The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe (Widescreen Edition)
by Andrew Adamson
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Anna Popplewell, Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes, Tilda Swinton, William MoseleyDirector: Andrew Adamson
Brand: Buena Vista Home Entertainment
Producer: Andrew Adamson
Writer: Andrew Adamson
Producer: David Minkowski
Writer: Ann Peacock
Writer: C.S. Lewis
Writer: Christopher Markus
Writer: Stephen McFeely
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; French (Original Language), Unknown; Spanish (Original Language), Unknown; French (Dubbed), Unknown; Spanish (Dubbed), Unknown
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 143 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-04-04
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Buena Vista Home Entertainment / Disney
Product features:
- Prepare to enter another world when Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media present C.S. Lewis' timeless and beloved adventure. With the stunningly realistic special effects, you'll experience the exploits of Lucy, Edmund, Susan, and Peter, four siblings who find the world of Narnia through a magical wardrobe while playing a game of "hide-and-seek" at the country estate of a mysterious profe
Movie Reviews of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe (Widescreen Edition)
Movie Review: A Magic Deeper Still
Summary: 5 Stars
When I heard that Disney was doing a version of The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe I was concerned that the film might make a mockery of the treasure that is the Narnia series. For one thing, the Disney of today is, in my opinion, a pale shadow of what it once was. I mean, how could the company that produced, say, the enchantment of Snow White and Pinnochio, which left my five-year-old self in awe and wonder, also be responsible for the cynical and artistically inferior Emperor's New Groove?
And when I learned that Andrew Adamson, the director of the admittedly funny, but often vulgar Shrek, was at the helm for Narnia, I feared that Mr. Tumnus would suffer from an acute case of flatulence.
Then, too, there is evidence that Lewis himself would have had some reservations. A newly discovered letter, allegedly written by Lewis just four years before his death, indicates that he opposed a film version of Narnia. Assuming that the letter is not yet another Hooper Hoax, we have Lewis suggesting that television versions of his talking animals, from Fledge to Aslan Himself, would result in "buffoonery or nightmare". And, he added, "a human pantomine version of Aslan" (picture a Narnian counterpart to Bert Lahr as the lion in The Wizard of Oz) would be "blasphemy". The film thus seems to have run the risk of making Lewis turn over in his grave.
But I stood in the churchyard at Headington Quarry last fall, and there were no signs that his rest was anything but peaceful.
Nor need it be.
The film positively honors the book and its author. Indeed, asked whether Lewis would have approved of the film, Douglas Gresham, Lewis's stepson, replied, "This would be beyond Jack's wildest dreams."
No doubt about it: Aslan is on the move.
But for a few forgivable liberties (for example, the details of the children's and beavers' flight from the White Witch and her canine henchmen), the film is remarkably true to the book--right down to the dead bluebottle fly on the windowsill. Like the recent film versions of Tolkien's Rings trilogy, the casting is remarkable. If you have come to know the Pevensie children from reading and rereading the book, you might find yourself wondering how Gail Stevens, the casting director, managed to find the very Lucy who, until now, had lived only in your own mind. And I find it remarkable that my Mr. Tumnus is the same faun that resided in Adamson's mind as he read the books as a child.
Far from buffoonery or nightmare, the film crew's creation of some 23 different Narnian species, from minotaurs and minoboars to giants and dwarves to talking beavers, wolves and foxes, is astonishing and very believable.
And then there is Aslan.
I'm in over my head as I attempt to speak of the technology--some combination of a thing called animatronics along with computer imaging--that produced the Lord of the whole wood. Adamson himself said, "I really wanted the children not to think it was a puppet." Indeed. This would have been blasphemous. He added, "I didnt want them to think for a moment it was just a prop, but to react as if it was right out of the zoo."
The director underestimates himself. Aslan is not a tame lion, you see. Neither the Aslan who emerges from the pages of the book nor the screen version of Narnia's King, who first appears from his splendid pavilion, is the sort of animal who might be kept in captivity. Somehow, this computer-generated figure has weight: the very ground trembles as he walks. And he is fierce: his deafening roar is the undoing of even the arrogant and powerful Jadis. And he is wise: you can see that in his eyes. And he is good.
Aslan is very good.
Indeed, perhaps the most remarkable thing about the film is that it manages to do something that makes the books themselves remarkable: it evokes a fierce allegiance to Aslan and all that he stands for. Here I am, a man of nearly fifty, who prides himself at being rather tough-minded and analytical, falling in love with a character of fiction from a childrens story. Like the Pevensie children, at the name of Aslan, something seems to jump inside of me. Like the Cabby in The Magicians Nephew, "I feel somehow, if I may make so free, as 'ow we've met before."
There is much talk these days of the Narnia series as a Christian allegory. There is some basis for this assessment. But Lewis himself resisted such a characterization of the work. The stories are much less an attempt to allegorize the gospels than they are designed to acquaint readers with the Deep Magic that underlies the gospel stories themselves. As Lewis saw it, western societyperhaps British readers in particularhad become jaded and numb to the Christian themes of good and evil, redemption and self-sacrificial love. But those themes themselves, removed from an overtly Christian context, are soul-stirring and transformational. Removed from that context and seen afresh, with centuries of encrusted assumptions and biases stripped away, the reader is permitted to respond directly. Lewis's aim was one in spirit with that of G.K. Chesterton who, in his own presentation of the gospel message, sought to "reover the candour and wonder of the child," "shake off the cloud of mere custom and see the thing as new, if only by seeing it as unnatural," and "invoke the most wild and soaring sort of imagination; the imagination that can see what is there."
There isn't a child in the world who, having been drawn to Aslan, is not heartbroken over what transpires at the Stone Table--and elated over the events of the following morning. And if our own world is ruled by a King Who would pay such a ransom to save us from our own treacheries, then we owe Him our undying devotion and allegiance.
Perhaps the magic has returned to the Magic Kingdom after all. But this is perhaps a magic deeper still. Long live the true King!
More The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe (Widescreen Edition) reviews:
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Summary of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe (Widescreen Edition)
Prepare to enter another world when Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media present C.S. Lewis' timeless and beloved adventure. With the stunningly realistic special effects, you'll experience the exploits of Lucy, Edmund, Susan, and Peter, four siblings who find the world of Narnia through a magical wardrobe while playing a game of "hide-and-seek" at the country estate of a mysterious professor. Once there, the children discover a charming, once peaceful land inhabited by talking beasts, dwarfs, fauns, centaurs, and giants that has been turned into a world of eternal winter by the evil White Witch, Jadis. Aided by the wise and magnificent lion Aslan, the children lead Narnia into a spectacular climactic battle to be free of the Witch's glacial powers forever! The Chronicles of Narnia, Narnia, and all other book titles, characters and locales original thereto are trademarks of C.S. Lewis Pte Ltd. and are used with permission. © Disney/WaldenC.S. Lewis's classic novel The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe makes an ambitious and long-awaited leap to the screen in this modern adaptation. It's a CGI-created world laden with all the special effects and visual wizardry modern filmmaking technology can conjure, which is fine so long as the film stays true to the story that Lewis wrote. And while this film is not a literal translation--it really wants to be so much more than just a kids' movie--for the most part it is faithful enough to the story, and whatever faults it has are happily faults of overreaching, and not of holding back. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe tells the story of the four Pevensie children, Lucy, Peter, Edmund, and Susan, and their adventures in the mystical world of Narnia. Sent to the British countryside for their own safety during the blitz of World War II, they discover an entryway into a mystical world through an old wardrobe. Narnia is inhabited by mythical, anthropomorphic creatures suffering under the hundred-year rule of the cruel White Witch (Tilda Swinton, in a standout role). The arrival of the children gives the creatures of Narnia hope for liberation, and all are dragged into the inevitable conflict between evil (the Witch) and good (Aslan the Lion, the Messiah figure, regally voiced by Liam Neeson).
Director (and co-screenwriter) Andrew Adamson, a veteran of the Shrek franchise, knows his way around a fantasy-based adventure story, and he wisely keeps the story moving when it could easily become bogged down and tiresome. Narnia is, of course, a Christian allegory and the symbology is definitely there (as it should be, otherwise it wouldn't be the story Lewis wrote), but audiences aren?t knocked over the head with it, and in the hands of another director it could easily have become pedantic. The focus is squarely on the children and their adventures. The four young actors are respectable in their roles, especially considering the size of the project put on their shoulders, but it's the young Georgie Henley as the curious Lucy who stands out. This isn't a film that wildly succeeds, and in the long run it won't have the same impact as the Harry Potter franchise, but it is well done, and kids will get swept up in the adventure. Note: Narnia does contain battle scenes that some parents may consider too violent for younger children. --Dan Vancini
Stills from The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (Click for larger image)
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