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It is literally like all my Christmas wishes have come true ...
Posted by Derrick
on
15:38
When you were younger did you have any Christmas traditions in your family? Our Christmas day was always the same. Wake up (early, thanks, Sis!) open all our presents, go over the road to my aunty's, open more presents, come home, change out of our pyjamas and then go to the pub until dinner.
Every year the same until I left home. Sometimes we would pop into Gran and Taid if we had time but the pattern was the same. That was what we, as a family did. I, however, had another tradition that I did. Religiously. Every year. Always. Until I was at least 20 and I still do it every other year now.
It involved reading and it involved looking for something. If I found it, my Christmas was made. No matter how many sprouts I was forced to eat, no matter how rainy the day, no matter how early I broke my new toy. One thing was guaranteed to make me ecstatic.
What I used to do was wait until about a week before Christmas. The newspaper (always The Sun in our house, feel free to judge me I don't care) came with a bumper listings magazine for the Christmas period and I used to sit and scour the films that were on. I wasn't interested in the latest blockbuster (although I would, of course, watch them). I wasn't interested in any films my parents would want. The one I wanted was usually on early in the morning on Christmas Day or Boxing Day. It was about ninety minutes long, animated and came out in 1979.
The film was a version of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe and to me, it was the greatest film in the world. It was crudely animated and the sound didn't always sync but I simply adored that film. I still do. That's why I always looked for it. I could happily sit and watch it again and again.
Nowadays, it is rarely on TV at Christmas and I am sad about that. However, it is on YouTube and I am thrilled by that. Now, I can watch it again and again and again. I watched some of it earlier today in fact.
I love Narnia. I loved Narnia before I knew Jesus. I loved Aslan before I realised that he was known in this world by a different name. I devoured the books as a child, time and time and time again. I know the stories of the Narnia Chronicles inside out and back to front.
Lewis' words captivated me as a young man. They made me feel things. I felt thrilled, I felt scared, I felt clever and I felt safe when I was reading them (apart from the dead bluebottle which confused me as a young lad from North Wales but that's another story).
As I grew older, I kept looking for the film. Then the BBC did that wonderful adaptation of four of the stories. They're available on YouTube as well! Then came the films of the last decade or so. They're not that good. They have better effects, are flashier and have higher production values but they lost something in the telling. It's great to have a lion who looks like a real lion but I wanted a lion who was like Aslan. I didn't need the backstory of a dad off at war and a troubled boy in an air-raid shelter to help me know what motivated Edmund.
As for the Hollywood adaptation of Prince Caspian with its tacking on of a love interest between Susan and Caspian! My goodness me they ruined that story. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader missed out all the important bits. I nearly left the cinema it was so bad.
You see, the crudely animated, badly synched and cheap 1979 production has enough of the right stuff. It has a beautiful musical score. It has heart and it has joy. Most of all, it has a story that's true to the original. It is redolent with the love and power of Lewis' book. It is as close to watching a book come to life as I have ever seen in a film.
That's why you'll have to excuse me, I have some popcorn, I have some drink and I have a film to watch. Catch you in ninety minutes or so ...
Every year the same until I left home. Sometimes we would pop into Gran and Taid if we had time but the pattern was the same. That was what we, as a family did. I, however, had another tradition that I did. Religiously. Every year. Always. Until I was at least 20 and I still do it every other year now.
It involved reading and it involved looking for something. If I found it, my Christmas was made. No matter how many sprouts I was forced to eat, no matter how rainy the day, no matter how early I broke my new toy. One thing was guaranteed to make me ecstatic.
What I used to do was wait until about a week before Christmas. The newspaper (always The Sun in our house, feel free to judge me I don't care) came with a bumper listings magazine for the Christmas period and I used to sit and scour the films that were on. I wasn't interested in the latest blockbuster (although I would, of course, watch them). I wasn't interested in any films my parents would want. The one I wanted was usually on early in the morning on Christmas Day or Boxing Day. It was about ninety minutes long, animated and came out in 1979.
The film was a version of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe and to me, it was the greatest film in the world. It was crudely animated and the sound didn't always sync but I simply adored that film. I still do. That's why I always looked for it. I could happily sit and watch it again and again.
Nowadays, it is rarely on TV at Christmas and I am sad about that. However, it is on YouTube and I am thrilled by that. Now, I can watch it again and again and again. I watched some of it earlier today in fact.
I love Narnia. I loved Narnia before I knew Jesus. I loved Aslan before I realised that he was known in this world by a different name. I devoured the books as a child, time and time and time again. I know the stories of the Narnia Chronicles inside out and back to front.
Lewis' words captivated me as a young man. They made me feel things. I felt thrilled, I felt scared, I felt clever and I felt safe when I was reading them (apart from the dead bluebottle which confused me as a young lad from North Wales but that's another story).
As I grew older, I kept looking for the film. Then the BBC did that wonderful adaptation of four of the stories. They're available on YouTube as well! Then came the films of the last decade or so. They're not that good. They have better effects, are flashier and have higher production values but they lost something in the telling. It's great to have a lion who looks like a real lion but I wanted a lion who was like Aslan. I didn't need the backstory of a dad off at war and a troubled boy in an air-raid shelter to help me know what motivated Edmund.
As for the Hollywood adaptation of Prince Caspian with its tacking on of a love interest between Susan and Caspian! My goodness me they ruined that story. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader missed out all the important bits. I nearly left the cinema it was so bad.
You see, the crudely animated, badly synched and cheap 1979 production has enough of the right stuff. It has a beautiful musical score. It has heart and it has joy. Most of all, it has a story that's true to the original. It is redolent with the love and power of Lewis' book. It is as close to watching a book come to life as I have ever seen in a film.
That's why you'll have to excuse me, I have some popcorn, I have some drink and I have a film to watch. Catch you in ninety minutes or so ...
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