So there’s big controversy across the Internet that C.S. Lewis wrote publicly and to the BBC that he did not want a live action movie of his books, but that a cartoon might be acceptable. This was because every production he had seen had silly costumes and the creatures looked pathetic.
Yeah, I get that, and if those were his wishes then fine. Yet something has happened in the movie industry, it’s called CGI. I think now if Lewis had looked on this new technology he would be of a strong mind that they could be done, and indeed they are.
The note was written in 1963 for god’s sake, and the comments from IMDB are spot on for the time…
“anthropomorphic [humanized] animals” on film, saying that previous attempts to do so resulted in “buffoonery or nightmare.” Casting a human in the role of the lion Aslan, he said, “would be, to me, blasphemy.” Lewis did warily consider the possibility of Disney version, however, writing “Cartoons (if only Disney did not combine so much vulgarity with his genius!) would be another matter.)” Lewis wrote the note to Lance Sieveking, who produced, with his approval, the radio version of his books for the BBC.
I’m convinced that his reservations would have been blown out of the water nowadays. So why the fuss?
