Magical Mystery Tales
The BBC has gone overboard
for its new showpiece in children's drama - the re-working of
CS Lewis' Chronicles of Nana. Karen Hutchinson talks to the award-winning
team behind the epic whose past credits include The Box of
Delights.
A blend of live action, special effects and models
with a dash of animation is the recipe for one of the BBC's biggest
children's productions ever - The Chronicles of Narnia.
Satisfying preconceived images of the fantasy
realm of satyrs, dwarves and fauns is tough, even for the BBC team
behind award-winning series The Box of Delights.
So with coffers boosted by pre-sales, executive
producer Paul Stone drew on animators TVC and modern creator Vin
Burnham for the magical moments of the first six episodes, based
on The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.
Two CS Lewis tales - Prince Caspial and The Voyage
of the Dawn Treader form the next series, the final one is based
on The Silver Chair.
While just eight minutes
of the first three hours incorporate animation, Stone complains
of the "huge but necessary
expense". Jimmy Murakami directing at TVC doesn't reckon the
company will be bidding for the rest of the Chronicles.
He says TVC, best known for The Snowman and Where
the Wind Blows, will be lucky to break even.
TVC tried to be illustrative rather than cartoony,
distinguishing the evil sprites, freaks and whoozies from the six
animated goodies by making them wraith-like, he says.
The evil followers of the wicked White Witch battle
against Edwardian protagonists Susan, Edmund, Peter and Lucy and
the friends of leonine deity Aslan.
 But
while the BBC made most of the models, some barely more than fluffy
costumes, the central character was farmed out to Burnham.
She insisted on an all-fours lion - departing
from drawings in the original manuscript and past Narna productions.
Andy Whitman, producer and director of a BBC documentary
about Narnia records, operas, cartoons, stage shows and television
productions, says it's unusual not to have a simple humanoid with
lion's head.
Director Marilyn Fox was
dubious - "she thought
it would be like a pantomime horse", says Burnham,
But as you'd expect from the hands behind models
in Time Bandits, The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, and Volvo's Dummy ad
there's little trace of the comic theatre.
Aisla Berk and William Todd-Jones do a fairly
convincing double act inside the body, though it's still the head
that's most impressive.
It inclines at various angles, and combined with
moving eyes, ears, nose and mouth, expressions range from the fierce
to the benevolent.
At times it looks a bit
gormless when it gapes as words boom forth, with no attempt to
lip sync. Stone, though,
is adamant. "It combines a sense of human and animal to get
a religious sense of majesty," he says.
But he surprised Burnham
by only requesting one head. "It will need a facelift for next year," she says. "Normally
you'd have a close up head and a lighter version for action shots."
Such action shots include the massive Aslan flying
with two children on his back - all wired up like a huge marionette,
says Burnham.
The resulting multi-layered fairy tale is another
BBC period piece, ostensibly children's drama, with obvious adult
appeal.
So it will probably go out in the Sunday afternoon
Charles Dickens slot, perhaps accompanied by the Whitman documentary
on the making of the series.
Stone isn't keen on pairing
his production with the study of adaptations. "I want to retain some of the mystery," he
says.
"No matter how advanced the technical elements
are, they should be appreciated and forgotten," he says. "We
are telling a story, not showing how clever we are."
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