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For those
of you hoping for another film on the same
caliber as The Lord of the Rings
with The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion,
the Witch and the Wardrobe - you may
be disappointed. That ship has sailed to
the Grey Havens, and has taken its timeless
story with it onto DVD forever for fans
to treasure. So don’t look for that
type of story again until The Hobbit
gets filmed (whenever that will be).
However,
if you are looking for a faithful adaptation
of the C.S. Lewis books and a great children's
fantasy story filled with allegory, magic
and wonder - this is the perfect film
for you. Even if your childhood has long
since past, you will find the kid in you
bursting out with joy as you watch this
enchanting story come to life on screen.
To be quite
honest, I didn't know what to expect.
I have never read the books unfortunately,
but I am familiar with the basic storyline,
and I can tell you that those elements
are all there and portrayed brilliantly
- making this the most likely candidate
for the best children’s movie of
all time.
For the
uninitiated, this Narnia film
(which will probably be the first of many
in a franchise, since there are seven
books) introduces us to four kids by the
names of Lucy, Edmond, Peter and Susan
Pevensie who have fled to the English
countryside home of Professor Kirke (Jim
Broadbent)
to escape the World War II bombing of
London. Lucy, the youngest and most open-minded
of the bunch, stumbles upon a magic wardrobe
in the house that takes her to the mystical
land of “Narnia.” At the time
of its discovery, and its eventual revealing
to the rest of Lucy’s siblings,
Narnia is cursed - covered in ice and
snow by Jadis, the White Witch (played
beautifully by Tilda Switon from Constantine).
And all the creatures who live there must
act as police and take any human being
they find to Jadis to stop a prophecy
from coming true. But when Aslan, the
“god-like” lion (voiced with
great presence by Liam Neeson) shows up,
he takes matters into his own hands to
make sure the prophecy of restoring peace
to Narnia gets fulfilled.
Narnia
is an epic world full of all sorts of
fantastic creatures who are stunning in
their realism, including unicorns, centaurs,
fauns, satyrs, etc. It seems all animals
can talk - including the hilarious Mr.
and Mrs. Beaver (voiced by Ray Winstone
and Dawn French), who play the role of
informing the four humans of their eventual
fate of restoring Narnia to the great
land it once was. The "mane"
attraction (I had to do it) however, is
Aslan. I totally bought into his look
and character. Neeson brings a presence
to him that makes you understand that
he’s ancient and a type of respected
holy figure, but one who is also lethal
in times of battle.
I cannot
stop talking about the special effects
until I mention the epic battle that ensues
between all of Jadis’ and Aslan’s
followers. While this battle is on a smaller
scale compared to The Lord of the
Rings movies, it’s every bit
as realistic. Fans of Rings will
definitely be able to tell that director
Andrew Adamson (who also directed the
Shrek films) was influenced by
Peter Jackson’s envisioning of fantasy
on film. But the battle is plenty different,
and quite an eye-popping crowd-pleaser.
Much has
been said about the Christian allegory
in this film (actually, every article
I’ve read on it mentions it somewhere),
with Aslan being a Christ-like figure
and the White Witch being sort of like
Satan. C.S. Lewis was a Christian, and
yes he did set out to write these stories
with this type of allegory in mind. Being
a Christian myself, I was able to read
between the lines and see a wonderful
symbolic telling of an old story. But
if you're not looking for the allegory,
you will still get a great fantasy adventure
film. You don't have to be a Christian
or understand the faith in order to appreciate
this movie, and it’s not dogmatic
or forceful with its message. Neither
Disney or Adamson set out to make it that
way. They simply took the story that Lewis
wrote and adapted to film format. And
what a wonderful job they did, as both
believers and non-believers of Christianity
will love it if they love fantasy.
I wish
there had been more intense character
development for the four kids since the
Pevensies aren’t given much to do.
They kind of just drift from place to
place, finding out more and more of what
they have to go through to fulfill the
prophecy, but never really reacting to
it. We never see the fear in their eyes
when they go to battle either. However,
they're all likeable and humorous, and
that was enough to make me care about
what they were going through. That's all
this type of film has to do - especially
since its not The Lord of the Rings,
but rather a children’s tale. All
kids really want are the cool creatures,
the imagination and the action. Narnia
has all that and a bag of Turkish Delight.
Saying that, all of the kids really do
give good performances though, especially
Georgie Henley who plays Lucy. She’s
simply adorable. If I ever have a daughter,
I would want her to be like her character
in this film (but without the British
cockney accent). Skandar Keynes, William
Moseley and Anna Popplewell (Edmond, Peter
and Susan, respectively), while they don't
give us much development, it was still
quite a lot of fun to take this journey
with them.
But never
mind all that. This film pulls us into
a secret magical world and makes us believe
it. That’s all that matters here.
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(out of four)
