Zach Wilson--Outside Reading 2

After reading the Lewis Narnia series for the Philosophy 451: Lewis class, I gained a new appreciation for the books over the films.  Lewis famously refused to sell the rights to the films, feeling as though no film adaptation could bring justice to fantasy.  Lewis passed away in 1963, and his death was largely overshadowed by the assassination of JFK, and his book rights fell to his family.  The family refused to sell the rights until the recent movie series, featuring CGI animation.  I'd argue that Lewis would refuse to sell these rights if he had been alive.  Narnia is a special place, which cannot be tamed or captured.  It is a place for children, as Peter and Susan outgrow Narnia and cannot return.  This spirit cannot be captured by film.
Film companies saw an opportunity to capitalize off of the popular books, which along with J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings series served as a neo-classical source of myth.  Both of these series have now been made into highly marketable and profitable film series.  I would argue that of the two book/movie series, Lord of the Rings more effectively captures the spirit of the books.  The Narnia films try to imagine mythical characters in a concrete, animated form, which are portrayed on screen. The budget for the Narnia films noticeably gets smaller and smaller, and relies more and more on over-animation that is not realistic.  The glory of the Narnia books is that they are realistic and believable, they make myth come alive.  However, the Narnia films do the opposite and try to fit real life into myth, instead of myth to real life.