The Chronicles of Narnia the voyage of
the Dawn Treader the most recent and so
far since this recording the last
live-action recent adaptation of The
Chronicles of Narnia series so let's
dive into this movie and analyze it does
it live up to the other two does it live
up to the book let's talk about it
welcome to Durbania I'm Durban and this
is my theological analysis for the
Chronicles of Narnia the voyage of the
Dawn Treader the beautiful side of
darkness and of course by saying that
I'm not calling darkness beautiful but
even Satan comes as an angel of light
and can come as something so enticing and
looking so good and trying to hit us
with our weaknesses and tempt us over to
that dark side and that's what I really
feel like this movie the voyage of the
Dawn Treader is about the movie does a
lot more focus on the dark island than
the book does and uses the dark island
almost as an analogy to talk about
temptation how deep you know our
insecurities and things like that can
run in the basis of those insecurities
and how to even overcome them now when
you're comparing the book to the movie
in my opinion there's no contest the
book is so infinitely better than the
movie it's crazy I mean the movie did
Islands out of order it took two of
separate islands and combined them
together into one island into one scene
and I mean it changed the ending so
entirely it's like what on this green
earth but at the same time I got to say
I actually do understand it when you're
reading it as a book it works
for instance like the whole ending of
the book is not an intense fight scene
against a sea monster that happens in
the middle of the book and is not like
the main thing they have to overcome in the end
even the dark island is not the main
thing or the main villain of the book
that really is no main villain in fact
the dark island is actually a very scary
part of the book but it's a very short
part of the book and so you get to the
end of the voyage of the Dawn Treader
and again no big huge climactic fight or
anything is there they're just sailing
into Aslan's country and the book
describes how the air gets sweeter the
water tastes delicious
how it takes the old people and makes
them younger and how the water was so
rich and so heavy and so delicious that
it was like food you could drink it and
it quenched your thirst and it took care
of your hunger and so like it goes into
all these details of these beautiful
things that you're seeing as a book it's
perfect and you can't imagine better how
do you portray that on film
so I actually understand why the movie
picked a villain and made it like this
kind of nebulous cloudy dark island so I
get why they had to have a villain and
they had to have a driving force and why
they did things the way they did it so
we could get a climactic ending because
you got to compete against Lord of the
Rings and other epic fantasy movies that
have come out so I do understand it but
I do feel like a little bit may have
gotten lost but what I liked about what
this movie did is it did a great job
diving into the heart of temptation
don't fall to temptation to defeat the
darkness out there you must defeat the
darkness inside yourself so first let's
look at Edmund Edmund is in the place
where High King Peter was in the movie
Prince Caspian he was in that place of
feeling like I don't belong here on this
earth why am i a kid again why are
people treating me the way they treat me
don't they know I'm a king
so Edmund kind of finds himself in that
exact same spot that Peter is and it's
actually kind of this entitled self
deserving thing I have fought armies I
have led armies I am a king and I
deserve respect but honestly it comes
from this place of insecurity in Edmund
as we find out later when he's being
tempted by his worst nightmare the White
Witch what he's trying to do is he's
trying to prove his own manhood Better luck
next time squirt a squirt I'm the king
not in this one twice over by this point
he's led armies twice over by this point
he's been a hero in Narnia he has proven
a man on earth he is not proven a man
so he comes into Narnia and here's
Caspian with Peters sword and Edmund
doesn't have it here's Caspian who is
the captain of the ship the leader of
these people and when Edmund gives an
order they say well hold on there sir we
got a you not the leader here we got to
see what Caspian says so he's dealing
with that he wants to prove
himself a man and he sees himself as so
brave and so valiant so this and so that
but that pride that he's kind of got
going on it is coming from a very
insecure place of fear that he has to
prove what a man he is
then we dive into the character of Lucy
who like up to this point has always
been the most innocent and most
believing character throughout this
whole thing but see what this shows is
all of us have temptation all of us have
that darkness within and what is Lucy's
temptation I'm beautiful she wants to be Susan
she looks at her older sister and finds
her older sister so beautiful in fact a
point of interest in this when you get
to the final book and a little bit of a
spoiler sorry when you read the final
battle and they all go to new Narnia
they all go there Peter
Edmund all of them like all the original
characters and some of the new
characters we meet and Silver Chair find
themselves there except Susan you know
why because Susan forgot about Aslan she
forgot about Narnia and got consumed
with herself and got consumed with her
own beauty so she became incredibly vain
and did not find herself in the new
Narnia when the rest of her family got
there how they got there you'll just
have to read that book and find out but
here's Lucy in this wishing she was her
sister wishing that she was just as
beautiful as her sister so throughout
this movie we find her kind of just
desperately dealing with that when she
gets to that spell book and in the book
is that page that has the spell of how
to make yourself beautiful to make
yourself the beauty that you want to be
what does she do
she rips the page out hides it under her
shirt and then finds what she's there to
find but when you watch that scene I
think the actress that played her did a
fantastic job in the way they did it in
the film is a fantastic job because
there's this like hunger I mean it's
it's that hunger you see when you have
those people that have addictions and
they're craving and he or she is craving
this she's craving this beauty she's
craving to just wish herself away not
seeing the value in who she is and
seeing the value and what she sees in
Susan and wanting to be that so
desperately that she hungrily rips
that page out of that book and keeps it
to herself even when Aslan's voice goes no Lucy even in hearing his voice
she doesn't throw the page away she
keeps it and then let's dive into Prince
Caspian for a second here as long as
we're looking at these insecurities
Caspian and they don't spend a lot of
time on this at least I don't feel like
they did they start to mention it more
towards the end and you start to see it
come out more towards the end but they
really spent more time on what's going
on with Edmund and more time what's
going on with Lucy than they did with
what's going on with Caspian but what we
get to the conclusion of is he doesn't
feel like he measures up to his
father he feels like he's being a lousy
king his dad would be disappointed in
him because he's comparing himself to
the great reputation of his father
before his uncle took over and you know
was all oppressive and all of that stuff
so he's comparing himself unfairly and
what he's doing is he's comparing
himself to his father's outward success
and he's comparing that father's outward
success to his inward struggles he can't
even see his father's inward struggles
and his father's not even there anymore
because he's dead to tell him about his
inward struggles but that's what he's
doing he's comparing the outside to what
he's feeling on the inside and the
struggles that he's going through and so
he's struggling with that so throughout
this movie as they're going on this
quest that darkness that dark Island
does not want to be destroyed it does
not want to be defeated so what's it
doing dark is calling out to dark it's
calling out to the darkness deep in
their souls and it's presenting itself
as something beautiful
- Lucy becoming Susan - Edmund finally
becoming the king that he feels that he
deserves to be so he could prove himself
a man - Caspian being a better man than
his father I mean this darkness is
calling out to the darkness in them and
it's trying to come as something
beautiful and tempt them over to its
side
now here's kind of the key to this whole
thing and as much as the scene was okay
in the movie the scene was fantastic in
the book I mean beyond fantastic in the
book and here I'm gonna talk about
Eustace and I think Eustace is the key
to understanding overcoming all of this
temptation but when you look at the
bottom-line of what's going on with
everybody's temptation its fear and its
insecurity it's the belief that they in
some way don't measure up
no temptation is overtaking you except
what is common to mankind and God is
faithful he will not let you be tempted
beyond what you can bear but when you
are tempted he will also provide a way
out so that you can endure it so let's
take a moment and look at Eustace and
talk about that way out so first let's
tackle the book the book is so much more
interesting than the movie and does this
so much better than the movie it's still
present in the movie but the message is
stronger in the book when you read the
novel voyage of the Dawn Treader and
they reach that like volcanic island and
they stop they're looking for supplies
kind of like what you see in the movie
Eustace pouting like a little baby you
know climbs over this hill gets himself
lost because he's a dummy and finds a
cave out of the cave comes this dragon
and it would be fearsome except it looks
weak and sickly and it looks like it's
dying and then it dies so it really was
dying and when he was sure that that
dragon was dead he crawls into the cave
and there is the treasure now in the
beginning of the film and it's noted in
the book too that he just loves books
that's just full of knowledge he hates
fairy tales and fantasy and it's people
who love those types of books that
become burdens to like his type of
people so he loves books of facts but
none of his books of facts told him the
truth of what a dragon was and why there
would be a treasure in a dragon's cave
because dragons are greedy and they are
hoarders and there's a curse on a
dragon's treasure and really if you look
at the heart of that curse the curse is
if you are greedy for this treasure you
literally become that greed dragons are
greed okay they hoard beautiful things
they hoard treasure it's like they are
greed manifested
so when Eustace goes to steal the
Dragons treasure because he's just full
of greed he gets cursed and he becomes
what he actually is so he is that greedy
dragon and now he physically becomes
that greedy dragon and the book is more
interesting because it's not like
he pulls the ship with his tail which i
think is interesting in the movie and
I'd like the movie showing that this is
him becoming less selfish and
understanding what he's become and
trying to be better and so it was clever
to some degree what the movie did the
book stays on this island with Eustace
this whole time kind of upping the
stakes that a dragon can't fly that long
they don't know where they're gonna be
able to go and this is a pretty helpless
situation for poor Eustace and it was
you Eustace his own greed that drove him
to this point it was Eustace's own
fault that he's here right now and he's
realizing this crying himself to sleep
and Reepicheep trying to comfort him and
be a friend
finally Aslan appears to him and I love
this scene because he's afraid of the
lion the dragon this massive dragon is
terrified of this this little lion
this cat but he sees it and his presence
is fearsome to him but when the lion
walks away he feels that urge to follow
it so he follows the lion Aslan leads
him to a pool and he knows he just
instinctively knows Aslan wants me to
bathe oh wait but in order to bathe I
have to get undressed and so it's the
scales it's the dragon scales that like
you know that he has to undress he has
to get these scales off so he rips off
an entire layer of scales and skin the
way any serpent or reptile will do but
there's a whole nother layer underneath
so he takes off that layer he takes off
that layer and the more layers he
removes like he's getting more raw but
like he can't get to the heart of the
matter this dragons skin these
dragon scales this greed all that it is
is all about him and finally without
that lion moving his mouth says to him I
must do it and so the lion walks up to
Eustace and all of a sudden those
fearsome claws come out and dig so deep
into Eustace this it's interesting the way
it's described in the book like he
thought it was so deep that it would
kill him or something I mean it was deep
that these calls went and they just tore
at those scales and ripped off layers of
skin so thick and he describes it the
way he does it later in the movie where
it's like it sort of hurt but it was a
good pain
when you pull a thorn from your foot and
then the lion throws him in the pool and
then just he comes up a normal human
again fully cured of being that dragon
and from that moment on
Eustace begins to change because of that
experienced he faced what he was and
came to Aslan when Aslan said you can't
do this on your own I must do it when he
submitted to Aslan's work the Cure began
in him and he became a new person when
we go back to Edmund Edmund had to
realize that he was a man and he had no
need to prove that he was a man by
conquest and fighting and battle and all
of that stuff he had no need to prove
who are what he was because Aslan had
called him my favorite scene is probably
where Lucy is in the you know cabin and
she pulls out that little spell to make
herself beautiful and she becomes Susan
it's like a dream so she becomes Susan
and now she's back on earth and there's
her brother Peter and Edmund but there's
no Lucy and she's like where's Lucy is
she in Narnia where's what's Narnia
it's so like they don't even know what
Narnia is and Aslan appears to Lucy and
says you chose that you wished yourself
away and with it much more your brothers
and sister wouldn't know Narnia without
you Lucy Aslan showed her her value you
doubt your value don't run from who you
are and then when you dive into Prince
Caspian it is that same thing and one of
my favorite lines is when Caspian is
talking to Aslan at the very end of the
film and he says I spent too much time
focusing on what I had lost and not what
has been given to me I promise to be a
better King and Aslan says you already
are a better King see what it turns out
is we all have those fears we all have
those insecurities and we all have those
temptations and those fears and those
insecurities mess with our minds in the
most ludicrous ways if we were to say it
out loud we'd be like that's ridiculous
but it's here it's in our mind and
something about it being here makes it
feel so unbearably real no matter how
ludicrous it might sound when
we say it out loud with our mouths and we
try we try everything like Eustace
ripping away those scales we try we try
we try we try to find value in who we
are we try to realize we're not that
weak or we're not this and we're not
that we try to realize those good
positive things but we can't do it
there's something deeper a deeper
darkness inside and it's like what is this we
have to come to that conclusion the way
Eustace did we can't take this off on
our own we have to submit ourselves to
what God is doing
did Aslan judge Eustace for being greedy
did he judge Eustace for being a dragon
no Aslan wasn't looking to judge or
condemn Eustace he was looking to save
Eustace
he wasn't looking to judge Lucy for
wanting to be prettier than what she
thought she was Aslan wanted to
save her from that and show
her the value that she has and the value
that she has in his eyes that's the cure
to submit to the work that God wants to
do in our lives the way Eustace
submitted the work submitted to the work
of Aslan in his life to have those
scales removed but when you dive into
the book and you dive even into the
symbolism of the movie you see it
darkness calling out to dark trying to
look beautiful and come as an angel of
light speaking to their own insecurities
and those things that tempt them to draw
them out and here's Aslan and saying
hey just look at me I am that answer
just come to me and submit to my work
and that darkness will have no power over you
in your world I have another name you
must learn to know me by it
but by knowing me here for a little you
may know me better there when you watch
voyage of the Dawn Treader what do you
think of this movie do you like it did
you like the book let's talk in the
comments while you're there hit the
subscribe button to become a Durbanian
and hit the bell by the subscribe button
so you're notified for my next
theological analysis movie review
ranking video or anything else I do here
I'm Durban thanks for checking out Durbania
