Only a few days separate me from the second movie in The Chronicles of Narnia. The last time I saw a live-action movie based on C.S. Lewis’s book Prince Caspian was back when the BBC version was still amazing. In the last 20 years we've come through a revolution in technology where Warwick Davis can now play Nikabrik the Black Dwarf instead of Reepicheep the Mouse in a large furry costume. However, Generation X and Y have gone through another revolution that has nothing to do with technology and everything to do with magic.
Some embrace the popularity of the fantasy realm of Dungeons and Dragons and Harry Potter. But others, namely in Christian society, fear the impact of the acceptance of magic in entertainment culture.
On his radio program Focus on the Family, Dr. James Dobson recently interviewed Douglas Gresham, the stepson of C. S. Lewis as well as the co-producer of Prince Caspian. In this interview, co-host Dr. Julie Slattery asked Gresham about the magic present in C. S. Lewis’s books.
“A lot of Christian parents wonder about the magic element of C. S. Lewis’s... Narnia,” Dr. Slattery said in the May 7th program. “Is that something that’s appropriate for kids? And what’s the difference between the kind of magic that’s represented by say Harry Potter and the kind of magic you’re going to see in Prince Caspian?”
Gresham answers this question by defining magic. He says that magic is what we don’t understand, as opposed to something like science, which “we pretend we do understand.” Gresham does not shy away from the fact that there is magic in the Narnia books. There are several different kinds, he says, some evil and some petty, within the chronicles. But Gresham puts the idea of magic in a new perspective for those who have feared its impact on impressionable children.
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