This is the second part of our discussion about “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” movie with Daniel and Phil from “The Lamp-Post Listener” podcast. It was originally posted on their podcast feed and now, a week later, it’s appearing on ours…
S3E40: “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Part 2” (Download)
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Time Stamps
00:00:00 – Introductory music
00:00:22 – Welcome
00:01:16 – Drink-of-the-week
00:03:01 – How are we feeling so far?
00:07:29 – Gold/Deathwater/Dragon Island
00:20:43 – Following the star
00:27:04 – Ramandu’s Island
00:30:48 – Sailing to Dark Island
00:34:20 – The Battle begins
00:38:10 – The undragoning of Eustace
00:41:40 – Slaying the Serpant
00:48:30 – The very end of the world
00:54:32 – Back in Cambridge
00:56:36 – Credits
00:58:43 – What would you change?
01:03:05 – Netflix Hopes
01:06:45 – Closing remarks
YouTube Version
Show Notes
• Daniel and Phil introduced Matt and me.
• We talked about the drinks we were enjoying. I was drinking Captain Morgan Rum again and Matt was drinking Wild Turkey American Honey. Daniel was drinking Apple Cinnamon Mead from Charm City Meadworks and Phil was drinking tap water.
• Daniel recapped the story so far and we discussed how we were enjoying the movie so far… Matt and Phil were much more positive about their experience.
• We then spoke about the decision to combine Goldwater Island, Deathwater Island, and Dragon Island together. We generally liked it, although we didn’t really like the Goldwater material. I didn’t like that there was absolutely no puzzle – they immediately work out that it’s a magic pool and they know it’s Restimar. They don’t care about the Lord and just wanted the sword. Daniel referred to the absence of Aslan as His “Esther Role” since God doesn’t appear directly in the Old Testament Book of Esther.
• We were all fans of Eustace’s reveal. This led to a discussion about the BBC adaptation of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which I watched on TV as a child:
I thought the pushing aside the skeleton of Lord Octesian was too strange when there was so much other treasure. As Phil pointed out, someone who won the school hygiene award two years in a row probably wouldn’t want to touch a dead body!
I didn’t like how the bracelet grew with Eustace when he became a dragon. I didn’t like that Lucy managed to take it off so easily.
• The relationship between Eustace and Reepicheep was appreciated. I pointed out that you can see Aslan in the sky in the scene where they’re stargazing:
It was very strange that Gayle somehow knew about Aslan, which doesn’t fit with what we were told in Prince Caspian.
• We spoke about the crew following the star, the wind failing and Eustace dragging the ship using his tail. Daniel really didn’t like that Eustace didn’t really realize what a pest he was to the rest of the crew.
• Daniel blew our minds by pointing out that the people who wrote this movie, Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, also wrote several Avenger movies, including Avengers: Endgame (2019), Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Captain America: Civil War (2016).
• Upon arriving at Ramandu’s Island, they never actually meet Ramandu! The crew don’t care about the Lords, they just want their (glowing) swords! The Lords are now sleeping because they “threatened violence” rather than because they touched the stone knife. Ramandu’s daughter is now a shape-shifting star, but looks more like The Blue Fairy. She’s called “Liliandil”, name which was apparently given to her by Douglas Gresham.
• The crew sail to Dark Island. Lord Rhoop was fantastic.
I suggested that Lucy’s scene with Gael was badly placed. I liked that Lucy had learnt the important lesson about being yourself, but it was badly-placed and the script was clunky (“When I grow up I want to be just like you…”).
I liked the call “For Narnia”, which is repeated in each movie. Caspian seems to think that they can save the people captured, but doesn’t explain why. The hallucinations are rather pointless.
• I pointed out that similarity between this movie and the end of Ghostbusters where the thoughts of one character determine the shape of the enemy. Unfortunately, only Daniel had seen them movie:
• Rhoop throws his sword thirty yards into the dragon (impressive!) and Eustace flies away. The Albatros was wasted.
• We discussed the undragoning of Eustace. We weren’t quite sure where it took place. I loved the seeing Aslan in the reflection of the dragon’s eye. The rest of the undragoning was uninspired and dull.
• Eustace suddenly appears back on Ramandu’s Island and takes the sword to the table (fighting off the mist on the way).
• We then returned to discussing the battle on Dark Island. We thought that the sea serpant was rather terrifying:
We thought that the temptation by the White Witch was weird and nonsensical. The White Witch’s refusal to die reminded me of this scene from Dracula: Dead and loving it. We kicked around some ideas to make this less dumb. I suggested that they were trying to use this movie to prepare for The Silver Chair (but I was quite tight-lipped since neither Matt nor Phil have read it).
• I didn’t like that Peter’s sword glowed – it had no connection to the other swords. When they kill the serpent there’s a dumb sky-beam, Lucy needless tells us “The spell, it’s lifting!” , the people return without any explanation, Eustace then suddenly appears alongside the ship in the water. The children also take all the credit (NOT Aslan!)
• They head to Aslan’s country, but they don’t seem very interested (“Well, we’ve come this far…”). I liked the lilies and hearing Eustace’s story “Good pain…like when you pull a thorn from your foot” rather than picking off a scab as it’s described in the book.
• I loved the reveal of Aslan on the beach using his shadow. I loved the wave the glimpse of Aslan’s country. However, where did the coracle come from?! Matt loved the line “My country was made for noble hearts such as yours.” and I was very pleased that they kept in the line where Aslan says he’s in our world too.
• Travelling back to Cambridge was great and used subtle visual storytelling, with Eustace carefully hanging the picture back up at the end.
• You can hear “Jill Pole has dropped in for a visit” in the background which, while it doesn’t fit, but was a bit cute.
• The credits then played, showing the illustrations of Pauline Baynes, playing “There’s a place for us” by Carrie Underwood:
• Matt joked at the end, asking me if I had been “answered”. I responded saying “The complaint itself was the answer”, which is a quotation from Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis, which was the book Matt and I discussed this past season.
• Daniel asked us, if we were the director, what one thing would you have changed?
• We then discussed our hopes for the Netflix series and the adaptation of this book in particular.
