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Monday, December 19, 2005

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe 

Fans of C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia will most certainly enjoy this movie, but those unfamiliar with the books might find this story, with all its nymphs, fauns, centaurs and talking animals to be a bit cheesy. Having adored the novels when I was kid, I was extremely pleased that here was an adaptation that stuck remarkably close to the source material, and really managed to capture the spirit of the Narnian universe.

The story takes place during the second World War, wherein children are often sent out of London in order to escape the nightly air raids. Such is the case for the four Pevensie children, Peter, Susan, Edmond and Lucy, whose mother sends them off to stay with Professor Kirke in the English countryside. While playing hide and seek in the mansion one day, Lucy, the youngest of the four, hides in a wardrobe in one of the many spare rooms. This is apparently not the kind of wardrobe one buys at IKEA, as it has so much space that it in fact contains a portal to another world. No sooner has she stepped into this snowy land, when she meets Mr. Tumnus, a friendly faun who is so startled at her appearance in Narnia that he invites her back to his house for afternoon tea. Apparently this strange child molester vibe completely escaped me when I read these books as a kid, but I must admit it was a bit disconcerting to watch a grown man/faun (what have you) enticing a little girl back to his house with promises of candy. Mr. Tumnus, it turns out, is under orders to turn over any humans to Narnia’s evil queen, known by the local populace as The White Witch, who is the cause of Narnia’s 100 year-long winter. Mr. Tumnus changes his mind, however, and helps Lucy return back through the wardrobe into the spare room. Her siblings don’t believe her story, but eventually, of course, they find themselves running away from the strict housekeeper one day and hide in the wardrobe only to find that Lucy was right about Narnia all along. Unfortunately, Mr. Tumnus has been arrested for his failure to turn Lucy over to The White Witch, but with the timely aid of a talking beaver, the children are sheltered away before The White Witch learns of their presence. What follows is an adventure across Narnia in an attempt to save the land from The White Witch even as Aslan, an all-powerful lion returns to save the inhabitants from the witch’s tyrannical and evil rule.

Yes, there is a Christian-like parable within this story, what with the sacrifice of Aslan in Edmond’s stead and all, but then again, there were also many elements in the film that had absolutely nothing to do with Christianity whatsoever. Unless of course Father Christmas/Santa Claus had some heretofore unknown role in the Last Supper and the twelve disciples were actually talking horses—I’m not exactly religious so I can’t claim to be an expert, but I think this movie is meant to be a nice, imaginative story more than anything else.

This adaptation of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is by far the best I have seen—the casting was excellent, the special effects were perfect, and the screenplay was remarkably true to the book. Some parts were admittedly a bit on the cheesy side (e.g. the whole Santa Claus bit), but anyone who read and enjoyed the books won’t have too much trouble with it. The action was exciting, although extremely G-rated—for instance, during a battle sequence, some characters actually threw rocks at the bad guys as some sort of newfound military tactic, no doubt. All in all, I was delighted with the movie and recommend it to kids, those who read the books, and anyone who enjoys a good fantasy film.

9 Comments:

At 7:47 AM, Blogger Jay Noel said...

C.S. Lewis and Tolkien were great friends, and they were definitely the pioneers in fantasy literature.

I saw this just this past weekend, and I thought it was a great movie, and I never read any of the books, although I have read lots of Greek mythology.

This movie is PG, and I disagree with you believing the action is G-rated. Maybe by Braveheart/Last Temptation standards of gore, yeah, but to a child, the Aslan scene is extremely scary and violent. Children just don't like to watch animals get beaten, abused, and stabbed.

Also, without giving away too much of the plot, a child being run through with a sword is something not for the younger set.

I would say no child under 9 or 10 should see this movie.

 
At 10:20 AM, Blogger BuffyICS said...

That's a good point, Phoenix--I was definitely thinking of Braveheart when I said the battle scenes were G-rated, so I'd agree with your PG assessment.

I loved LOTR when I was a kid too, but the Chronicles were certainly an easier read. I'm just glad both adaptations of these books were done as well as they were.

 
At 1:36 PM, Blogger Jake said...

I thought this was a great movie. The only things that could have made it better were a) more Liam Neeson and b) if someone would have told the baby in the theatre to shut the hell up. STOP CRYING.

 
At 9:08 PM, Blogger Steve said...

As always, you do a good job convincing me to watch movies I swear I'd never watch otherwise.

I loved this series as a child, but having grown up, I have a hard time enjoying pro-Christian propaganda as entertainment.

Doesn't sound preachy, though, so maybe it is good, afterall.

When are you going to review King Kong? People keep telling me to watch it, but the plot of giant ape meets giant lizards and they fight just seems like it was made for 10 year-olds...

 
At 1:23 AM, Blogger BuffyICS said...

No one should write The Chronicles of Narnia off for fear of religious themes any more than religious people should avoid Harry Potter because of so-called anti-religious themes (witchcraft and all that). No one should ever do themselves the disservice of missing great movies with wonderful stories, because in the end, it is just a movie afterall (the exception to this general rule would be Passion of the Christ). Lion, Witch, and Wardrobe was a great movie, religious or not, and even as an atheist, I enjoyed it.

 
At 5:19 AM, Blogger Steve said...

Noted. (But it's not fear, it's boredom). :)

 
At 6:56 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ilia! Great site! So you're still in CA? I'll have to start checking up on your site before I hit the theaters...

This was a relatively good flick - fun and easy to watch, without a bad aftertaste (not much of an aftertaste, really)

Also - to put to rest whether Narnia is religious or not:

"The whole Narnian story is about Christ," Lewis once wrote to a school-age fan. "That is to say, I asked myself, 'Supposing that there really was a world like Narnia and supposing it had (like our world) gone wrong and supposing Christ wanted to go into that world and save it (as He did ours) what might have happened?'"

Another interesting tidbit: Tolkien and CS Lewis were best buds, meeting weekly at a bar just to talk about mythology. Oh, and Lewis was an atheist until he met Tolkien.

I'll have to register a SN later - for now, signing off as anonymous. :-)

 
At 6:13 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Jesus loves you, Steve!

 
At 6:15 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Jesus loves you too, BuffyICS!

 

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