...and Mr. Beaver said,"...

For me it's about dialogue. When I go to a movie, I enjoy seeing the bad guys get beat up, I like a good chase scene, special effects and all the usual bells and whistles. Above all else though, give me good dialogue. Give me lines to remember and quote. Give me thoughts to ponder, words to interface with my life.

I like John Grisham's books because of the great dialogue. He knows how to make people talk to each other. If you want to make a movie from one of Grisham's novels you'll be smart not to mess up the dialogue.

I liked the new Narnia movie. I give it two thumbs up in many ways. I will probably buy it when it's available. But while I give the movie high praise I was a little disappointed with the dialogue. The negative remarks I'm about to make don't go very high on the complainometer. On a scale of 1 to 10 my criticism is mild. If 1 is low my criticism is a 3.

Maybe nobody else feels this way but two of my favorite sections of dialogue in the book are first, when the professor gives Peter and Susan a lesson on logic as pertaining to the truthfulness of Edmund and Lucy; and second when the children are being filled in on Aslan by Mr. and Mrs. Beaver. Disney had an opportunity to present some great dialogue there. They made a stab at it but unfortunately they botched it, muffed it, fumbled the ball, lost the game and got thrown out of the dialogue league.

The other area of disappointment was the dialogue that Disney added. I'll give two examples. After the children meet up and say goodbye to Father Christmas (who was very bland compared to the way the book described him) Lucy turns to Susan and says, "See I told you he was real." Hold on a second, Lucy doesn't say that. This is not Ralphie, this is not some prooftext on whether Santa Claus is real or not. After that comment you might expect Santa to warn Susan not to shoot her eye out with her bow and arrow. What an uninvited invasion into Lewis' very unique treatment of Father Christmas.

Another dialogue addition was in the scene where the professor is talking to Peter and Susan about whether Lucy or Edmund was telling the truth. They have the professor end the discussion with trite moralizing about how the children ought to start acting like a family. What a disappointment. He is supposed to leave the children puzzled and mystified, not shamed.

I know that I am the type of person who always thinks the book is better than the movie. A vivid recent reminder of that is "Seabiscuit." If you liked the movie you'd love the book. Hopefully people will like "Narnia" and it will draw them into the books for a real treat.