Finally, we arrive at the new stuff. The third disk, “C.S. Lewis – Dreamer of Narnia” is a feature-length documentary on the man behind the story. I’m happy to say that if you’re a Narnia or a C.S. Lewis freak, you’ll want to see this. It’s creatively done, beginning with a visually bizarre dramatization of Aslan creating Narnia. The doc is structured around a narrator, meant to be Lewis himself, writing a letter in response to a class of children who had written to him. We meet various people connected to Lewis, and we’re given a comprehensive look at his life from beginning to end.

The fourth and final disk is also brand new, and includes an “Anatomy of the Scene” featurette about the climactic battle, a gallery of artwork, and the main event, the “Complete Production Experience”, a section broken up into many smaller parts that painstakingly details the preproduction, filming, and postproduction of Narnia. We meet pretty much everyone ever involved in making the film, from the actors to the studio to Richard Taylor, head of special-effects division Weta Workshops, who you may remember from the Lord of the Rings special features.

It’s all good stuff, and Narnia completists are going to want this disk no matter what. Still, considering the wealth of material that’s utterly recycled, and the lack of any substantial “extended” material, it’s hard to recommend this if you already own the originally released DVD. My copy also didn’t come with the “10-Page Companion Guide” that Amazon promises, and a cursory glance at the reader reviews on that site shows that nobody else seemed to, either. I hate to keep comparing the set to the Lord of the Rings sets, but that’s clearly what they’re going for here, which is a shame because this pales in comparison. Even the packaging feels flimsier. It’s a quick buck for the studio, but the movie deserves a little better.

Movie Grade: A-
DVD Features Grade: C+
Overall Grade: B