The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (film)

The Voyage of the Dawn Treaderis an fantasy adventure film based on The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the third published novel in 'The Chronicles of Narnia' series. This movie marks the first Narnia film not to be distributed by Disney; both The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian were under the Disney banner. Instead, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader will be distributed by 20th Century Fox. On March 23, 2010, Fox announced that the film will be released in Digital 3D in select theaters.

The film was released in theaters in the United States and United Kingdom on December 10, 2010.

Plot
The two youngest Pevensie children, Lucy and Edmund, are staying with their odious cousin Eustace Scrubb during the final days of the second World War. With their older brother Peter is studying for his university entrance exams and their older sister Susan is traveling through America with their parents, Edmund and Lucy feel they are being left out. But one day, after Edmund attempted to join the military, he, Lucy, and Eustace are drawn into the Narnian world through a picture of a ship at sea. The three children land in the ocean near the pictured vessel, the titular Dawn Treader, and are taken aboard.

The Dawn Treader is the first ship Narnia has seen in centuries. King Caspian has built it for his voyage to find the seven lords, good men whom his evil uncle Miraz banished when he usurped the throne many years earlier. His Telmarine ancestors had never built ships as they had always feared the sea.Three years have passed since peace has been established in Narnia, and Caspian has undertaken an oath to find the seven lost Lords of Narnia. Lucy and Edmund are delighted to be back in Narnia, but Eustace is less enthusiastic as he is at odds with the talking Mouse Reepicheep, who joined the crew in hopes to see Aslan's Country beyond the seas of the "utter East".

They first make landfall in the Lone Islands, nominally Narnian territory but became a heaven for slave trade with Caspian, Lucy, Edmund and Eustace captured as merchandise. While imprisoned, Caspian meets one of the lost lords, Lord Bern, who reveals those not sold are sacrificed to a mysterious green mist he and the others were investigating. Caspian reclaims the Lone Islands and names Bern its duke while given one of the seven swords the lords possess. At the second island they visit, Lucy is abducted by the invisible Duffers who force her to enter their opressor's manor to recite a spell of visibility. Doing so, while ripping a page from the spell book that detailed an enchantment to make her like her sister, Lucy and the others learn the opressor actually cast the spell to protect the Duffers from the evil green mist that comes from Dark Island. To defeat the Dark Island, the crew must locate the other Swords of the Seven Lords and lay them in Aslan's Table on Ramandu's island. But during a storm after leaving the Duffers' island, Lucy nearly becomes victim to the mist's temptation of her lack of self-value as it tortures Caspian and Edmund with their own personal demons.

The group then made a stop at a volcanic island, with Eustace leaving the group to avoid participating in the work and finding a massive treasure that arouses his greed: filling his pockets with gold and jewels and puts on a large golden bracelet from a corpse. Elsewhere, Caspian and the Pevensies find a pool of water which turns everything immersed in it into gold, including Lord Restimar as they obtain his sword while almost tempted by the gold. Soon after as they are about to leave, the group encounters Eustace, now a dragon and the corpse near the treasure is revealed be Lord Octesian. Eventually they reach the Island of the Star, where they find the three remaining lost lords in enchanted sleep. Ramandu's daughter Lilliandil tells them that the only way to awaken the three lords is by setting things right and reveals the last lord, Lord Rhoop, is on Dark Island itself.

At Dark Island, the group battle a sea serpent manifestion that it assumed from Edmund's thoughts as the fear crazed Rhoop stabbed Eustace with his sword. Flying out, Eustace is approached by Aslan who turns him back into a boy and sends him to place Rhoop's sword with the others. As Eustace suceeds in getting the seven swords together, Edumnd manages to overcome his own demons as he slays Dark Island's manifestion. Soon after, Caspian heads to the world's end with Reepicheep, Lucy, Edmund, and Eustace, venturing in a small boat through a sea of lilies until they reach a wall of water that extends into the sky. After Caspian decides not to go further out of realizing he needs to look after Narnia, Reepicheep gains Aslan's blessing to see his country, paddling a coracle up the waterfall to be never again seen in Narnia. Aslan then sends the children home, telling them that Edmund and Lucy will not return to Narnia and that they should learn to know him by another name in their own world. However, Eustace, now a much nicer person from his time in Narnia, could return someday.

Main Protagonists

 * Ben Barnes - Caspian X
 * Georgie Henley - Lucy Pevensie
 * Skandar Keynes - Edmund Pevensie
 * Will Poulter - Eustace Scrubb
 * Liam Neeson - Aslan, (voice)

Narnians

 * Simon Pegg - Reepicheep
 * Shane Rangi - Tavros the Minotaur
 * Tamati - Jemain the Minotaur
 * Ryan Ettridge - Caprius the Satyr
 * Steven Rooke - Nausus the Faun
 * Morgan Evens - "Randy" the faun
 * Chris Cruickshanks - "Cruickshanks" the Dwarf

Telmarines

 * Gary Sweet - Lord Drinian
 * Bruce Spence - Lord Rhoop
 * Terry Norris - Lord Bern
 * Tony Nixon - Rynelf
 * Arthur Angel - Rhince
 * Mirko Grillini - The Belligerent Telmarine

Lone Islanders

 * David Vallon - Governor Gumpas
 * Colin Moody - Pug
 * Arabella Morton - Gael
 * Catarina Hebbard - Gael's Aunt
 * Ozzie Devrich - Slaver
 * Michael Foster - Gumpus' Money Collector

Coriakin's Island

 * Billie Brown - Coriakin
 * Roy Billings - Chief Dufflepud
 * Greg Poppleton - Dufflepud 1
 * Neil Young - Dufflepud 2
 * Mary Bradney-George - Dufflepud 5
 * Scott "Ryctor" Brewer - Dufflepud 7

Other

 * Anna Popplewell - Susan Pevensie (Cameo)
 * William Moseley - Peter Pevensie (Cameo)
 * Tilda Swinton - spirit of The White Witch (Cameo), which will be a test for Edmund to overcome


 * Laura Brent - Ramandu's Daughter, (now named) Lilliandil

Production
Michael Apted was announced as director on April 17, 2007; Andrew Adamson, director of the series' first two films, and Mark Johnson are slated as co-producers. Apted grew up reading the Narnia novels. Bob Beltz of Walden Media said the production company deliberately set up a fast-paced, staggered shooting schedule for the Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and The Silver Chair films "in a way that it won't have to be two and a half years between them. We'll be able to bring them out sequentially a year apart". Michael Apted described taking over direction of the series as easy, "What’s fascinating about this particular franchise is how different all the stories are... there’s no element of Narnia in it at all. This is a journey that Caspian the Tenth is making into the islands, outside to the east of Narnia. So it’s interesting, it’s a whole different tone to the other things".

Production designer Roger Ford was replaced by Jan Roelfs. The owners of an AUD 2.1 million 40 metre by 30 metre by 5 metre water tank at Warner Roadshow Studios in Queensland are negotiating with the production company, in the hope that The Voyage of the Dawn Treader will be filmed there. Filming began in May 2009.

Due to Prince Caspian (Disney movie) grossing less than expected, Disney wanted a $100 million budget. However, Walden Media wanted a $140 million budget. On December 24, 2008, Disney chose not to go through with the much anticipated movie. On January 28, 2009, Fox 2000 decided to pick up the franchise, joining Walden Media for the production.

Filming 

In a February 2010 interview, Bill Nighy revealed that he would be the new voice of Reepicheep. In the following June however, Simon Pegg was confirmed to replace Nighy.

Marketing
In late November 2009, three stills from the film were released on the social networking site, Facebook. In February 2010, Narnia.com, the official domain, returned after a nine-month period of being down, bringing with it exclusive reports from the set. The first official teaser poster was released in May 2010. The first official public trailer for the film was released online on June 17, 2010, before being attached to Toy Story 3 on June 18, 2010. A second trailer was released to the Internet August 05, 2010, after being attached on the Dairy of a Wimpy Kid DVD.