Chronicles of Narnia – Movie Review (Minor Spoilers)
At the end of my sixth grade year, my school had a book fair. My Mother and I walked through the school’s library, looking at the selection of books available. Not twenty feet through the door, my eyes landed on a box set of “The Chronicles of Narnia” by C.S. Lewis. After walking through the whole fair, I came back to that box set. I had made my decision. My Mother, not a fan of fantasy and science-fiction, was a bit reluctant to spend the extra money for the box set, but I insisted that I had made my decision and was determined to read the whole set. She bought the books. That turned out to be one of the best book purchases in my life.
The following week, my Mother and I went to Ridgecrest Baptist Conference Center for (I believe) Music Week. In amongst all of the activities, the choir rehearsals, mountain climbs, and performances, I found time to read. Before the five days were up, I had read all seven of the “Chronicles of Narnia” and begun to re-read.
For years, I’ve known that “The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe” would have made a great movie. Imagine my joy several years ago, when I discovered that Walden Media was working on a screen adaptation. The long wait began, and yesterday it ended. The family and I went to the 4:15 showing at Sanford’s new multi-plex.
One review I read of the movie called it the most adult-friendly kid’s movie in years. That’s a good way to explain it. I spent the entire movie absolutely enchanted by the scenery, the animals, and the story itself. Though it has been a few years since I’ve read the book last, nearly everything was as I remembered it.
When I say everything was as I remembered it, I don’t mean just the story. When Lucy first walked into the room containing the Wardrobe, she walked into the room of my memories. The wardrobe, aside from some top detail, was the wardrobe she walked into in my mind. As she slid by the coats, they were the same coats, hanging the same way, that I saw in my own personal movie so many years ago. She walked into MY Narnia, and met the same Tumnus. It was almost as if the director had read my own mind when planning the movie, as so many details directly mirrored what I had come to expect of Narnia as a kid.
The casting was expertly done for this movie. The children were perfectly chosen for their roles. Liam Neeson’s vocal work for Aslan was excellent. Every role, from the White Witch to Tumnus to the voices of each animal led to an intensified sense of being in a story, rather than a movie. By staying away from the typical Disney bad-idea of using star voices for the animals, they instead chose the right voices. There’s a whole rant out there waiting to be made against using huge stars to voice animation, when you have qualified and extraordinary voice-talents who can do the jobs better and cheaper. I’ll leave the whole rant for later.
As with the voices, the special effects were very well done. By combining live-action and special effects in an expert manner, the viewer rarely had the chance to discover where reality ended and special effects began. This is very important, as the slightest error could have broken the spell. If the beavers hadn’t been believable, the the movie wouldn’t have been believable. It really is that simple.
Lewis, the author of the books, was a contemporary of Tolkein. The Narnia books have often been compared to the “Lord of the Rings” books for many reasons. Having grown up re-reading the Narnia series, but not the Rings books, I had no point of comparison. As an adult, I finally read the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, and was struck by one major detail. Much of the major story in Lord of the Rings happens in the past tense, almost as an aside to the rest of the story. The first book, because of its use of this technique, wasn’t nearly as good as I had thought it would be. As a reader, I found that the Narnia books were superior to those of Middle Earth in simple storytelling. Given the choice of taking either set with me as the only reading material on the ubiquitous desert island, I’d choose Lewis in a heartbeat.
One thing to remember when watching this movie is that it is, at its core, a kid’s movie. You won’t find gushing blood, impalings, or severed limbs in the combat scenes as you did in “Braveheart” or the “Lord of the Rings” movies. This took little from the battle scenes, which were handled quite well. The only time my son was bothered was during the buildup to the scene on the stone table (I won’t overly spoil the movie in this review) which he knew was coming. I’d say this is a more kid-safe movie than most kids movies of recent years.
The Christian symbolism was more obvious on-screen than I remember from the book, as well. A major part of that is that I am far more familiar with the details of the Christ biographies now than I was as a child. That Aslan represented Jesus was obvious. So much more was lost on me at the time. I’m sure my next reading will solidify the symbolism in my mind further.
This movie has been on my must-see list for years. Now it’s on my must-see-again list. Ideally, I’ll be able to get my Mother to see it with me, so she can see what those books looked like in my mind so many years ago.
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe – A+
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Excellent review, thank you!
The only other question I’d ask is — what age-appropriate level do you think this is?