The Guardian and an A-Z guide to The Chronicles of Narnia. It's a nice refresher if it's been a while since you've read the books. Since it is from The Guardian, don't be surprised that some of the sections veer off-topic a bit. Under "F is for Faun" (empahsis mine):
A faun has the top half of a man and the legs of a goat. Lucy is met by a faun, Mr Tumnus (James McAvoy, above), on her first visit to Narnia; he intends to kidnap her and deliver her to the White Witch, but his better nature wins out. F is also for Free Narnia. In the film, the White Witch asks the imprisoned Tumnus if he knows why he has been arrested. 'Because I believe in a Free Narnia!' he shouts defiantly, adding a parable of political revolt (see War). Although perhaps the allegory of a suffering people liberated from a totalitarian regime through the toppling of a monomaniacal dictator by a Christian lion is not one we want to applaud unambiguously at this time.
It also gets a bit snarky about good vs. evil. "[A]ll the bad guys are ugly and gnarly and...the good army is made up of noble horses and eagles and English people with excellent RP." RP is an abbreviation for "received pronunciation" and considered "proper English". It makes sense to me Lewis would have used style of speech as a literary device and that the movie would repeat this. Considering that RP is also sometimes known as "BBC English" I wouldn't think that The Guardian would have a problem with it either. Maybe it just depends upon which side you're on.
Posted by marybeth at December 4, 2005 02:17 AM