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

Review By: Alexis Tuminello
AlexisTuminello@TheCinemaSource.com

If I saw this movie as a child my opinion would have been much different. I remember reading the thin C.S Lewis paperbacks that made up the series, the most famous being The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe; I can even remember the book had a purple circle on the cover with a lion standing on a cliff in the top forefront, his mane stretching just outside the realm of the circle. I even remember some the 1988 mini-series which was aired on PBS, just the big things like the fur coats leading to snow, the lion, and the ice witch’s magic ability to create delicious yet surreal looking sweets with a single drop of magic liquid. Now Shrek director Adam Adamson has combined the seven installments into one grandiose Disney film; The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.

I don’t know if the books have fallen out of favor for the preteen generation of the last five to ten years but this movie is sure to spark a regeneration of interest in adolescents and adults as well. I can’t remember even how I came to read the one’s I did. I just remember the edges were worn, a hand-me-down from my sister maybe. The book presented as one massive trade novel (much like the release of the Lord of the Rings trilogy encompassed in a single edition around the time of its theatrical release) is this week’s new number one on The New York Times bestseller list. It’s unnerving that it takes movie hype to create an interest in reading but at least the interest is now there.

The movie, and book series, is about four English children who are sent to their peculiar uncle’s country estate to escape the war. During an afternoon of hide and seek a mysterious wardrobe of fur coats is discovered and as the youngest child retreats to the hidden safety behind the fur she steps out into snow and into Narnia. Narnia is a fantastical land with talking animals cloaked in a perpetual winter that will never have a Christmas due to the control of the evil White Witch. The animals are divided between a mandatory loyalty to her; those who are not loyal are turned to stone, and belief in the former ruler, benevolent lion Azlan. Azlan has not been seen since the White Witch claimed power but it is now rumored that he will return and restore Narnia to its former state of peace and beauty. In order for that to be achieved a prophecy which states two sons of Adam and two daughters of Eve must join the fight to banish the wicked. The four children who accidentally stumble into Narnia soon find that they are responsible for its future.

That’s not to say that is all there is ...