Girlz 'N' Games #41: Foxifying Narnia!

-

I suppose you can classify this as the Easter edition of Girlz 'N' Games. After all, C.S. Lewis's Narnia Chronicles are packed with Christian symbolism, including a omnipotent lion who sacrifices himself to save a sinful little boy, and is later resurrected to kick some serious White Witch ass.

Anyway, this GNG comic was inspired by the news that the next Narnia Chronicles movie, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader will be co-produced by Fox as opposed to Disney, who helped fund, market and distribute the first 2 films in the series. Pretty much Disney wasn't keen to split the $140 million budget with Narnia rights holders, Walden Media after the last film in the series, Prince Caspian (which cost over $225 million) didn't meet box office expectations.

Fans of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, with its exciting ocean adventures, know it's a fantastic concept for a fantasy film, and nearly impossible to screw up. This said, I'll be watching the involvement of Fox film executives carefully. After all these are the guys who derailed franchises like the Fantastic Four and X-Men, and mangled series like Eragon, Dragonball and The Dark is Rising before they could even take off... all in a misguided attempt to attract and please certain target audiences.

Anyway, I had a lot of fun drawing this strip - I love the first 2 Narnia films, C.S. Lewis's Narnia books are my favourite ever fictional series and I'm still flirting with the idea of getting an Aslan tattoo (if I could ever find a design that doesn't look like the bloody Lion King).

I also had fun thinking up some of the inane and completely inappropriate things Fox could do with this family-friendly franchise. This includes:

- Upping the heartthrob quotient by having Ben Barnes (Prince Caspian) buffed up and shirtless for most of the film.
- Replacing hopelessly fugly Lucy with Hollywood's braindead hottie of the moment.
- Giving Reepicheep the mouse some LL Cool J street cred... and bulk.
- Changing the plot to something sexy and rebellious like Into the Blue's "diving for treasure" storyline.
- And, of course, introducing some horribly unsubtle product placement.

I think all we're missing are speedboat races, and a crew of oiled-up female pirates in bikinis?

Happy Easter, everyone!

Comments

MJenks said…
My wife tells me all the time that I'm too harsh with my criticism of Lucy's unattractiveness. There were times during the Lion, the With and the Wardrobe where I held my hand up in front of me to block her out of the picture.
6:23 PM
Pfangirl said…
Terrible, MJenks, just terrible ;)

Curiously, though, my mother found the little actress incredibly annoying as well; not ugly so much.
2:52 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is the rebooted Lara Croft gay? Evidence for and against...

-
Image
As some of you know, I’ve been fangirling hard over the new Tomb Raider , the first entry in the video game series since 2008, and ostensibly a reboot for the entire franchise . Taking the form of an origin story, Tomb Raider 2013 depicts the events that transformed a beautiful, if bookish, archaeology graduate into a pistol-packing adventurer with a devil-may-care attitude. We meet Lara Croft as a pretty, fairly ordinary 21 year old, brooding over her work notes, listening to her mp3 player and very much confined to the shadow of her male mentors. By the end of the game, however, she’s taken charge – she’s had to! – and, battered, bruised and bloody, she’s both a survivor and hero, right down to rescuing the princess and carrying her away in her arms. Yeah, this is probably the best point to mention that there will be some Tomb Raider 2013 spoilers in this post, so read ahead with caution. Anyway, I loved the game. Technically it’s near faultless, it looks beautiful, the ov
Read more

Weekend report-back: beach, board games and books

-
Image
So I'm back in the office after a 4 day weekend. And I'm trying not to remind myself that it's almost 3 months until the next public holiday. Bah! Anyway, pop culture didn't play too massive a part in my mini-break. There was braai -ing (expected on National Braai Day), the baking of pretzels in celebration of Oktoberfest ( even if we weren't in Munich this year ), working on the next Girlz 'N' Games comic , and a family lunch to celebrate my mother and cousin's birthdays. A hefty chunk of the weekend however was spent at one of my favourite holiday destinations: the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast. We were celebrating a friend's birthday at his family's holiday flat in Southbroom. So there was much chilling and eating and games playing, as well as kite flying, dolphin spotting and swallowing of saltwater as I flailed around in the choppy, chilly surf. We even managed to find Emo Shell! Anyway, film viewing was neglected this weekend, with the excepti
Read more

Movies today, SA!

-
Image
Despite the fact that 5 new films open in South Africa today, not a single one is worthy of an extended Pick of the Week description. If you haven't seen it yet (like me), go and watch Disney-Pixar's Up instead. If you can't get past a deeply ingrained "grown-up" prejudice against animated films, what about seeking out the Johnny Depp-Christian Bale gangster movie Public Enemies ? Hell, you could even go and watch District 9 again. Just stay away from the mediocrity released this weekend. Yeesh. I Hate Valentine's Day - Nia Vardalos reteams with her My Big Fat Greek Wedding love interest John Corbett for this romantic comedy in which a carefree florist lives by a "5 dates only" rule so a relationship never develops and she never gets hurt. A charming restaurateur, however, forces her to re-evaluate her unusual approach to dating. 17% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes . Karate Kallie - A South African comedy about Kallie, a fat teenager, who is mercilessly
Read more