Movie Night: Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Every Saturday we will be sharing with you our ideas for family movie nights. Movie reviews and fun theme night ideas.

Our Super-Cool-Fab Review Team...

Our crack team of expert Movie Reviewers are this week reviewing Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the third installment in the Narnia Movies.

Mr G and I watched this film at the movies when it first came out. I am a diehard C.S. Lewis fan and grew up reading and re-reading the Narnia books. They are full of magic, adventure and deeper truth - all things I loved as kid. This third movie mixes up the story a bit more than the first two films did, and for me that was a little disappointing. I also didn't like the boy who played Eustace Scrubb at all (we all thought he was much nicer as a dragon). One more disappointment in this movie was the way the director skimmed over Eustace's Undragon-ing. But anyone who isn't a fan of the books would never notice. There is still plenty of action and adventure, although some of the scenes may scare younger viewers, and at certain points we hit either the *mute* button (eliminating the scary music does wonders to take away the angst factor) or the *fast forward*. Mainly the battle with the Sea Monster towards the end (it was rather hideous and potentially nightmare-inducing. Other than that the we all enjoyed the movie and were glad we picked it for a movie night.

Movie Plot Summary: Edmund and Lucy are staying with their extremely annoying cousin Eustace as WWII rages on in England. A picture on the wall of Lucy's bedroom comes alive and they find themselves, along with Eustace, being drawn into it and another adventure in Narnia begins. This time they are at sea, on the ship Dawn Treader, with their old friend King Caspian, searching for seven lost Lords and exploring uncharted waters. An adventure full of Dragons, dwarves, magic and battles...

(An excellent in-depth move vs book analysis here)

Here's what our experts have to say about Voyage of the Dawn Treader...

Dash. B. Cool: "It was good. It wouldn't necessarily be for little kids because there is a bit too much violence in it like battles and stuff, but nine and up should be cool. I liked the fighting; I'd say this movie was as good as the first Narnia movie. (My mum forwarded the scary bits for my brother and sister which was not cool.)"

Dash scores this movie's "coolness" as: ♥♥♥♥♥

Foxy Fab: "I liked the movie because some movies have happy endings and this one had a happy ending. I think it was cool because it was different to all the other series of the movie; there was a new boy (Eustace) in the movie and Susan and the other brother weren't there. At first the new boy was a brat but at the end he was OK. We called Eustace USELESS! We thought he was better as a dragon. This wasn't my favourite movie ever."

Foxy rates this movie's "fabness" as: ♥♥♥♥♥

Super Scrag: "I liked when they were on the ship. I liked the part when Eustace turned into the dragon. I thought he was a good dragon. I liked all of the bits (my mum took out the scary parts)."

SuperScrag scores this movie's "super-ness" as: ♥♥♥♥♥

..............

This movie is rated (PG) and definitely needs Parental Guidance for some of the scarier scenes, which means that in my opinion, this movie is a great choice for families with older children. Even better would be to read the CS Lewis Books out loud to your kids before bed (the books aren't scary), and then celebrate the finish with a Narnian Feast and Movie night...

Ideas to Make Your "Narnia" Movie Night even more Super-Cool-Fab...

Simply set up a Narnian feast. Drink grape juice from Wine Goblets, platters of fruit, grapes, olives, nuts, vines and candles for decoration. Think Medieval Banquet. The members of the Dawn Treader Expedition enjoyed a fabulous magical feast on Ramandu's Island, so simply dress as Narnians and feast like them...

(you could adapt our Middle Eastern/Easter Feast very easily to this theme night)

What are your best Movie Night Ideas? Send me an email with your ideas (include a picture or link to a blog post if you can) so I can feature it here on Saturday Night at the Movies.

Have a great Saturday!
♥