upon the sea, east of Narnia. Furthermore, I kept getting the feeling throughout the movie that I wasn’t in C. S. Lewis’ creation at all. That’s because from the Dawn Treader’s first stop at the Lone Isl...

I did an interview about The Voyage of the Dawn Treader yesterday on the program "Issues Etc" out of St. Louis. You can now listen to that interview by clicking on the link: http://issuesetc.org/podcast/639120910H2S1.mp3

I recently received a review copy of The Narnia Code DVD from Tyndale House Publishers. It is always a delight to review C. S. Lewis related books and products, and especially so in this case as Michael Ward, author of The Narnia Code and Planet Narnia , is a friend of mine. That said, allow me to get one thing I don't like about this DVD out of the way right from the start, and that is: the title. I really dislike the title: The Narnia Code . The reason I dislike it is because I sincerely doubt that C. S. Lewis would want us to approach the Narnia books as pieces of literature to decode. Lewis makes clear in a number of places that the Narnia books are not an allegory. (See letter of 26 May, 1954 in Letters to Children , pp. 44-45.) Nonetheless, I believe that something Lewis said about allegory in general, in The Allegory of Love , applies to reading the Narnia books. There Lewis wrote that "allegory is not a puzzle. The worst thing we can do is to read it with our e...

This was our view on Tilghman Island, Maryland where we were hosted by our friends, Bill and Bette Webb, for a Narnia Weekend. While there we learned how to shuck oysters. And more importantly, we learned how to eat them! Yummy!! On December 4 I spoke at the Tidewater Inn in Easton, Maryland. The advertising was well done. And the room where I spoke about The Professor of Narnia and The Hidden Story of Narnia was most elegant. Easton was all done up for Christmas with even a touch of Narnia. The next morning I spoke at Shore Harvest Presbyterian Church about my book, My Father Was a Gangster . All in all it was a most delightful weekend of reunion with old friends, meeting new ones, and being able to take my family along on this leg of the Hidden Story of Narnia Book Tour made it all the better. Next I hope to do a blog about the Narnia Code DVD. So stay tuned....