a good book ruined by by christian fundamentalists makers

Authors (J.K. Rowling being a notable exception) rarely have much say about who makes their books into movies and almost never have any creative control whatsoever. I believe the rights to Susan Cooper's books were sold or traded multiple times before Walden got their hands on them.

I didn't notice any particular fundamentalist Christian agenda in this film, but I must disclose that I didn't watch it very closely, because so many parts were so BORING. Also, I was incensed that a book I have loved and read and reread since childhood was utterly destroyed in the making of the film, so I was understandably distracted from seeing any agenda.

While The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Bridge to Terabithia could have been better adaptations and better films, they were enjoyable for what they were: diluted versions of their source material.

This, however, is just a travesty. If Walden wanted to push their agenda, why did they have to use The Dark Is Rising? They rewrote the whole thing anyway; why not just change the names of the characters and call it something else? No one would have realized there was any connection to The Dark Is Rising.

That said, Arthurian legends, for the most part, are chock full of Christian elements, even though Cooper highlighted the pre-Christian parts in her novels. I suspect they just wanted to make some money on another children's movie, and they thought they would have a ready-made audience if they used an existing book.

I think it's just a bad film and a worse adaptation.

They excised the Arthurian elements and Herne the Hunter? Then what did they have left? That's like removing witchcraft and Hogwarts from Harry Potter!

So glad I checked IMDB before subjecting myself to this travesty. I'll just re-read the books instead.

I can't find the articles any more, but at the time the movie came out, the script writer made it clear that he'd not only did not like the books as written, but decided that since they were in a mythopoeic format they wouldn't make good films.

It's quite possible that the producer's religious background played a part in deciding to rid the movie of the best parts of the book (not just the Arthurian elements, but also the landscape and the history which help to enrich the text), but I agree that, in the end, the main idea was to get something up on screen which could rival Harry Potter in popularity. Which it failed to do, of course, precisely because all of the good elements are missing!

Children know that magic
makes the world go 'round.
Qkumba Zoo