More Details From the VDT Trailer at Biola!

NarniaWeb and The Lion’s Call related lots more details from The Voyage of the Dawn Treader trailer showcased at the Biola Media Conference this past weekend. WARNING: LOTS OF SPOILERS!

From ‘subjectofthehighking’ at NarniaWeb:

The “trailer” starts with a sweeping view of a church with lion gargoyles, 20th century people exiting the doors below. Aslan’s voice speaks in the background about times changing.

Edmund and Lucy in Eustace’s bedroom. Edmund asks Lucy if she has seen the ship in the picture before. Lucy smiles and says it’s very Narnian.

Eustace, Edmund, and Lucy in Eustace’s bedroom, with water pouring out of the picture frame and filling the bedroom. They swim in the water and emerge at the surface with the Dawn Treader.

Edmund and Lucy in Narnian clothes in Caspian’s cabin. Edmund wonders why they have been called to Narnia if there is no war or trouble.

Lucy walks down the hall to the magician’s book. She opens it as Aslan’s voice speaks in the background. Snow falls as she gazes around in wonder. Another clip of the book includes Lucy looking on the page of the spell of beauty beyond the lot of mortals, and her image in the books morphs into an image of Susan.

Coriaken unrolls a huge map, his voiceover telling them of the perils ahead. Apparently, the writers have combined some of the episodes in the book to create a goal to defeat the “darkness” that threatens Narnia. It seems that they have to land on the dark island and follow a “blue star” to Ramandu’s island.

Footage of Gael and Lucy. Gael says to Lucy in a ship’s cabin, “When I grow up, I want to be just like you.” Lucy replies by putting her arm around Gael and saying, “When you grow up, I want you to be just like you.” Another scene includes Lucy comforting Gael as she misses her mother by telling her to trust in Aslan.

Eustace sitting among some barrels, writing in his notebook. He asks an albatross on a barrel if he talks too, and a nearby minotaur laughs at him talking to animals.

A dragon shadow swooping across a mountainside.

Coriaken becoming visible again: a table of books begin to blur as his image moves, not blending in with his surroundings anymore.

Reepicheep climbing a mast.

Ramandu’s daughter emerging out of light. She welcomes the group to Aslan’s table.

Lucy looking on a door that opens out of nowhere, with light beyond, presumably the door in the sky.

Edmund, Eustance and Lucy on a beach with Aslan, presumably at the end of the world. Lucy asks if they will return. As more clips play, Aslan’s voiceover speaks the line of them knowing him by another name in their world.

Coriaken with the crew of the DT. He throws some white stuff in Eustace’s direction and says something, maybe a spell. Lucy asks Coriaken what the white stuff was, and he replies, “Lint, but don’t tell him that.”

The footage ends as other trailers have, the Narnia logo sweeping away, this time made of finished stone.

From Kristi at The Lion’s Call:

Effects for the trailer was still in rough form, with two shots of Aslan not yet looking quite himself, and one more polished shot of Reepicheep scurrying toward the helm.

Below follows a description of some of the content from the trailer, not necessarily in the correct order:

The trailer opened with the 20th Century Fox and Walden logos, then showed us a shot of a window, oddly tilted 90 degrees, and the camera began to pan out and the window return to vertical. As it did so, more and more of a large, heavily ornamented building was revealed, featuring some attractive masonry including lion heads (My guess would be this is a shot of some place in Oxford, but I’m not entirely sure how it fits into the story.).

At Eustace’s house, we’re shown a scene in which Edmund asks Lucy if she’s seen the painting in the room they’re in, and she says yes, and that it looks like a Narnian ship. The painting in question shows mostly water, with a miniscule ship far off in the distance near the right edge of the horizon. As they look, the waves begin undulating and Lucy cries, “The painting!” Eustace, seeing the movement within the frame, says something about destroying the picture and pulls it off the wall as water starts gushing out and Edmund warns him to stop. Eustace drops the painting and soon the room is flooded until the children are underwater. When they surface, they are in the Eastern Sea and the prow of the Dawn Treader is pointing directly toward Lucy and rapidly approaching, at which point she calls out “Edmund!”

We soon see a shot of Lucy and Edmund being hoisted out of the sea on some sort of wooden construct (perhaps the sort of thing they would use to load cargo?).

In one clip we see Eustace sitting on deck, attempting to start up a conversation with a seagull. When a minotaur standing near the helm asks him what he’s doing, Eustace says, “I just naturally assumed”. The minotaur let’s out a bellowing laugh and says, “He talks to birds!” (You know it’s a bad day when even the mythical creatures are mocking you…poor Eustace.)

In Caspian’s cabin (or perhaps Drinian’s) Edmund, with Lucy standing by, expresses confusion to the effect of, “If everything’s all right and nobody’s attacking Narnia, then why are we here?” Caspian: “I’ve been wondering the same thing.”

On the Island of the Voices, we see Lucy approach Coriakin’s Book. At first, it bears a number of scrambled letters placed at random on the cover, but once unclasped, the cover reads “The Book of Incantations.”

At one point, standing before the book, Lucy apparently causes it to snow, covering the room in white and bringing a smile to her face, reminiscent of her first foray into Narnia. Later in the trailer, she looks into the book and sees a picture of herself that morphs into the face of her sister Susan.

In one clip, Coriakin, apparently casting a spell, blows a handful of flakes toward Eustace, who looks unsettled. Lucy asks Coriakin, “What was that?” “Lint,” he says, “but don’t tell him.”

In another clip we see Coriakin unfurl the enchanted map.

We see a couple of interactions between Lucy and the little girl other sources have identified as Gael. In one scene, Gael says, “When I grow up, I want to be just like you.” Lucy replies, “No, when you grow up, you should be just like you.” Later, Gael says, “I miss my mummy.” Lucy says that she misses her mother too, and reassures Gael that they’ll be reunited. Gael asks how Lucy can be sure. “You have to have faith about these things. Aslan will help us.”

There appears to be an addition of a new overarching plotline to tie the voyage together, something beyond the search for the seven missing lords, however it is unclear from the trailer exactly what this is. The importance of the Dark Island seems to be played up, with a great deal of importance given to overcoming the darkness without by overcoming “the darkness within.”

Giving direction to their quest, the travelers are told (I’m not sure by whom) to follow the Blue Star to Ramandu’s Island. We are shown a shot of the star overhead. Later, on Ramandu’s Island, the star appears to morph into or connect somehow to Ramandu’s Daughter, who glows a very luminous blue and welcomes the strangers to Aslan’s Table.

There is one voiceover in which Caspian says, “Think of the lost souls we are here to save.” It’s unclear whether he is referring here to the Three Sleepers or some as yet unknown additional characters, though the latter seems more likely.

Throughout the trailer we hear a number of voiceovers of Liam Neeson as Aslan, including:

“You have returned for a reason.”
“Your adventure begins now.”
“You’re all about to be tested.”
“The fate of Narnia depends on you.”

I suspect that some of these lines were created specifically to add drama to the trailer and may not make the final cut, similar to the line “All that you know is about to change” line from the trailer for Prince Caspian. This is merely an assumption on my part, as I don’t know when Aslan could possibly be present to say all these things.

This is a small matter, though, as we do get to hear him say the crucial lines that fans of the book have been waiting for, that in our world he has another name, and that the children must learn to know him by it.

As any true Narnian will know, that’s the part of the story that really matters.

Thanks to NarniaWeb and TLC for the reports!