Fun in Narnia

While in AZ, my family and I went to the Phoenix Science Center because they had a traveling Narnia display in house for a limited time only.

The best part was the beginning. You go into an empty room with a set of big wardobe doors. (As in The Lion, The Witch and...) They swing open, and you have to push your way through a crowd of fuzzy coats to get into "Narnia," where a machine in the ceiling sprinkles "snow" (which seemed to be finely-shredded toilet paper) on your head. That was fun.

After that, you're pretty much dropping ten bucks extra to walk around and watch EPKs from Prince Caspian on a bunch of video screens. (With the DVD release just on the horizon, though I'm sure that's just a massive coincidence...) Interviews with the director and cast -- isn't that kinda stuff DVD extra filler? You betchum.

There was a catapult, because the bad guys in Prince Caspian have catapults. A guy in a black t-shirt would put a styrofoam "rock" in the basket and weakly fire it into a net about five feet away. It reminded me of the basketball hoops games you sometimes see in sports bars, except with a catapult. It gave new meaning to the word "desultory."

At the end, there was a huge screen showing a teaser trailer for Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which was just a giant concept art photo of a sea serpent looking at the titular vessel, while the main Narnia theme played. Then there was a gift shop full of Narnia stuff. The end.

The night before, we watched the first movie again, because my mom hadn't seen it yet. I kinda like it. The battle at the end is a lotta fun. Instead of just a billion orcs and a few trolls a la Lord of the Rings, I dig how each side has this bizarre jumble of talking animals and fantasy creatures all smooshed together. It's not often you get to see a minotaur fight a griffon fight a tiger fight a dwarf fight a rhinocerous fight a centaur fight a gargoyle fight a bear fight Tilda Swinton.