Narnia Spin-Off series for Netflix by Rebekah Walton

Since I am in general a Narnian Purist Book fan, you would probably expect me to be against Narnia Netflix spin off series (Any series that did not follow the Narnia books but, instead created it’s own story, which I guess they did with the VODT movie but, most people just say they did a bad job of following the story they started.), but, this is not exactly true.

 

I think that you can do it well if you follow certain rules. As such since it is going to Netflix and I expect them to eventually do this because of the way Narnia was marketed to them by having ‘‘3,000 characters’’ (not even close to that many characters named in the 7 books),and being a ‘‘universe’’.

With that in mind, I would like to give the Netflix fanfiction spin-off series, a chance to be loved by created a list of rules, they should follow in keep in mind while they write scripts, cast actors and film.

C.S. Lewis was not against fan fiction, in fact, if they ever want to finish Susan’s story (since he never told us her ending) they would be more than welcome to.

But, here are the rules:

1. Anything unNarnian should be kept out of Narnia. (such as, certain sins that are never mentioned in the series, those would be very weird and come off as trying to send a message about today’s culture in Narnia, when they are not the same.) 

2. Flesh out what Lewis left out. (example: Susan's story ending could be a spin off series or most likely a movie.)

3.  All the course of History, Narnia and Our World must stay the same.

4.  Cannonical to the books Lewis created. (All of the boundaries that Lewis created in the Chronicles must stay the same, and no extra trips to Narnia can be made other than the trips mentioned in the series. Characters can be added as long as they do not change the follow of the story, the series of events, or the character of other characters in the series)

(Of course, I would not want them to make anything like Anne with an E series on Netflix, but, this can barely be called an adaptation anymore, it strays so far from the material and changes the characters a whole lot. I am against anything along those lines.)

Note: Calormens for the most part hate Narnians and Archenlanders, Narnians and Archenlanders have no problems them, as seen in the Horse and His Boy as Susan almost marries one, and Shasta and Aravis marry and their son is the best King of Archenland. (Shasta is an Archenlander Prince and Aravis part of the ruling house of Calormen.)

So, racism does occur (Calormens are a different shade of skin than the Narnians and Archenlaners but, it is only from the Calormen’s side, certain evil dwarfs are racist against all Telemarines because they are Telemarines and there are slaves but, not in Narnia only in countries that are not Narnia or Archenland, and they are not strickly sold because of their shade of skin but, rather their social status in the Lone Islands before it was banished and Calormen. If all of this is understood, racism may be present in the Netflix series.)

  

Keeping those rules in mind here are some ideas for Narnia Netflix Spin-off ideas:

1.      King Frank and Queen Helen series (building a kingdom, raising their kids)

2.      The Golden Age of Narnia series (The Pevensies ruling, Corin gets a girl, Cor and Aravis ruling, Ram the Great, ends with the Telmarines taking over, Queen Swanwhite. Lord Peridan)

3.      The Seven Friends of Narnia series (Living life in the UK. Jill Pole and Eustace meet the other friends of Narnia, school life, Jill Pole takes archery lessons, etc.)

4.      Susan series(Susan dealing with the aftermath of the traincrash) (this spin-off can be darker and gritter and rated differently than the rest, and since it includes our world can include issues not found in the rest of the series.

        It would be best for the series to try to include Lewis’ salvation story in essence in Susan’s story or have Susan meet Lewis (the narrator of the books) and tell him about their time spent in Narnia except for the Last Battle after she realizes they were not just stories they made up as children. Although, now that I think about it, Lewis or Susan could see what happens in The Last Battle through a dream and then record all that happens down in a book.)

 

 

 

 

 

The Horse and His Boy stage play by Rebekah Walton

The best stage play I have ever seen for this Underrated Narnia book. I am not sure why this book is underrated by those who do not really know the Narnia series, because this and Voyage of the Dawn Treader are some of the most popular among Narnia fans in general. 

In order to correctly review this stage play, I am going to compare what I saw the night I went compared to what other people saw on other nights of the same stage play, since some of the details changed as far as I can tell from their reviews. The night I saw the play was the last niight it was performed and I know that some of the actors changed from when the production was first performed earlier in the year, because they mentioned that Aravis and Shasta (the main two actors throughout the story) were able to stay with the production through the end. If all of your cast was the sae to the end, you would not talk about how these two actors were the same. They seemed to have changed Lasaraleen, Aravis' step mom, Rabadash, Older Shasta, Older Aravis, and Queen Susan actors from the begining of this play performance. 



Firstly, let me talk about a difference I noticed that I think they changed from opening night. According to Narniaweb.com, ''However, Aslan and Shasta do not at any point meet face-to-face. In the book, Shasta sees Aslan at the very end of their conversation, but in the play Aslan remains hidden in the fog throughout the entire scene.'' 


But, on the night I watched, Aslan and Shasta did meet face to face. The fog cleared up and Shasta saw Aslan at the end of their conversation.
So, it seems they changed that section from opening night. But, in general, the play seems to be performed the same way as all the other reviews.
Just to let you know, Shasta was played by 3 different actors and Aravis was played by 2 different actors (Married couple Shasta and Aravis, Teenage Shasta and Aravis, and younger Shasta, not to mention Baby Shasta, who I think was a doll.)
My favorite performances were done by Shasta (Isaiah Johnson ), Aslan (Nicky Chavers), Aravis, (Hope Barr), Lasaraleen (Nicole Stratton), and Rabadash (Wesley Cannon ). These  performances stood out and really helped the play in general.

Bree and Hwin were played by puppets that were controlled by three people, one moving the neck and head and the other two inside the puppet. It was an effect that was unsual but, I found the style easy to get use to and I found that I liked it better than just simply one person in a costume, not to mention, Aravis and Shasta also rode these puppets in the play which is something they would not have been able to probably do if the design was different.

In general, I enjoyed the play and I would watch it again if I could and I want to see the rest of their stage Narnia plays when they come out.

When the first scene played out, (they started with the backstory of Shasta), I thought to myself that it was a musical since Corin and Cor's mom sang a song in the opening scene and I was excited, especially since no one had mentioned it was a musical.

Turns out, that was the only song in the whole play. It was not a musical. But, that did not detract from the play in general, and fans of the one of the only cannon romances in Narnia (Shasta/Aravis) will be happy to know that they did hint to it a couple of times before the weddding at the end of the play. Shasta and Aravis hug when he comes back to talk to her at the hermit's house as Prince. This hug felt more than a just friends hug. Plus, when they met at the tombs, Aravis was overjoyed to see Shasta and it felt like there was something more there.


The wedding scene was very pretty on stage and although the Pevensies stage hunting mention did detract a little from the scene it still felt very on point with the wedding. There was narration in the play but, not as much as the book had, they still did a lot of show rather than tell. This play seemed to make me have the same emotions I had while reading the book. I cried when Bree said, "Shasta didn't!" snorted Bree. "At least he ran in the right direction: ran back. And that is what shames me most of all. I, who called myself a war-horse and boasted of a hundred fights, to be beaten by a little human boy — a child, a mere foal, who had never held a sword nor had any good nurture or example in his life!"

Corin made me laugh quite a few times and I loved Lasaraleen's scenes. I wanted to see more of her. Overall, the play was awesome and I feel like a film version needs to follow this script to make it even half as good as this play.
To read more reviews on this play: https://www.narniaweb.com/2019/03/review-the-horse-and-his-boy-at-logos-theatre/, and https://www.thelionscall.com/2019/07/29/review-logos-theatres-the-horse-and-his-boy/ .