Monday, December 6, 2010

Voyage of the Dawn Treader

I Hope They Don't Screw This Scene Up!!!
I was just downstairs watching television and to my surprise, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Narnia's 3rd movie installment, is coming out WAY earlier than I thought (this Friday!).

The main point is I want to have one last place to treasure one of my FAVORITE/most MEMORABLE scenes from all the Chronicles of Narnia books in case the movie ruins it (so here's your *SPOILER ALERT* if you haven't read the book).

In the book, there's a scene where the character, Eustace, has an encounter with Aslan.  Up until this encounter, Eustace is turned into a dragon as the result of his irresponsibility, childishness, selfishness and greed (he put on a golden bracelet that cursed him and he can't take it off).  It takes Eustace becoming a dragon for him to value his friends and learn to consider the needs of others.  

After a while, he just wants to be a boy again and NO ONE was able to help him.  He desperately cries out and begs Aslan to help him.  There's A LOT of symbolism in this scene that one can apply, but my favorite part is how Aslan helps Eustace become un-dragoned.

Aslan tells Eustace that the change will be painful. He goes on, using his claws to scrape the dragon skin off of Eustace's body as he becomes a boy again.  I hope they include this scene, and do it well!

This scene just reminds me of how as God helps us to get rid of our sins, it hurts.  Sin is not just some ball you hold and can toss away, but it can become part of you, or in this case, a SHELL of you.  The removal of it is therefore FELT.  Although painful, this is the only way we inhabit our own true skin.  Finally, it's NOT something we can do ourselves.

Eustace (illustration from the book)

This is the only scene I remember from the Voyage of the Dawn Treader, but I hope the whole movie turned out well!  Let's hope it stuck to the book better than Prince Caspian did!

That's all I got for now, short and sweet instead of a deep-analysis.  C.S. Lewis is awesome.