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Disney finds religion for its "Chronicles of Narnia"
The Houston Chronicle ^ | June 27, 2005 | Mark I. Pinsky

Posted on 06/28/2005 11:19:26 AM PDT by JDBrown90

In a marriage of modern mythmakers, the Walt Disney Co. is marketing a film based on C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia. And in doing so, Disney will take a page from Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. Walt Disney Pictures/Walden Media Disney's adaptation of The Chronicles of Narnia follows the exploits of four children in World War II England who enter the imaginary world of Narnia through a magical wardrobe.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, based on Lewis' novel for children and Christian allegory, will be released Dec. 9.

For Disney, the Christian marketing campaign represents a sharp break with corporate policy. Apart from Disney World's annual Nights of Joy concerts, the film is the company's first undertaking with the religious community. For some evangelical leaders, it represents the effective end of their Disney boycott.

The entertainment giant, which bills itself as a "Magic Kingdom," has carefully avoided religion for most of its history. Yet Disney has launched a 10-month campaign aimed at evangelical Christians to build support for Narnia, a $100 million, live-action and computer-generated animated feature it is co-producing with Walden Media.

Disney has hired several Christian marketing groups to handle the film, including Motive Marketing, which ran the historic, grass-roots efforts for The Passion. That film has grossed $611 million worldwide and is now in re-release. "From a marketing point of view, it could be a marriage made in heaven � if the movie is any good," says Adele Reinhartz, professor of religion at Wilfrid Laurier University in Canada.

Dr. Armand Nicholi, who for decades has taught a Harvard seminar on C.S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud, agrees. The entertainment world realizes there's a big audience "that embraces a spiritual world view," he says. How well these groups interact "will determine how successful this marriage is."

Paul Lauer, founder of Motive Marketing, declined to comment on his campaign for Narnia, apart from confirming that his firm is handling it.

"Disney, as the consummate corporate animal, is looking at Paul as the guy who delivered the audience of The Passion," says Barbara Nicolosi, of Act One, a program designed to bring Christian writers and executives into the entertainment industry.

Another Christian firm, Grace Hill Media, also has been hired, and several groups have joined the marketing effort. For instance, the Christian Web site hollywoodjesus.com launched a special feature on its site recently devoted to The Chronicles of Narnia.

For its part, Disney is trying to play down the Christian marketing approach, noting that it will reach out to the science-fiction and fantasy communities, as well.

"We don't want to cater to one fan base over the other, or at the expense of another," says Dennis Rice, Disney's senior vice president for public relations.

Failed boycott Leaders of the religious boycott, launched with great fanfare in the 1990s, accused Disney of betraying its family-values legacy by providing health benefits to same-sex partners, allowing Gay Days at theme parks and producing controversial movies, books and TV programming through Disney subsidiaries.

Financial analysts said the boycott had no effect on Disney's bottom line. The Disney-Narnia campaign appears to acknowledge implicitly that the Disney boycott has been a failure.

One of the groups that led the boycott, Colorado-based Focus on the Family, has been included in the early stages of the marketing campaign.

The 16.3 million-member Southern Baptist Convention officially ended its eight-year Disney boycott this week at the denomination's annual meeting.

Bob Waliszewski, the head of teen ministries for Focus, attended a Disney presentation for Narnia at the Burbank studio.

"We have still told families there are disappointing elements at Disney," he says. "We haven't changed that disappointment in Disney. But with Eisner leaving, we're all hoping that Disney will be a better company."

Disney chief executive officer Michael Eisner plans to retire Sept. 30.

For its part, Disney is circumspect about the boycott's apparent end.

"I don't think that this movie is being done as a response to earlier criticism of the company," says Rice. "We think it's a terrific property that's going to make a terrific movie."

Some evangelical critics are not willing to abandon the boycott.

"The departure of the prickly, anti-Christian Michael Eisner, and the advent of the Narnia project might open lines that could lead to a new understanding," says Bob Knight of Concerned Women for America. "Political realities are catching up to Disney, as well, as wiggle room disappears in the culture war."

Best seller Since it was published in the 1950s, Lewis' Narnia series has sold 85 million copies worldwide. Disney's animated features have been international staples for nearly 75 years.

In the Narnia story, a lion named Aslan is a Christ-like figure who offers himself as a sacrifice to save another character. He is tortured and killed.

Then later he is resurrected to transform Narnia into a heaven on Earth.

So far, small groups of Christian leaders and opinion makers from Western states have been invited to Disney's Burbank studios for briefings and screenings of sequences from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Ted Baehr, founder of the Christian-oriented Movie Guide, called the presentation a "wonderful dog-and-pony show. I think they're going to do a great job marketing to the church."

Baehr is author of the forthcoming overview of Lewis' work, Narnia Beckons: C.S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe � and Beyond, which is being published by an arm of the Southern Baptist Convention.

There is reason for skepticism about how Lewis, who is beloved by Christians for his religious commitment and his influential collection of essays, Mere Christianity, will be treated in popular culture.

Memo revealed In 2001, HarperCollins, the U.S. publishers of the Narnia books, issued an internal memo � revealed by the New York Times � in which executives urged colleagues to downplay the books' religious dimensions to market them to a mainstream audience.

Any efforts to de-emphasize the religious aspects of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe film are bound to backfire with Christians, according to Take One's Nicolosi.

"Disney and (co-producer) Walden Media are aware that there's a proprietary sense about The Chronicles of Narnia," she says. "C.S. Lewis is our guy. They better not take that away from us." The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, based on Lewis' novel for children and Christian allegory, will be released Dec. 9.

For Disney, the Christian marketing campaign represents a sharp break with corporate policy. Apart from Disney World's annual Nights of Joy concerts, the film is the company's first undertaking with the religious community. For some evangelical leaders, it represents the effective end of their Disney boycott.

The entertainment giant, which bills itself as a "Magic Kingdom," has carefully avoided religion for most of its history. Yet Disney has launched a 10-month campaign aimed at evangelical Christians to build support for Narnia, a $100 million, live-action and computer-generated animated feature it is co-producing with Walden Media.

Disney has hired several Christian marketing groups to handle the film, including Motive Marketing, which ran the historic, grass-roots efforts for The Passion. That film has grossed $611 million worldwide and is now in re-release. "From a marketing point of view, it could be a marriage made in heaven � if the movie is any good," says Adele Reinhartz, professor of religion at Wilfrid Laurier University in Canada.

Dr. Armand Nicholi, who for decades has taught a Harvard seminar on C.S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud, agrees. The entertainment world realizes there's a big audience "that embraces a spiritual world view," he says. How well these groups interact "will determine how successful this marriage is."

Paul Lauer, founder of Motive Marketing, declined to comment on his campaign for Narnia, apart from confirming that his firm is handling it.

"Disney, as the consummate corporate animal, is looking at Paul as the guy who delivered the audience of The Passion," says Barbara Nicolosi, of Act One, a program designed to bring Christian writers and executives into the entertainment industry.

Another Christian firm, Grace Hill Media, also has been hired, and several groups have joined the marketing effort. For instance, the Christian Web site hollywoodjesus.com launched a special feature on its site recently devoted to The Chronicles of Narnia.

For its part, Disney is trying to play down the Christian marketing approach, noting that it will reach out to the science-fiction and fantasy communities, as well.

"We don't want to cater to one fan base over the other, or at the expense of another," says Dennis Rice, Disney's senior vice president for public relations.


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: disney
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To: tiamat

We went last year. It was a very moving experience indeed. Of course we also liked the Osborne Lights and Mickey's Very Merry!

Disney World is only as fun as you are!


201 posted on 06/28/2005 1:12:38 PM PDT by Conan the Librarian (The Best in Life is to crush my enemies, see them driven before me, and the Dewey Decimal System)
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To: Tax-chick

It's not so bad. He's really cool, and I think he's getting a little better actually. Maybe he just has a really tough learning curve! =P


202 posted on 06/28/2005 1:14:22 PM PDT by Zeppelin (If we lose the war on terror... http://www.ebaumsworld.com/waronterrorism.html)
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To: Dunstan McShane

Well said. (Stands up to clap hands repeatedly.)


203 posted on 06/28/2005 1:14:22 PM PDT by little jeremiah (A vitiated state of morals, a corrupted public conscience, are incompatible with freedom. P. Henry)
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To: Barb4Bush
You seem to have a great deal of knowledge about and respect for C.S. Lewis. What did you think of the movie "Shadowlands"?

Thank you for your kind and generous assumption.

I was sort of disappointed by it, to be honest. Whoever Anthony Hopkins was playing, it wasn't C. S. Lewis. Hopkins played Lewis as an uptight, rather proper, sheltered, anal retentive Brit type. The actual Lewis was (according to reports--I never met him) a big and loud kind of man with a booming voice (Treebeard in "The Lord of the Rings" is reportedly based on Lewis), who (as one person remarked) reminded you of "nothing so much as a prosperous butcher." Not so natty a dresser as Hopkins, either.

Apart from that, the chonological and historical mistakes, the elimination of one of Joy's children, and the clear implication at the end of the film that Lewis' faith was shattered (it wasn't), it was an okay movie.

Actually, I think it was a remake of an earlier BBC-TV movie version of an earlier play, but I've never seen that one.

Uh--hope I didn't just trash a movie you liked . . .

204 posted on 06/28/2005 1:14:49 PM PDT by Dunstan McShane
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To: little jeremiah

Did you know that Tolkien was the basis for the main characture in Out of the Silent Planet. It is true!

Tolkien wrote a short story, a ghost story that has Lewis in it. They had a bet and I do believe Lewis won.


205 posted on 06/28/2005 1:15:03 PM PDT by Conan the Librarian (The Best in Life is to crush my enemies, see them driven before me, and the Dewey Decimal System)
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To: Valpal1
From Blessed Quietness Editor-- Steve Van Nattan-- For those of you that believe a woman cannot minister to a woman-- Go peddle your papers-- Go sit on a tack. If any of you pastors or men have a problem with anything in the ladies' section, DO NOT send communication to the ladies who edit this page. Send it to ME-- Steve Van Nattan.

Fret not, ye red neck Baptist preachers. My wife Elizabeth, and Mary, my daughter, are in full submission to Christ, our Editor in Chief and to me, their pastor. Ladies, please enjoy this page in the Lord and in the King James Bible. Mail sent by Christian ladies will be answered by the ladies here unless I, Steve, believe the mail is meant only to make trouble. Such mail is deleted, and the ladies never see it.

Weird-oid, uncivil, and snobby, too. Three strikes and you're out, Steve, bless your heart.

206 posted on 06/28/2005 1:17:18 PM PDT by Tax-chick ("The promotion of bad dress codes is the desire of arrogant powers; shame on the government!")
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To: Conan the Librarian

A bit more trivia on CS Lewis. His death did not get much headlines here or in Britian. He died on the same day as John F. Kennedy.


207 posted on 06/28/2005 1:17:34 PM PDT by mware ("God is dead" -- Nietzsche........ "Nope, you are"-- GOD)
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To: Borges
[ It's a metaphor for the Second Coming and the Kingdom of Heaven. ]

I know the story well..
Disney fronting the second coming accurately(according to the story) will not happen..

Even as an allegory.. the temptation to "insert" something into the story will just be overwhelming.. or delete something.. "to make it better" or "for poetic license"..

I wouldn't trust the present Disney with the story of Henny Penny.. or Humpty Dumpty.. actually the Lion King was a rip off of some of this this story.. at least the concept.. of it.. "the LION KING"....

208 posted on 06/28/2005 1:17:35 PM PDT by hosepipe (This propaganda has been ok'ed me to include some fully orbed hyperbole....)
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To: Conan the Librarian

Interesting.

It's time for me to read that trilogy again. I like to read it about every 15 years or so.


209 posted on 06/28/2005 1:17:42 PM PDT by little jeremiah (A vitiated state of morals, a corrupted public conscience, are incompatible with freedom. P. Henry)
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To: JDBrown90
Then later he is resurrected to transform Narnia into a heaven on Earth.

Obviously written by someone who hasn't read the books.
210 posted on 06/28/2005 1:19:15 PM PDT by aruanan
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To: Zeppelin

Well, you're a very generous young man to give so much care to a handicapped pet. Good for you!


211 posted on 06/28/2005 1:19:30 PM PDT by Tax-chick ("The promotion of bad dress codes is the desire of arrogant powers; shame on the government!")
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To: Tax-chick

Before you start jumping all over the guy. Could it be possible that men send the women all sorts of porn etc that as a man I would not like a woman I care about to see. Don't be so quick to judge.


212 posted on 06/28/2005 1:21:04 PM PDT by 3dognight
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To: Tax-chick

The internet is an amazing thing. Everyone can have a page to flog their dead horses on.


213 posted on 06/28/2005 1:21:07 PM PDT by Valpal1 (Crush jihadists, drive collaborators before you, hear the lamentations of their media. Allahu FUBAR!)
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To: 3dognight; JDBrown90
Then later he is resurrected to transform Narnia into a heaven on Earth.

Many people will be fooled by this junk.

The theme of creating a heaven on earth fits well with Disney's agenda. C.S. Lewis understood clearly the biblical teaching summarized by the words of Christ: "My kingdom is not of this world." We should expect Disney to seek fortune through a misrepresentation of biblical teaching. Mel Gibson was interested in letting the truth speak for itself. He created The Passion at his own expense and risk. Disney is no Mel Gibson, with or without Eisner at the hellm.

214 posted on 06/28/2005 1:22:03 PM PDT by Fester Chugabrew
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To: 3dognight

I don't object to his being protective of his wife and daughter. I object to his smart-mouthed name-calling, and I'm frankly stuned at "enjoy this page in the Lord and in the King James Bible."


215 posted on 06/28/2005 1:24:48 PM PDT by Tax-chick (I'll stand barefooted in my own front yard with a baby on my hip ... I'm a redneck woman!)
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To: 3dognight

Except that isn't what he warned against. And also stating that the women will answer mail from women unless HE believes it was sent to cause trouble.

He is censoring their e-mail.


216 posted on 06/28/2005 1:25:08 PM PDT by Valpal1 (Crush jihadists, drive collaborators before you, hear the lamentations of their media. Allahu FUBAR!)
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To: Valpal1

LOL!


217 posted on 06/28/2005 1:25:15 PM PDT by Tax-chick (I'll stand barefooted in my own front yard with a baby on my hip ... I'm a redneck woman!)
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To: Fester Chugabrew

To be fair, maybe the error is in the article's author's understanding, not in the film itself, which is not even completed.


218 posted on 06/28/2005 1:26:13 PM PDT by Tax-chick (I'll stand barefooted in my own front yard with a baby on my hip ... I'm a redneck woman!)
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To: Valpal1

Well if he thinks it is sent to make trouble for his family I hope you hits the delete button. Wouldn't you do the same for your family?


219 posted on 06/28/2005 1:27:32 PM PDT by 3dognight
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To: Conan the Librarian
I did the Mickey's Very Merry in 2001. I liked the "snow" on Main Street and the cookies and hot chocolate at stands throughout the park.

Disneyland did the "snow" too, but down by the water in New Orleans Square.

-PJ

220 posted on 06/28/2005 1:28:19 PM PDT by Political Junkie Too (It's still not safe to vote Democrat.)
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