Differences between the books and films

As all other book/comic based movies do, Narnia is no exception to have a different storyline, theme, etc from the book. Here is my overview about the differences of Narnia between the books and the films. 

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe movie is spectacular. The movie became one of the top grossing films of all time. But still, the movie has differences from the book itself but not that so many.

The bombing scene in London in the movie is only mentioned in the book. Both in the film and book, Lucy Pevensie first enters Narnia through the wardrobe but in different scenes: in the book, she enters Narnia through the wardrobe while they are exploring the professor’s house (the house where they were sent to escape the bombing in London) however in the film, she enters Narnia through the wardrobe while they (with her siblings) are playing hide-and-seek. Going further in the story of the book, Edmund and the faun Tumnus didn’t share cells otherwise in the movie Tumnus was turned into a stone long before Edmund became a prisoner. The Frozen River scene in the film is not even in the book. Now for the Battle at Beruna scene, in the movie this scene is the climax but in the book, the climax scene is the scene when Aslan died in the Stone Table and his resurrection. On the other hand, the characters of the minotaur general Otmin and the centaur Orieus are not in the book.

Prince Caspian

Let’s go now to Prince Caspian. The movie is also great but the release date of the movie was very awful. The movie was sandwiched between two of summer 2008’s most anticipated movies: Marvel’s Iron Man and Indiana Jones: Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Narnia is not good in a summer box-office. The movie, also have many differences from the book itself.

In the book:

The introduction of the book and movie are different from each other. In the book, the story starts when Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy Pevensie are waiting in a country station waiting for the next train to transport them to their schools. After which, they all feel the magic pull of Narnia transporting them back to their beloved world. Then they found themselves in the ruins of Cair Paravel and trees there have golden apples in it. Further, they found their long lost treasures (gifts from Father Christmas from ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’) inside the ancient treasure chamber.

 The book story continues with the little childhood life of Caspian wherein he lost his nurse due to telling him (Caspian) the history of Narnia (even though Miraz forbade this from telling his nephew). That is when Doctor Cornelius came to the story as Caspian’s new tutor, but Cornelius knows more the Narnian history than Caspian’s former nurse. To continue, Caspian and Doctor Cornelius also have night studies in a Tower somewhere across the Telmarine castle where they study about Astronomy and little Narnia history. Continuing the story, one night Caspian’s aunt Prunaprismia is giving birth to son (son of King Miraz, Caspian’s uncle), then after which Caspian was intended to be killed by Miraz’s soldiers on that night, but Doctor Cornelius wakes Caspian to save his tutor from an inch of death. Caspian fled to the woods along with Queen Susan’s horn (given by Cornelius) and his horse Destrier in order to save his life. He is being chased by some Telmarine soldiers but the soldiers retreated as Caspian entered the woods of Narnia (the soldiers retreated due to their belief that the trees will eat them/kill them as a matter of fact).

On the other hand, let’s go further to the story itself. The Pevensies together with Trumpkin encountered Aslan in the woods long before they meet Caspian. Caspian’s adventure in the woods is peaceful as he, together with Trufflehunter (a badger) and Nikabrik (a dwarf) looks for Narnians that are all in hiding places. They met the Bulgy bears, Pattertwig, Glenstorm the centaur, Reepicheep the noble mouse and more. They all agreed to have a little feast in the Dancing Lawn. While the feast is going through, Doctor Cornelius showed himself and warns Caspian that King Miraz is coming soon. The Pevensies (Peter and Edmund only) met Caspian inside Aslan’s How as they saved Caspian from the black magic given by Nikabrik, a hag and a werewolf. The black magic scene is when they tried to revive the White Witch from the dead, but Peter, Edmund, Caspian, Trumpkin, Cornelius and Truflehunter prevented this from happening.

Going further, Susan and Lucy are with Aslan while the second Battle at Beruna is occurring involving Peter, Edmund, Caspian, Narnian army and Telmarine army. After the battle ended, the river god was summoned by Aslan also after the bridge of Beruna was destroyed. After which, a great feast was made. All Narnians and Telmarines were gathered and Aslan makes a door in the air (a doorway made out of sticks) as a way for those who may want to start a new life. Before the Pevensies left Narnia, Queen Susan’s horn was given to Caspian and then the Pevensies went to the doorway made by Aslan to transport them back to their own world. The book ended with these lines: “Well!” said Peter. “We have had a time.” “Bother!” said Edmund. “I’ve left my new torch in Narnia.”

In the Movie:

In the movie, the story starts when Lady Prunaprismia is giving birth to Miraz’s son and Caspian’s cousin. After which, we can see that doctor Cornelius is waking Caspian to save him from an inch of death. Cornelius gave Caspian the ivory horn of Queen Susan to blow it in case of greatest need, then Caspian escaped the Telmarine castle with his horse Destrier, they rushed to the Narnian woods with some Telmarine soldiers chasing them and all of a sudden, Caspian bumped his head on a tree branch and fell from his horse. Nikarbrik and Trumpkin shows to Caspian as he fell from his horse. Trumpkin plans to attack Caspian but he didn’t continued this as he seen the Ivory horn of Queen Susan coming from Caspian’s side. Trumpkin just attacked the coming Telmarine soldiers. Nikabrik and Caspian were left then Caspian blew the Ivory horn but Nikabrik smashed Caspian with dagger leaving Caspian fell to sleep.

The next scene in the movie is the introductory scene of the book. Some changes and additional scenes were added in the movie. The Geeky boy and the fight in the train station involving Peter and Edmund are not in the book. Also, in the book all Pevensie kids felt the magic pull of Narnia but in the movie, only Peter and Lucy felt the magic pull. Then they found themselves in the ruins of Cair Paravel but the trees are only bearing red apples and not gold like those in the book. They also found their long lost gifts from Father Christmas in the ancient treasure house.

On the other hand, let’s go further to the movie. The Pevensies together with Trumpkin first encountered Caspian before Aslan however, only Lucy first saw Aslan while they are in River Rush and the others only saw Aslan after the second Battle at Beruna. Caspian’s adventure in the woods is together with Trufflehunter (a badger) and Nikabrik (a dwarf) is not so safe, as they were chased by Telmarine soldiers but, then they came to meet the noble mouse Reepicheep saving them from the soldiers and after which, they saw Glenstorm and his sons leading them in to the Dancing Lawn. The Dancing Lawn scene is a negotiation scene wherein Narnians argue whether Caspian will save them or kill them, but after the deep conversation between the two parties, Narnians agreed to aid and help Caspian regain his throne because they were all called back by the blow of the Ivory horn given by Caspian. The Pevensies met Caspian in the forest near Aslan’s How. They were all welcomed back by the Narnians in the How and then, they all saw the Stone Table inside the How. After which, the party plans to raid Miraz’s castle to prevent the Telmarine’s attack and to save Doctor Cornelius. That night, a little party of Narnians raided Miraz’s Castle wherein Caspian learned about his father’s cause of death. They all did their best to rip off the Telmarines but they are outnumbered. As a result, they retreated back to Aslan’s How and lost many Narnian soldiers.

As they returned to the How, Caspian and Peter argued on what the outcome does in their night raid. Miraz then, is now crowned as the new Telmarine king. Caspian then went inside the How to refresh his mind on what happened. This was the perfect time for Nikabrik to threaten Caspian to summon back the White Witch. Almost successful the ritual was, Caspian is now under the spell of the Witch to bring her back to life and great thing that Peter, Edmund and Trumpkin rushed inside the How to prevent the Witch to come back to life. Edmund saves the day as he destroyed the ice where the Witch was. The ritual failed and Nikabrik died.

The duel between High King Peter and King Miraz is the next then the second Battle at Beruna (outside Aslan’s How) are the next scenes.  The battles are very epic. This time, Susan joined the battle leaving Lucy to find Aslan in the woods alone. After Lucy found Aslan in the woods, Aslan summoned the trees resulted the Telmarines to retreat. The river god was also summoned by Aslan to destroy the Beruna Bridge. Now, everyone is reunited with Aslan. After a little celebration, Aslan makes a door in the air using a tree as a doorway to a new life. Peter then gives his sword Rhindon to Caspian before they (the Pevensies) left Narnia. And before they left Narnia, Susan gave Caspian a kiss then hugs him. After they all makes farewell to their Narnian friends including Aslan, they stepped through the tree and finding themselves back to England. The movie ended with these lines: “Do you think there’s any way we can get back?” asked Edmund, “I’ve left my new torch in Narnia.”

These are now the other differences from the book to film: The romance between Caspian and Susan is not on the book; The Castle Raid is not in the book; Peter and Caspian’s little conflict is not in the book rather, Caspian admires Peter. These are some of the differences from the book to film of The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

The most recent movie, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader was released December 2010. Unfortunately, the movie wasn’t good in the box-office. This is due to weak marketing they made for the film and again, this is because they made many changes in the movie from the book and the story from the book to the big-screen is very far and different from each other.

-Chronological differences:

The beginning scene of the movie, it starts when Edmund tries to enlist in the army but this is not in the book; Also, Eustace calls his parents with mother and father but in the book, he calls them Alberta and Harold; As they came to Narnia, Eustace meets mythical and talking animals then he faints afterwards but in the book, he mocks that this is all a dream; The Dawn Treader is a ship built for King Caspian to find the seven lost lords of Narnia and set sail to the very end of the world and this time, to find the seven swords of the seven los lords to destroy the evil lurking in the eastern sea of Narnia; Before they visited the first island, Caspian and Edmund had this little practice duel n the movie, however in the book Reepicheep challenged Eustace to a duel. As they head off to Narrowhaven (in the movie), the party fought some Calormenes but then fails to win, as a result, Lucy and Eustace were brought to the market then Caspian and Edmund are sent to the dungeons. Lord Bern is a prisoner here. The next day, a massive battle occurred in Narrowhaven. And Narnians won of course. After which, the first sword was given by Lord Bern.In the book, they never fought in Narrowhaven and Lord Bern warned Caspian about the Slave Traders. There is no sword in the book. (In the movie) After they visited Narrowhaven, they next visited the Island of the Duffers and Magician’s Island. Next Island they visited was the Goldwater Island and the Dragon Island wherein Eustace became a dragon. (In the book) After they visited Narrowhaven, the next island they visited was the Dragon Island then Goldwater and Burnt Island, after which was the Island of the Duffers then the Magician’s Island, the next was the Dark Island, then Ramandu’s Island and Aslan’s Country was the last Island they visited.

-More differences:

As I said before, the swords are not in the book. The lurking green mist was also added in the movie representing the evil and temptation in the story and will be revealed as the Lady of the Green Kirtle to be featured in The Silver Chair. Also, the White Witch is not in the book. In the book the scene where Lucy reads the Magician’s book, she saw both Aslan and Coriakin the magician (in the movie, she only saw Coriakin and only heard the voice of Aslan). Ramandu is not featured in the film but he is in the book. Also, in the book Ramandu’s daughter was not given a name but in the movie, she was given a name, Lilliandil. Burnt Island and Dark Island are two different Islands in the book, but in the movie, they are combined and it’s the place where the climax of the story occurs. At the end of the story, (in the book) Caspian was not allowed by Aslan to sail to the World’s End. Reepicheep also didn’t go further with Lucy, Edmund and Eustace as he sailed alone further to Aslan’s Country. As the children transports back to England, Aslan opens a portal to the wave leading to Aslan’s Country to lead the children back to their own world. Caspian and Daughter of Ramandu are married. (In the movie) Caspian joins the children to sail to Aslan’s Country with Reepicheep. Aslan shows himself as a lamb to the children and as the children transports back to England, Aslan opens a portal in the sky.