OH MAH GOODNESS.

As much of a Narnia-nerd as I am (yes this is a Narnia post, deal with it, it's only 5 lines long.) I didn't really know they *had* a Narnia exhibition - at least a traveling one, anyway.

BUT THEY DO!! and even better, IT'S COMING TO PORTLAND!!!!

Check it ouuuut!

Yeeeeahhhhhhhhh. :D

Re-Blog: This is the Title Page

This is a post my co-admin wrote for Aslan's Meditations on our website. (Aslan's Country) I absolutely love the way he put everything - it's short, but it's powerful.

Like a lot of you, I’ve been insanely busy this past school year... AP courses, chemistry, the list goes on... and that doesn’t even include the whole month-and-a-half of my life I (almost) entirely dedicated to promoting Voyage of the Dawn Treader and traveling to London for the premiere. Nor does that include the long laundry list of church and family events. No wonder it’s already May.

I love to think about eternity... how one day very soon those who choose to follow Christ will all live in eternity with God in Heaven. And when I think about eternity, it makes life on earth seem so trivial and relatively unimportant. I ask myself, “Why am I living for today? Why am I doing (or not doing) things because of the effect they will have right now? Shouldn’t I be living for something more?”

Yes.

You see, the mentality I think many of us have is that we live a good life on earth; then one day we die and eternity begins. But this is so far from the truth! Eternity starts now.

Think of it this way. Why would you live one day homeless if you had a Father who had a beautiful mansion and wanted you to live in it? In the same way, why would you live your earthly life pursuing worldly things when you have such a larger life to live?

I love how C.S. Lewis puts it in The Last Battle (scan from my first edition copy):

You see, our life on earth is only the title page of the great story of eternity. When you pick up a book, don’t you expect its title page to reflect the contents of its chapters? You wouldn’t expect a book about candy and delicious foods to have a title page that says “Poison,” would you? Just so, shouldn’t the title pages of our eternal lives reflect the greater purpose we live for?

This is a concept I love to think about, yet rarely carry through in my life. Just this morning, I was at a high school in town (I’m homeschooled) with eleven other students, anxiously awaiting the beginning of the AP U.S. History Exam. Believe me, that’s no easy exam. So there we were in the lobby, waiting for the doors to the exam room to open. The students were gathered around one of the teachers, who was attempting to go over a quick review of U.S. history with them. He began it like this.: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Suffice it to say that this was a very liberal school, and most people there were not interested in God, at least not in glorifying Him. Several times the students interjected “and Jesus” into a very warped retelling of U.S. history. I glanced away, shocked at their blindness. “How can you not see that you’re making fun of the Jesus who died to save you?!” I wanted to ask.

I’m not sure why I didn’t.

In truth, these students and teacher were exactly like the dwarfs in The Last Battle. They didn’t believe in Aslan, and they didn’t believe in Tash. “The dwarfs are for the dwarfs,” I could only imagine them saying next. There I was, in my Narnian armor, and yet I didn’t have the courage to speak up. “Oh,” I told myself, “that would only make me more nervous before the exam.” Perhaps it would have. But what’s an exam score in light of eternity? There were the students who were destined for hell, and here I was, worried about the details of the Vietnam War.

This is the title page.

Will the title page of my life be like this morning? Will I continue to live as a Christian who doesn’t speak up for my God, who did so much more than speak up for me when he died for me? Will I continue to create a title page that says “poison,” or will the title page of my life truly reflect the contents of my “Great Story”?

We should become more like Reepicheep---longing for Aslan’s Country, longing to see our Master’s face, living every second of our lives for one purpose alone: to make our title pages match the story of eternity.

What does your title page look like?

Images: Scans from my first edition of The Last Battle (except for the image of Reepicheep)

Jane Eyre.

If you felt relieved because I didn't geek out about Star Wars, I have to apologize. 'Cause I'm going to totally geek out on you here. ;)

A few weekends ago, I went to see Jane Eyre with a couple of friends. If you haven’t read the book, or you don’t like movie spoilers, you probably won’t get much out of this post. =P Prior to seeing it, I decided to read the book – and let me tell you, the book is probably the best novel I have read all year. If you haven’t read it, you need to. =P It is so beautifully written – the way the characters are built, the way the story unfolds, the style it's written in...::sigh::

Ahh…words do not describe how enthralled I was with this book.

The movie absolutely did justice to the book – and – (are you ready for this?) – it was better than Narnia.

::gasp::

Yes, friends.

Don’t worry, I still love Narnia. But Jane Eyre was so, so beautifully adapted into film that it made the Narnia films look wishy-washy.

Obviously Narnia is a fantasy and Jane Eyre is a romance, so Narnia is going to be a little harder to put on screen, and they're really incomparable to begin with. But Jane Eyre was done so well. And Narnia was just….not. (with the exception of the first film, which was probably done just as well as Jane Eyre.)

AHHH. I love this movie so much.

Okay, here are the spoilers and where I get all nerdy. 8)

Mia Wasikowska as Jane Eyre and Michael Fassbender as Mr. Rochester were pretty near perfect. We all agreed at the end that Mia was not as quick and sharp as she could have been, and Mr. Rochester not quite as firm and shameful in regard to Bertha Mason – but overall they did a beautiful, beautiful job. The depth of character, the fierceness, the passion – it was all there.

Tech-wise, it was a *little* lacking. There were too many close-ups, the camera was shaky at times, and the score didn’t always quite fit. But it was never enough to bother me too much – only enough to notice it a little. Not a major pitfall. (like it was in Dawn Treader. Dawn treader was just so clearly lacking in tech.)

I was delightfully pleased with how creepy it was, but I thought it could have been a lot more, and this is probably the only thing that bothered me. I pictured Bertha’s scream to be so, soooooo so much louder/eviler, and it was a sort of quiet chuckle – which didn’t do much justice to how fantastically horrified I was when I read the book. Whoever acted her was amazingly perfect though.

This ties into the one thing that I reeeeealllyyy wanted to see on screen that wasn’t: Bertha never came into Jane’s room and tore up her veil. To me, this was a really key part in Jane’s story. There wasn’t as much suspense or tension over Bertha being there, and I thought there should have been a lot more. I was also disappointed because in the trailer, there’s a line Jane says: “I wasn’t asleep! I know what I saw.” Which is from the part where Bertha tears up her veil in the middle of the night. But it wasn’t in the movie, and that’s probably the only thing I “dislike” about it.

Okay, okay, maybe I’ll add *one* more thing to my list of “they-needed-to-add-this-for-it-to-be-perfect” and that’s the discovery that Jane is cousin to St. John, Mary, and Hannah. I reeeeeaalllyyyy wanted this in there so bad. Jane is going through all this emotional turmoil, she’s just left Thornfield, and as a reader your heart just aches with her. But then there was that point where she discovers she’s related to St. John and Hannah and Mary, and it’s this Jane you haven’t really seen before. She’s overflowing, she’s full of joy, she’s in this blissful happiness. And I so rejoiced at that section of the book because it was like a little light in the dark part – and I would have liked to see that in the movie.

I wasn’t pleased with who played young Jane. Her lips. Didn’t. Work. Just had to get that out. =P Her eyes looked a lot like Mia’s, and maybe that’s why they cast her. But her overall complexion wasn’t “Jane” enough for me. I imagined young Jane to be softer, quieter, and plainer on the outside – with that fiery passion on the inside that only came out when provoked. Because it seems that’s the way she was in the book more.

It’s rated PG-13 for the nude picture in the hall, which, honestly, I don’t understand why they needed it in the first place, because it absolutely did not add to the story at all, that I could tell.

The character building and conversations between Jane and Mr. Rochester were fantastic – and just how I pictured them in the book. Excellently, beautifully done.

A;sdklfja;djf I can’t get over how amazing Jane was. Her character arc was so well done, and she was played really, really well. So was Mr. Rochester.

Time-wise, it was 133 minutes, and it could have been 30 minutes more and I wouldn’t have minded. Prince Caspian, after all, was like 2.5 hours – and the book is like a quarter the size of Jane Eyre. :P The story moved very, very, very quickly, and it could have slowed down in a few parts to let things sink in. I would have liked more of the party at Thornfield, interaction with Miss Ingram, Jane & Mr. Rochester, etc.

Speaking of Miss Ingram. While I didn’t like who played her (she wasn’t very pretty, in my opinion, and in the book she’s like the epitome of beauty) I can understand why they chose to make her look uglier (she was still pretty, mind you) – but basically because they didn’t have enough time to build her character, so they had to use her outward appearance to build it, and I was okay with that.

The guy who played St. John was AWESOME. I really liked him.

Sets, costumes, it was all amazing. The guy who played Mason was pretty good. I never had a very clear picture of him in my head to begin with, so it didn’t bother me.

OH. There was one thing that bothered me in Mia’s performance of Jane – and that is when she’s at Mrs. Reed’s bedside and says “you are forgiven,” or whatever that line was. She said it with a lot of bitterness and hatred, which is absolutely not the way Jane said it in the book. It didn’t seem in the movie like she had really forgiven her.

One of my friends was saying that the biblical themes – Jane’s Christian upbringing and how importantly that played out in her life – wasn’t there. And while I agree that it wasn’t prominent, I found it very subtly portrayed in her character even though she didn’t say anything. That could be just because I’ve read the book, but I also think Mia was really well-studied in Jane’s character - it was portrayed in the way Mia played Jane. She knew those Christian values, even though the words weren't in the script.

On the whole, this movie was absolutely amazing. However, it does not work without the book. I am so glad I read the book before I watched the movie, because it made it so much more intriguing. It’s impossible for filmmakers to develop such depth of characters as there are in the book – in such a short time. But when you have such brilliant people acting it as were in the this film, you get that depth of character if you’ve read the book because you feel it in the portrayal of their character even though it’s not a very long movie.

I absolutely recommend seeing this movie – but ONLY if you’ve read the book first. I say this to anyone who tries to see Narnia without reading the books. The books have been, are, and always will be better than any film adaptation. And the films are so much more beautiful when you’ve read the book.

Especially when it's done so well as this. With Dawn Treader, I saw character depth because I knew what I wanted to see. But with Jane Eyre I saw that not only did I know what I wanted to see, but that the actors knew it too.

Okay, now it’s time for my quick Narnia-geek-out-moment.

1) Georgie Henley (who plays Lucy in the Narnia films) plays young Jane in an earlier adaptation of Jane Eyre. (You know I can connect Narnia to *everything.*;) And I just have to say: GEORGIE HENLEY IS NOT JANE EYRE. Her complexion, her face, her eyes, her whole being is just far too loved, cheerful, positive, and delightful to be Jane. Perhaps it’s because I know here as Lucy, but….man. She’s just not Jane. It could be the freckles. She does a fine job portraying sadness and grief – which I thought was wonderful at the part when Helen died. But she doesn't have character depth and she. Is. Not. Jane. :P

2) Let’s compare. With Prince Caspian, they said “let’s make a modern-ish, worldly sequel to the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe – and oh, look, there are lines from the book we can throw in there and call it Narnia.” With Dawn Treader, they said “let’s adapt this book into a movie – and oh, we’ll add this and this and this and this and this and this because it needs it and we’re not going to do any of that.”

See the difference? Prince Caspian was a movie with Narnia thrown in, Dawn Treader was Narnia with disastrous plot twists thrown in.

Jane Eyre was neither. It was like the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. “let’s adapt this book into film.”And they did it right.

::happy sigh::

Comment and tell me what you think, thought, or if you've read the book, or ANYTHING. (:

More pictures because I didn't want the top of the post to be crowded.... (:

Okay, done geeking out.

Guess what today is?

April 8th!!! haha, bet you never would have figured that out by looking at the calendar or anything.

Actually, nowadays they look at cell phones and ipads. Huh.

Anyways. Today is April 8th. Well, actually, today is March 30th, but blogger has this spiffy and grand thing called "scheduled posts" and this is now set not to publish until April 8th. So in reality it really is April 8th.

This is weird. It's like I'm predicting the future or something.

Anyhow. Two very special things are happening today, and I shall award you brownie points if you can tell me the first one. The second one is not your duty to know, but you should know it anyway. (that was a contradiction, I think. oops. )

First off: DAWN TREADER COMES OUT ON DVD TODAY!!!

Oy, ain't it purty? I can't wait to get one. ;sladksdagh;adsf It's going to be so much fun and now we can have NARNIA MARATHONS. Anyone want to have one with me? I've always wanted to do that.

So, you should all go out to the shops and purchase your VERY OWN copy of this amazing movie. How cool is that? You can now legally own the movie in your home and watch it as many times as you please without having to trek down to the theatre multiple times. (not like any of you besides me would do that) (but you should still go buy it.)


Alright, next, a Very Awesome Movie is coming out today: Soul Surfer.

To say the least, I was rather ecstatic when I heard they were making this into a movie. It's about the life of Bethany Hamilton, who got her arm bit off by a shark while surfing, and today she's like a world-known surfer. I was hesitant about it at first, but as more clips have come out, it looks like they're sticking to Christian values and actually sharing Christian themes prominently in the movie. AFFIRMfilms is also in the production - they worked on Facing the Giants, Fireproof, The Grace Card, etc. All those awesome Christian films.

I'm excited about this film for a number of reasons:
1) AnnaSophia Robb is in it. I like her. :P
2) It's based off a true story
3) They promote Christian values
4) It's another good movie out there

Alright, so perhaps I'm being a little redundant. However, (for any of you who care to know) Carrie Underwood, who did the end credits song for Dawn Treader ("There's a Place for Us") stars in this movie as well. So you see Narnia really is connected to this in a roundabout sort of way. (I actually heard about this movie because Carrie Underwood appeared in our Narnia news feed during VDT's theatrical run. True Story.)

Trailer:



There's another movie coming out April 8th called "Hanna", which caught my attention for obvious reasons. It stars Saoirse Ronan, whom I'm a fan of only because she was in "The City of Ember." However, it...uh, looks really weird, and I'm not terribly sure about the values/themes presented, and it looks kind of dark. So, if any of you happen to see it, tell me what you think of it. You can't ever tell much from the trailers.

EDIT: so upon further investigation of the trailers and websites, it's apparently about a 16-year-old girl who is trained as an assassin all her life by her father, and then sent out into the world with one mission. (probably to assassinate someone.) It's apparently how she discovers that there's more to life than what she's been brought up to know, but that's sort of ambiguous. (it could be redeeming, making it a decent movie, but I doubt it.) Given what I know about it now, I doubt it's a very good movie.

Alright, that's all.

Oh! In case you were wondering, this post is scheduled because - guess what? I'm at a speech tournament. (no. way. I'm never at speech tournaments.)

Love, Hannah

IT'S TRUE!!!!

Rarely does something like this hit my blog moments after it hits the Narnia fan-base. But here it is.

Magician's Nephew is officially going to be the next movie.

That's right. Only a couple hours ago, The Christian Post published an article confirming that Walden Media was planning to make this movie next in the series. You can read our post at Aslan's Country HERE.

My first reaction: YES! WE GET ANOTHER NARNIA MOVIE!
My second reaction: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

I really really really really want to see Silver Chair made. I think it has fabulous potential if they market it correctly. It has a plot, contrasting characters, an evil guy too! It even has lessons, Aslan appears, and the opportunity to build characters is amazing.

While they're going to be able to market this as a prequel, they're going to have to be REALLY careful...with a lot of stuff. The Magician's Nephew has a magic to it that the other books don't - and while I could abide more plot changes in Silver Chair because of it's nature, I will not abide much for this one. They'd better get it right.

Hear that, Walden? You be careful this time. Aslan's Country is watching you.

What are your thoughts?

A much needed Narnia update.

That's a warning for all you people who think I'm crazy and obsessed, you can stop reading now. (::heehee::)

So Dawn Treader recently "won" on Box Office Mojo for "biggest box office failure" (or some other such depressing title) which....yeah. I kind of have to agree. It was a box office failure - especially in the US.

The US domestic gross is currently $104,159,819 and the foreign gross is at $296,500,000 which puts the total at$400,659,819.

We were all ridiculously pleased when they finally hit $400m - woooo!!! Based purely off of opening weekend (which was a major fail: $24,005,069) it wouldn't have been near enough to continue to the next film. However, now that they have reached $400m, which exceeded their production budget by a lot ($155m) things are looking much better.

Compared to the previous movie, Prince Caspian, this isn't actually too bad. Prince Caspian started out with an opening weekend of $55,034,805. It grossed $141,621,490 domestically, $278,044,078 in other countries, and $419,665,568 worldwide.






Prince Caspian, however, was a box offices failure in contrast to what the production was expecting, based on the numbers from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe:

Opening weekend: $65,556,312
Domestic: $291,710,957
Foreign: $453,300,315
Worldwide: $745,011,272

My reasoning: Obviously LWW was a smash hit and there's nothing to worry about with that. Prince Caspian was marketed excellently (you can thank Disney for that) but had a poor theatrical run - because the production got cocky after LWW and decided to release it with Indiana Jones and Iron Man. (how dumb is that?) It had a fairly okay opening weekend, but didn't progress that far because it wasn't that good.

In contrast, their production budget was $255m. Yeah.

So then the production got scared that they'd keep losing money so they backed out and 20th Century Fox took over.

And they don't know how to market properly. VDT was probably the worst marketing failure I have ever seen in a movie - resulting in a poor opening weekend. BUT - people told other people about it - that it was a good movie - and they managed to pull off a worldwide gross that wasn't too far from Prince Caspian - and exceed Prince Caspian's foreign gross by $20m.

This poster is probably one of the most poorly designed posters in history. With the exception of Eustace, the faces of all the characters (partiularly Lucy, Edmund, and Caspian) are ridiculously washed out and none of them are in character at all. the "N" on the sail of Dawn Treader is backwards because they flipped the picture around (and how they thought they could get away with that, I don't know.) Aslan also looks like he's about to murder everyone with his laser glare. (this is a foreign poster, btw, but all of them looked the same, domestic and foreign included)

SO, that was a lot of gibberish about the box office numbers. What's next?

Originally the production of Dawn Treader said they would let fans decide whether they wanted The Magician's Nephew or The Silver Chair next - and the votes came in with an overwhelming favor for The Silver Chair. This is obviously the next logical step in the series.


However, last month, the producer of the three Narnia films thus far, Perry Moore, died on February 17th, age 39. For those of you who don't know who he is: while he was the producer, he was also the one who started the entire Narnia film franchise to begin with. He had the vision and he got the ball rolling.


After his death, a lot of fans were worried as to what the future of the films would be - until two days later, February 19th, when we learned that the night before he died, Perry Moore had secured funding for the production of - The Magician's Nephew.

So what does this mean for the series? It's looking a lot like The Magician's Nephew will be next.

While I'm ecstatic to see another Narnia film and I can't wait to see what they do with this one - I'm sorely disappointed that the Silver Chair won't be next.


I have been SO anticipating this movie for a long time, and it's always been one of my favorites in the series. And Will Poulter, who plays Eustace, is going to be too old to be in SC if they make MN first.

From a strictly marketing standpoint, MN would be a lot easier to do. Think - how easy would it be to market a "Prequel to Narnia?" But "Sequel to VDT?" - with only one reoccurring character? (that's Eustace) They already had a hard enough time tying VDT in with PC - in fact they were trying to tie it in more with LWW by bringing back the witch (who had hardly no screen time at all) and playing up a lot of themes that didn't actually come into the movie.

Alright, so if you've made it through all that I think you really deserve a prize. I tried to make it more bearable by putting lots of nice pictures in.

In other news, VDT comes out on DVD APRIL 8TH!!!! (check the cool widget on the sidebar!) That's right. If you haven't seen it, you need to. The DVD cover (for once) is uh-mazing and it's PURPLE, and it's got tons of awesome bonus features on it. While the cropping/photoshopping wasn't that good, at least they improved the placement/coloring. It's only flaw is the lack of Caspian on the cover - and the witch in his place. >.<

As for what comes next in the Narnia films...who knows? It's nothing like Harry Potter, Twilight, or Indiana Jones, where the production is secured, and the characters are always the same. But that, I believe, is what makes it unique. Lewis made each book a stand-alone book, yet they all tie beautifully into each other. There's a reason their called the chronicles of Narnia. But the key to making these films a success is not the marketing, but the adaptation - taking the core, important themes found in the books and translating them on the screen.

Aslan's Meditations: Add all that?!

I wrote this week's devotional for Aslan's Meditations - we're starting a series in 2 Peter 1:5-8. You can view the whole thing HERE.

I always liked filling out surveys...

Yup! Now it's your turn!

If you read this blog, you probably know about the Narnia fansite I run called AslansCountry.com. We started in June 2009, and have since grown to be an awesome, thriving Narnia community! This year we were able to meet the cast members, interview the cast members, cover the Royal World Premiere of the movie, and so much more.

Okay, enough for the scripted blurb about AC. We really, really would appreciate feedback on what you think of the site. Honestly. Tell us what you like, what you dislike, and how we can make things better. What would you like to see us add this year? Now is your chance to say so! :)

You can find the survey HERE.

Thanks guys! =D

Aslan's Meditations: Room for the King

I wrote the devotional for this week on Aslan's Country - enjoy! (: The actual post is here.

All three times that I’ve seen Dawn Treader so far, there is one line that particularly stuck out to me – not in an odd, awkward way – but that it was done very, very well, and it got me thinking.

When they are being taken captive by the slave traders on Narrowhaven, two men have Caspian’s hands behind his back, and he desperately yells to them:

“Listen, you insolent fool! I – am – your – KING!”

But they paid no heed: instead they bound him and locked him in a dungeon.

The slave traders didn’t know Caspian was their king. They didn’t know that he had come to set things right on their island and to bring peace. They didn’t know he was the one they should be following.

As the Christmas season approaches, it got me thinking – that’s what the Romans did to Jesus when He was born. Obviously He couldn’t cry out Himself, but the skies shook with the glory and celebration of the birth of our King and Savior.

“And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:
“ Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” (Luke 2:13-14)

It says ‘Look, world – a KING has been born. Your King, your Savior, the Messiah’

But as Christ grew and taught, that’s also what the scribes, Pharisees, priests, and mobs did to Him. Scorned Him, beat Him, refused to believe.

How obvious would it have been to the slave traders if they had taken a second look at Caspian? They might find a signet ring, Peter’s sword – maybe treasure, wealth, and fame. They could look at the way he dressed, talked, acted, and carried himself. All these things that would show them in a heartbeat that Caspian was, indeed, a great king.

It doesn’t take more than this second look to see this about Christ. Had the Romans really sought to find out just who this Man was – they might have found something completely different than the mobs and crowds seemed to cry.

Would the slave traders have seen Caspian differently if they were torn, broken, and living in poverty? The people of Narrowhaven did. In the battle on Narrowhaven, there are a few shots of the people – and you see in their eyes a kind of wide and awestruck wonder and excitement. I can just imagine them thinking “who are these people who have come to save us? And why?”

It is for those who humble themselves to look at who Christ really is that He saves.

Jesus says in Luke 5:32 - I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.

So often, we treat God as though He’s just there to help us when we’re in trouble. Just there to be a powerful, magical force who cleans up after us and takes away our pain. Our culture has grown up with the idea that God is a being who needs our worship. Who needs our praise.

What a lie.

God doesn’t need us at all. We, like the people of Narrowhaven, are broken, tormented, and living in the poverty of the choices we have made and the sin that surrounds us.

Yet God wants to have a relationship with us.

Have you ever stopped to meditate on the beauty of that?

Because God is not just a being out there who comes when we need Him, fixes things up, and then leaves so we can revel in the glory of our own accomplishments. He’s not just a god who needs our worship to make Him happy – or a force that must be pleased with certain rituals in order to keep Him quiet and out of the way. He’s not a vending machine who gives us what we wants if we put the right amount in and push the right buttons.

In fact, He’s anything but that.

He is – GOD.

He is not only the one who comforts us in our pain, works out our problems, and requires our worship. He is so much more than that.

He is our Creator, Master, Father, Savior, King, and everything we ever needed. He is so much greater, bigger, and mightier than anything we could imagine. He is glorious beyond comprehension.

Psalm 19:1-3

The heavens declare the glory of God;
And the firmament shows His handiwork.
² Day unto day utters speech,
And night unto night reveals knowledge.
³ There is no speech nor language
Where their voice is not heard.

Psalm 144:3

³ LORD, what is man, that You take knowledge of him?
Or the son of man, that You are mindful of him?

This God, this Lord, this Creator of all and majestic and high beyond all others – this is the One who humbled Himself to obedience – to the point of death as a human. (Phil. 2:5-8)

I can imagine Jesus thinking…or maybe even wanting to yell out to the world: “I AM YOUR CREATOR! YOUR SUSTAINER! THE ONE WHO DIED FOR YOU!”

Not only did Bethlehem have no room for their King when He was born, but the world didn’t either.

Like the slave traders though, the Romans disregarded whatever evidence there may have been for Kingship and beat, tortured, mocked, and killed Jesus – the very man who had come to save them.

And what about our world today?

Especially during the hubbub of the Christmas season – it’s so easy to forget about Christ – who He really is and what that means to us.

Christmas may not have been when Christ was really born – but how often do we get caught up even in the idea of “giving” or “helping” others – and lose sight of the real reason we live and breathe and do anything?

1 Corinthians 10:31 says therefore whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

Every breath I take, every move I make, should not only recognize Christ as my King and Savior, but proclaim it to anyone I encounter.

Puddleglum, in The Silver Chair, he emphatically states

"I'm on Aslan's side even if there isn't any Aslan to lead it. I'm going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn't any Narnia."

Do we live as though we have Christ in our lives, that we acknowledge Him as King? Or do we trample Him, lock Him up under the excuse of “business”, “work”, “holidays”, “this is important”, or whatever other ideas we come up with?

When we hear Christ say “I – am – your – KING!” what does that mean to us? Do we respond by continuing about our normal lives as if Christ was never a part? Or does it move us to worship and bow before Him because He IS our King?

1 Timothy 1:17 - Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

Images from AslansCountry facebook page and google images.

Has it really been 3?

First time seeing Dawn Treader (pre-screening with the brother)

And second time (midnight showing (!!!) with awesome people)

And third time (just this afternoon and with large amounts of awesome people)

And still as wonderful and magical as ever.

Would you look at that beautiful countdown on the left sidebar? It says NOW PLAYING!! wahoo! Go see it. :)

That'll Show 'em

OH MY WORD!

THREE DAYS UNTIL DAWN TREADER!!!

Excited, people? It's going to be so amazing!!!

Guess what else?

Michael Apted (director), Mark Johnson (producer), and other important people at Walden making this movie are going to make a decision about making the "Silver Chair" into a movie based on opening weekend.

That's right. We determine whether the movies continue.

Dawn Treader *almost* wasn't greenlit, and it took a LONG time for them to start on it because of how terribly Prince Caspian did in the box office. Dawn Treader is GOOD - and I (again) definitely recommend seeing it. On opening weekend. Even if you don't go with me. Or you don't live in Washington state.

Go see it. Opening Weekend. December 10-12.

Let's go show those producers that we care about this film.

Dawn Treader: My Review

Spoiler Free: (or sort of, anyway)

I’ve been, as I’ve said to many, “cautiously optimistic” about this film for a very long time. Hoping for a great movie, but not putting too much of my faith into it.

I was amazed. The effects were phenomenal, the storyline was great, characters were excellently portrayed, the music was awesome. The jokes and humor weren’t slapstick, but were actually funny. The action scenes were amazingly well done, and the depth of the emotion in the more serious scenes brought me to tears numerous times.

To those of you who worry about the witch: don’t. Although it seems at times that she appears, she never is actually real or alive. The “green mist” is simply an evil force that tempts them: added to provide a contrasting idea in which they must fight against.

Spoiler: (highlight to read)

They took the idea of temptations in the book and used that as the sort of “antagonist” in the story to provide clash, opportunity for growth, and a climax. While I found it slightly overplayed at times, it did not ruin the overall themes of the story, nor did it affect the characters themselves.

There are still things I don’t like, things that shocked me when I first saw them, but hey – every movie will have them, and it’s not a perfect movie. But it definitely rises above the episode before it – it captures the characters well and the overall themes in the story are well preserved.

The beginning and the end are especially enrapturing. I’ll say no more on that. ;)

Read the full post here.

Also, if you live in the Seattle area or you are going to be in Seattle when it releases, and you haven't already received the facebook invite, you are invited to come see Dawn Treader with me on December 10th!! I'm trying to get tons of people so we can get a really good group rate. If you want more info, you can comment or email me and I'll get you details. (:

I definitely recommend seeing this movie. I think Narnia fans will be pleased and enjoy it. I laughed out loud, sat on the edge of my seat, and cried…Definitely worth watching.

I should not be this easily entertained.

But you know I am anyway.

Remember this post and this post? I am here to present you with another PURPLE FOOD!!

It's a Chinese purple yam pastry. And it's soooooooo good. (:

In other news, Dawn Treader was AMAZING. And it is also SNOWING outside. That's right. Snow, in Seattle, in November, sticking on the ground. In fact, as I speak, there are extremely large flakes coming down at a very fast pace. ::grin:: I went dancing about the house today and then for a romp in the snow with my dog. No co-op! And I leave for my grandma's house tomorrow.

Life is good! [=

What we've been waiting for

DAWN TREADER COMES OUT IN 23 DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!

But guess what??? I am going to see it in TWO days!!!

Hear that echo? TWO!

I honestly can't believe it myself. This entire movie has been nothing but anticipation for years. And all of a sudden I'm going to go see it. It's sort of surreal.

So you're probably wondering why I'm seeing it 20 days before the release - basically I was invited to a special pre-screening. I am basically excited BEYOND WORDS. It's going to be amazing.

In the mean time, Carrie Underwood's new song (which will appear in the credits of the movie) was released today.

I was pretty skeptical about it at first, but so long as it's only in the credits, I think I'll be fine. Dawn Treader is, in a lot of ways, extremely different from the first two movies - and I think variation in the credits music is okay too.



In other news, there is also a Narnia exhibit in malls across the US called the "Ice Palace", and last weekend they had the Grand Opening Ceremony at the Ice Palace in LA - and one of our mods got to go to it AND, get this, MEET Georgie Henley (Lucy), Will Poulter (Eustace), and Michael Apted (director). Anyway. That was pretty exciting, even though I wasn't there. :P We've got exclusive reports and videos on Aslan's Country.

And, stay tuned, I'll soon have a review of the movie for you. :)

AHH! Life is so exciting. DAWN TREADER! yeahhh.

In which I again direct readers to a website

::rubs hands together::

Yes, it's Aslan's Country.

Well, sort of.

See, we'd like to know how we can improve. So go to this little linky: http://www.clueapp.com/19687 and let us know what stands out on the site. What do you remember the most?

ps - new poll!! =D

Surprise for the Day

They've come out with a NEW Dawn Treader trailer!!

Okay, okay. I know you're probably dead sick of the endless posts about Aslan's Country, Narnia, Dawn Treader...bear with me. Only 63 days longer...then I'll calm down. (after I post a nice little review)

[WARNING: major spoilers!]



I love that we get to see more of Eustace - both as himself and as a dragon. There's a lot more of Dark Island, which worries me some because Edmund seems as if he's just about to give into whatever it is the White Witch is tempting him to do. In Prince Caspian, Edmund was the strongest against the White Witch's power - I'd hate to see him be so weak in this one.

The whole "searching-for-the-swords-to-save-Narnia" is pretty cheesy. Not ever Narnia book is about "the fate of Narnia rests on YOU!" sort of theme, but it seems like they've incorporated that into this movie. But if that's the only major change and they don't do any character changes, I think I'll be okay with it.

I'm loving Lilliandil. And Ramandu's Island - so far it's looking amazing.And the Magician's Island. We haven't seen very much of Narrowhaven except for fighting scenes.

Excitement grows!!

That's Obsession Dedication

Alright, most of you know about Aslan's Country, the site I co-administrate.

Most of you also know how much I love Narnia.
Annnnd you probably also know how this site has kept me up till 3am more times than one.

But when all has been said and done, I'm most proud to announce that after weeks/hours/months/insane-amounts-of-time that we have re-designed the site and have launched it! The new site is much better looking, much more intuitive, and has lots of new features. There are still a few missing pages, but it's SO much better than it used to be!

I'm SO excited for this site and everything we've put into it, so I'd love it if you clicked the link down there and visit the site!

Plus, of course, we are your best source for Narnia movie news and resources!

You can visit it at http://www.aslanscountry.com
Vote on the poll and tell us what you think!
Our facebook page is here: http://www.facebook.com/aslanscountry
Our twitter page: http://www.twitter.com/aslanscountry
YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/aslanscountrytv

Further up and Further in,
Hannah

Aslan's Country Survey!

Most of you know about Aslan's Country, the Narnia forum I co-adminstrate. My fellow admin has written up a lovely survey for the New Year - and if you complete the survey, join the forum, and send him a Private Message, YOU could be eligible to win a FREE Aslan's Country t-shirt! :P

I'd love to hear your responses to the survey, but please don't take it if you haven't browsed the site first... ;) (so please, browse the site!)

Aslan's Country
Survey

ohmygoodnessgracious!!!!!!

So that interview we posted?? Aslan's Country?? The Examiner found out about it and wrote an article on it!!!!!!!! I'm in complete shock and excitement!!!!!!!!

Click here!!!! I can't believe it. I'm soooo excited!!!

Aslan's Country Interview!

I have been co-administrating a Narnia Fans forum called Aslan's Country. Last summer, I was at the Kindling's Fest on Orcas Island and met Dr. Michael Ward, a C.S. Lewis scholar. Dr. Ward made a discovery on the Chronicles of Narnia, and then wrote a book about it.

On the spot, I decided to ask him for an interview to post on Aslan's Country. He agreed - and Raymond filmed me asking him all sorts of questions. Later, in mid-August, we also filmed an introduction to go with it.

Now, we have posted the interview [beautifully cut, edited, and put together by my friend and fellow admin, Matthew] which you can view here. We've also got a discussion opened up on the forum where you can ask Dr. Ward questions.

It'd be awesome to see you there! :)