I agree that viewing Father Christmas as Father Yule makes it work better. But just thinking out loud here (so to speak), and this doesn't really pertain to the movie which had to follow Lewis' lead here, but i wonder if having had him (the Narnia version of Santa) associated with Spring instead of Winter would have worked better still. I mean, what with spring viewed as a time of rebirth and with him only able to return once the spell on winter was broken (which, incidentally, also led to the return of Azlan and thereby further signified a time of renewed life and hope) i just wonder if having him as the Father of Springtime and having him dressed, say, in green rather than red might have fit into the story a bit better. Also that way instead of talk in Narnia of Christmas, which raises all sorts of questions, they could have spoken reminiscently about Springfest or something similar.
Anyway...
The dialog didn't bother me. Perhaps in part because i found it charming once again to have a Disney movie filled with British accents. And perhaps too because i have developed, for some strange reason, a somewhat low expectation in recent years when it comes to dialog in movies. Also, while the children were indeed smart-alecky with one another, they were at least respectful towards adults and always remembered (as far as i can remember) to say Please and Thank You. Something which is getting more and more rare now a days.
By the way, at the end of the movie...what were the Kings and Queens of Narnia doing? Were they hunting? I was thinking that they were hunting a stag. Or at least that's what i seem to recall from the book (at that point in the movie i guess my attention sort of drifted for a moment because i didn't catch on to what they were up to). But that can't be right, can it? I mean not with all the animals of Narnia being sentient as far as i can tell. So i'm hoping some one can clear that up for me.
There are Talking Animals and non-talking animals in Narnia. That's the slight boo-boo in the movie, Edmund shouldn't have been riding a talking horse at the end of the picture, unless he was in a dire situation.
I believe the climatic battle counts as such a situation, but stag hunting probably wouldn't ;)
They were chasing the White Stag who gave you wishes if you caught him.
They did have dumb animals in Narnia that might rightfully be hunted - which is more unsettling than Lewis seems to have realized - to be friends with a stag, and eat his dumb likeness! Imagine being friends with a bear who was tearing into a dumb human, and offering you some.
Mrs VS