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

The Chronicles of Narnia is a pleasant piece of escapist storytelling liberally embroidered with CGI characters. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is the first, and arguably the best, of the Narnia series created by Christian writer CS Lewis. It follows the adventures of four English children as they venture through the wardrobe in a spare room and into the magical world of Narnia trapped in eternal winter by a White Witch. The film is rated PG and contains some bloodless violence but is much more appropriate for young children that this season’s other big family films Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and King Kong.

Disney hopes that The Chronicles of Narnia will be a hit film and spawn a Harry Potter like franchise. This is not that unexpected since this film most directly resembles the first of the Harry Potter movies. It feels safe and controlled and follows the book faithfully without taking any extraordinary risks and allowing its child characters to float along with the scenes. This may be wishful thinking as in general the story line and world that are created are thinner than Potter’s universe and the quality of the books goes downward through the series not upward. Also, like the Lemony Snickett series the formula of the books becomes repetitive after three or four books. Regardless, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe will be a big seller and will probably spawn at least a few more films.

The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe cost an estimated 180 million to make but it is not directly obvious on screen. It does not feel like the film should have such a bloated budget until one realizes that in Narnia all of the characters are at least partially computer generated except for the children and the White Witch. To populate this world with noble lions and giants and fauns and centaurs required a significant investment in CGI effects. Luckily the four children manage to hold their own against this menagerie of computer generated characters and the film not only looks lovely but remains a character focused story. Narnia itself is a beautiful place that goes directly from snow covered winter to a beautiful summer day in the course of a long walk.

The central characters are the four Pevencie children Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy who are sent away from London during World War II and into the care of a professor with a big house. The four children are well cast for their parts
which have much more gravity than is generally expected of children. Georgie Henley plays Lucy the youngest of the four and the first to find Narnia. She seems to whine a bit about not being believed but in general hers is the childlike wonder that initiates the journey into Narnia. Skandar Keynes has the most difficult part playing Edmund the younger brother who takes up with the White Witch before learning that her side is probably not the side to be on. Keynes’ character is the one that really grows and learns. Edmund begins as a selfish brat willing to turn in his brother and sisters for some candy and a
chance to be special and in control. He eventually grows to rue his decisions and to become as selfless as his siblings. Peter is the eldest and the most telling moment for him is the one where he gets onto the train after taking responsibility for his siblings. He sees the young men getting off of the train in their uniforms and there is the implication that there is little difference between Peter and those boys except for a few years. Indeed as the Pevencies go through the wardrobe war is exactly what they find and it is up to Peter to lead the troops into battle. Susan, as in the book, seems a bit extraneous to most of the story. She is the voice of reason and caution in this magical world but for the most part the other children ignore her warnings.

Wandering though the enormous house the children stumble upon a wardrobe that leads them into the magical land of Narnia populated with fauns, talking beavers, giants, and centaurs. What the magical land does not have is children and their fortune seems to hang on a prophesy about two sons of Adam and two daughters of Eve who will arrive and help to depose the White Witch. When first we see Narnia it is a winter wonderland. Lucy has tea with the faun and learns about poor Narnia’s fate that for 100 years it is always winter but never Christmas. This is due to the influence of the White Witch whose origins are unknown but whose magical abilities manifest themselves in cruelty and turning creatures of all kinds to stone. Tilda Swinton plays the White Witch with panache and she appears here much more impressively than she does in the book. That is probablybecause instead of being relegated to a mean lady in a sled here she gets to wear a lion’s mane and ride into battle in a chariot that looks like it came from Ben Hur.

The most impressive part of the film is how it brings the world of Narnia to life and expands on some of the aspects of the book. It does all of this without taking too heavy a hand with the Christian mythology that permeates the series. The great battle, for instance, is expanded from a two page description into a full fledged war with charging rhinos and significant, though bloodless, swordplay. This war was at the heart of the book but it was only briefly mentioned by Lewis possibly to shield children who had just lived through the Second World War from reading too much about it. Of course these days we like our war well reviewed, we watch it on the news every day, we play video games to simulate war, and we love to watch movie involving war. Now to maintain the PG rating and appease parental groups the war is entirely bloodless but that does not take away from its significant expansion.

I recommend seeing The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe both because it is more acceptable for younger kids than is the latest Harry Potter film but also because Narnia is an interesting fictional world and one can hope that seeing the film will inspire more kids to pick up the Narnia books and read them before the next film. The books are a light affair, all of them put together are probably not as long as the fifth Harry Potter book, and though their style begins to become repetitive after the first few books they are still a wonderful example of children’s literature that does not talk down to kids. Lewis wrote the books as a way to introduce Christian values and teachings in an interesting way and he did succeed.

Related posts:

1. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
2. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
3. The Lion In Winter
4. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
5. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince