Aslan is On the Move. . .

Thanks to woodwardiocom for posting the link to the new trailer for The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe here

I read The Lord of the Rings when I was young, but it did not make much of an impression on me, so I had no preconceptions or protective feelings when I went to see the movies. It's quite the opposite with Narnia. I devoured the books multiple times and loved them, especially the first one. I've been feeling reserved and sceptical about the movies.

This trailer makes me excited -- although Aslan's voice did not. It sounded very familiar, but I had to look it up. Turns out the actor behind him is Liam Neeson. I'm afraid I'm going to be having Jedi flashbacks when I hear him speak. Or maybe the experience of watching the actual film will overwhelm everything else.

I think one of the most difficult parts of casting -- whether a film or a movie -- is finding the balance between the talent a person brings to the part on the one hand, and the degree to which they are familiar or unfamiliar to the audience. A known actor can be a powerful draw, but can also bring so much else with them. Sometimes that's not a bad thing. But it can be distracting. I think that one of the reasons LOTR was powerful for me was that the faces on the screen were all unfamiliar. (Except Sean Bean, I guess, but his Boromir makeup and costume completely overwhelmed any possible associations with Richard Sharpe.)

Granted, with a strong performance in a strong show, one can forget other performances. . . but that doesn't always happen. Especially if there are thematic similarities between roles.

But to return to the original subject, the trailer: it's clear that Peter Jackson not only raised the bar on special effects but kicked open a door to a new era of fantasy film making. The visuals in TLTWTW are awesome, and I was almost ready to believe they had found talking wolves. (The beavers not so much.)

And I'm really looking forward to watching Tilda Swinton in action as the White Witch.