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

[Guest]

[grecopa]

Me too, Arwen.  I don't always hear the typed words how they were meant to be spoken by the typee.    It's all good. 

[ArwenEvenstar]

No worries. 
Just got back from seeing Narnia...and I thought it was great! Lucy (Georgie Hensley) is just so cute and her acting is fantastic. Peter, Edmund and Susan were also tops.
Tilda Swinton as the white witch was definetely someone Id consider as the scariest and most imposing villians, her prescence on screen just resonates evil. Arg, I just didnt like Ginabrikk, the white witches helper dwarf thing. His lines just seemed stupid and he came across to me as just a pathetic and snivelling creature, although I assume that was the point. 
I thought Liam Neeson was suited as Aslan because there is just something about his voice that seems kindly and in a manner kingly at the same time. This is how Ive imagined aslan to sound. Also Ray Winstone was a hoot as Mr. Beaver. 
All in all I think its another great blockbuster film (alongside Potter and Kong) and a nice way to round off my film viewings for 2005.
4/5 from me. 

[rns91294]

I just saw this movie and was stunned!  Loved it.  I saw the original film years ago (it seems everyone I know didn't even know there was an orignal), so I knew some of the story, but did nto remember it well.  Watching this movie brought it all back to me.  However, the one thing I can not remember, that I know has some sort of significance is the lamp post.  Can someone tell me the significance of that?

Other than that, I thought the actors were fine and everything else great too (except I do agree about the 4 older actors not looking anything like the four cute kids).

And, now, I want to read the book series.  How many are there?  What is the next one called?  Are they making them all movies?

[Nienna]

There are seven books in total Sara ...

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Prince Caspian
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
The Silver Chair
The Horse and His Boy
The Magician's Nephew
The Last Battle

(I think that's the correct order)
I've no idea if they're planning on filming all seven which is why I had doubts they would be able to use the four younger kids throughout them all.

[Roz]

I think in chronological order it goes - the Magician's Nephew, then the lion the witch and the wardrobe, and then the horse and his boy. After that it's Prince Caspian, then the voyage of the dawn treader, and then the silver chair and finally the last battle.

Well - that's the order in which events occur in Narnia but isn't the order in which he wrote them. I would start now with the Magician's Nephew and you will begin to understand things that they were hinting at in the movie. The hero of this one is the Professor who Lucy, Susan, Edmund and Peterseek shelter with as evacuees (but it is his narnia experience as a young boy) .

If you stayed on for 2 seconds after the credits went up then you see Jim Broadbent revealing this (or at least hinting at it) and it's made quite clear in the books who he is.

Towards the end of the story you see 'the 4 younger kids' grow up - and I think in Narnia now from this point on in the story they are older. But ask me again in a week or two, I have just re-read the first 3 (in chronological order). Lucy et al are important characters in the whole of the chronicles of course, but they don't reappear as major characters in the first or 3rd book.

SPOILER

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE LAMP POST

is merely that in the Magician's Nephew this is an item that is taken from our world into Narnia at the beginning. A piece of lamp post is taken from outside the Professor's temporary home in London. The piece is put on the ground as Narnia is being created and it 'grows' into an ever shining lamp post, quite out of place in the woods of course.

[rns91294]

Thank you.  So he wrote them out of sequence, but you recommend reading them in chronological order?

Between Harry Potter, The Dark Tower Series (Stephen King - I just finished the second book) and Narnia, I got lots of reading to do.

[Nienna]

Hee hee it will keep you out of mischief for sure!

It's years and years since I read them, so perhaps I ought to be dusting-off my old paperbacks and re-reading them too!

[EmmasOneandOnly]

I seen The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe last night (very crowded, I was surprised since it was release almost a month ago. We had to sit right under the screen . )

SPOILERS (but I'm sure you guys have seen or read it )


I love it, my mom cried when Aslan died, I should have told her, but was so happy when he walked up there

I couldn't find a single thing wrong with it. I had just finished the book a few hours before and everything was hit on the head. It was great

[Roz]

I picked up my old paperbacks when I was at my parents. They are only short books and you may find you can read them very quickly and they are certainly captivating, I can't have picked them up for well over a decade, so it's almost like reading them for the first time.

I have always read them in the chronological order. I have the 1980s editions (or maybe early 1990s, let me check - 1988, so I was 8 when I first read this) and each book has the order that I have just described to you in it. (and inside the front cover it says "in reading order"...) so it's probably a good idea to read them in chronological order.

People who say Lewis is just a reshaped Tolkien are totally wrong, apart from the fact that they are both fantasy and have 'creatures' in, I'd say that they were totally different.  I would NEVER have read LOTR as an 8 year old child, Tolkien is still a genius, but he's tough to read through for the first time, and often ends up as a school text (thus mentally scarring children and driving them away from the books forever)

[Roz]

I seen The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe last night (very crowded, I was surprised since it was release almost a month ago. We had to sit right under the screen . )

I experienced a similar thing between Christmas and New year (28th ish of December??) it was released here on the 8th of December, and we went along for the 4 pm showing, by the time we got to the front of the queue a huge screen was filled and we had to wait until the 4.45 showing - and they had about 10 showings a day at this stage!! I wonder if it has been this popular everywhere (the screening I went to was in Southampton rather than Cambridge (170 miles away), it would be understandable if Lewis' film was popular in Cambridge as of course, he was a resident here )

A quick glance at the UK and US box office shows Narnia at the top of both. Kong was released after Narnia (in both places I believe) but it is pipping Kong to the post. I love PJ but I am so glad that Narnia is doing well, it got some slatings by critics here in the UK so I was worried that people would stay away and not see it. With this much box office success I think we may very well see more Narnia movies in future

[emmafan]

With this much box office success I think we may very well see more Narnia movies in future

I just read that Narnia had beaten Kong in the box office this weekend as well (by about 3 million dollars here in the states), which really surprised me.  Kong came out several weeks after Narnia, and I didn't think that either was really a movie to go and see twice in the theatre.  I would be EXTREMELY surprised if we don't see any more Narnia films in the coming years.  I think they are going to have a little trouble with the actors aging and might have to replace them, but after the success of tLtWatW (Ha  ) I can't imagine they won't at least try.  The nice thing about these movies is that they really do appeal to all age groups and audiences.  I believe that the main 4 (Lucy, Peter, Susan, and Edmond) appear in four of the novels as children.  So they will most certainly have to skip past A Horse and His Boy (which is my least favorite by far anyways) and go right to Prince Caspian if they hope to keep the primary four actors. 

So he wrote them out of sequence, but you recommend reading them in chronological order?

I would definetly recommend reading the books through in chronological order (starting with Magician's Nephew and moving to The Lion, Witch, and Wardrobe second...).  That is how I did it at least, and I found them to be very enjoyable in that order.  However, there are some who believe they should be read through in the order that Lewis wrote them.  They argue that reading Magician's Nephew first takes away much of the magic and mystery of Narnia (where the lamppost came from, where the witch came from, how Narnia came to be...etc...). 

But regardless of which order you choose, you will undoubtably enjoy them all!

[sketchqueen]

We took my 7 year old to see this and everyone loved it! He sat through the entire thing without complaining-  which is HUGE for a kid with Attention Deficit Disorder.

And, funnily enough, I found myself mentioning to Rob that I thought the grown-up versions looked so much like the kiddies that I thougt the casting director was a miracle worker

[Roz]

But regardless of which order you choose, you will undoubtably enjoy them all!

Here here.

Is my (ageing) memory failing me - or are our 4 friends once merely sitting on a railway platform and they find themselves whisked away to Narnia? If so - magic comes from the most unlikely of places.

They argue that reading Magician's Nephew first takes away much of the magic and mystery of Narnia (where the lamppost came from, where the witch came from, how Narnia came to be...etc...).

And indeed where the magic wardrobe came from!

I've only ever read them in chronological order, so I can't really help on this one.

[emmafan]

Is my (ageing) memory failing me - or are our 4 friends once merely sitting on a railway platform and they find themselves whisked away to Narnia? If so - magic comes from the most unlikely of places.

Roz - the infinite nature of memory does often provide for such magical moments.......

SPOILER





.....This event DOES take place at the beginning of Prince Caspian.  As the four children are waiting on a bench at a trainstation, the are suddenly tugged back to Narnia.  It is their first time back since tLtWatW and they have trouble remembering there previous experiance.  But the skills that they aquired return immediately (ie- Susan is excellent with a bow and arrow and Peter regains his prominent leadership abilities).  You might also remember that it is Prince Caspian who escapes from the castle and blows the horn (the same horn that Santa gave to Susan in tLtWatW).  It is the blowing of this horn the causes the 4 to return to Narnia as rescurers, albeit several hundred years after they had left.

[grecopa]

And, funnily enough, I found myself mentioning to Rob that I thought the grown-up versions looked so much like the kiddies that I thougt the casting director was a miracle worker

I thought the Lucy and Peter grown ups really looked like the kids a lot.  Especailly Lucy.  Grown up Lucy had the same expressions and the same mouth structure as the little girl.  The Susan grown up could pass, but I didn't see Edmund in the man that was playing him at all.

[ferdinand_the_yak]

I just got back from seeing it and I thought it was brilliant! Much more impressed by this than Goblet of Fire I did feel more attached to Lucy than the others, but I had no problem following the development of the other kids. I thought character development was MUCH better than GoF. May I also add that I had tears in my eyes within the first 15 minutes and then constantly during the movie It was also interesting analysing all the Christian symbolism etc especially in light of the whole kerfuffle about this being the anti-Potter Christian blockbuster. As an 8 year old reading the books, I didn't really take any of that from the books - and I am glad I didn't.  I don't want to start a debate on religion here, but I think its stupid that it has been made out to be some sort of religious battle between the two. Leave the theology out of it and enjoy stories for stories' sake

Did anyone else think that when Aslan was walking to the Stone Table the creatures around him sounded like the orcs from LOTR? Or was it just me?

Brilliant acting by Tilda Swinton as the Witch (was anyone else reminded of Cate Blanchett???) and as others have pointed out, the creatures were very well done (bar Aslan in some bits). I was probably going to be one of the harshest critics of this movie as I grew up with the books as a very young child, and I was very happy that it impressed me so much. Yes, it is less dark and more *childish* than LOTR, but like Roz said, its a different age bracket. Overall, I think its a 9/10 for me.


*SPOILERS FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN'T READ THE ENTIRE SERIES*



I have always read the series in chronological order... and there is not a huge problem of actor continuity as the Pevensies (as kids) only appear in 3 books - LW&W,  Prince Caspian (the fourth book) and Voyage of the Dawn Treader (fifth book, Lucy and Edmund only) . The other books have other protagonists - the younger Professor Kirke (Magician's Nephew), Shasta and Aravis (Horse and his Boy, set during the adult reign of the Pevensies), Silver Chair and the Last Battle (Eustace - cousin of the Pevensies - and Jill). So not as problematic as Harry Potter there. If they churn out the movies at the rate of one per year like LOTR and Potter (well kind of ), I don't think they would have too many problems. The kids are more grown up in Prince Caspian anyway and even more so in Dawn Treader.

[ferdinand_the_yak]

Here's a review that I found very interesting... particularly the discussion re. the four way *battle* between C.S Lewis, Tolkien, JK Rowling and Phillip Pullman:

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

The most striking thing about the dark forces in C.S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is that they're not dark at all. Their natural habitat is a greeting-card landscape of powdery snow and glittering ice. And presiding over it all is Jadis, the White Witch, one of the most balefully beautiful femme fatales in the world of myth and fairytale.

It is hardly surprising that Lewis, a prominent figure in the fusty male circles formed by Oxford's literary dons of the 1930s and '40s, should have visualised the Devil as a woman. If he'd still been around, however, he may have found it disconcerting to see her brought to life with the scene-stealing glamour that Tilda Swinton brings to the part.

With her height, her hauteur and her translucent paleness, Swinton has a face and figure on which almost any message can be written as long as it has a kernel of seriousness. It is unlikely she'd be up to playing dizzy dames with Goldie Hawn or doing a duet with Bette Midler, but ice queens don't come any classier. And this presents a problem for Narnia's good deity, Aslan, the Great Lion.

Big he may be, but in comparison, he looks pretty creaky. Although he has the velvety resonance of Liam Neeson's voice working for him, he never quite manages to do a King Kong and transcend the fact that he was born of a marriage between computer and puppet maker.

Fortunately, everybody else measures up. It's easy to see why Disney chose to start with The Witch and the Wardrobe. It has all the lineaments of the classical fairytale, being both fresh and familiar. In the adventures of the four Pevensie children, who open an old wardrobe one day to find that it leads to a magical world, there are echoes of Lewis Carroll's Alice, Frances Hodgson Burnett's Secret Garden and E.Nesbit's Bastable books. But Lewis puts his own stamp on the story by peopling it with creatures drawn from his preoccupation with pagan and Christian mythology.

He also makes it a place where the children can influence events. In the real world, the Pevensies - Peter (William Moseley), Susan (Anna Popplewell), Edmund (Skandar Keynes) and Lucy (Georgie Henley) - are helpless onlookers. It's World War II and they have been evacuated from London to a spooky old house in the country, where all they can do is sit tight and stay safe. But in Narnia, the war between good and evil is one in which they find themselves playing key roles.

The film's New Zealand-born director, Andrew Adamson, who made such gleeful work of spoofing both Disney and the fairytale tradition in the Shrek films, has no trouble playing it straight this time. The film was shot mainly in New Zealand with the British designer Roger Ford and the Australian cinematographer Donald McAlpine bringing a sinister beauty to the wintry Narnia landscapes. And the best animators, model-makers and special-effects people in the business have successfully delivered Lewis's battalions of centaurs, minotaurs, minoboars, cyclops, ghouls and spectres to the screen.

There's charm without cuteness, too, in Ray Winstone's and Dawn French's voicing of the friendly Beavers and James McAvoy's brave faun, Mr Tumnus.

The only real touch of Disneyfication lies in the fact that not a drop of blood is spilled. People and animals fight and die, but they do not bleed.

The story is a transparently Christian allegory - something that caused Lewis's friend J.R.R. Tolkien to dislike it intensely. He resented Narnia's popularity, deplored the haste with which the books had been put together and believed that Lewis had compromised their effectiveness in emphasising their religious subtext.

Today's evangelical right sees the overtness of their Christian message as a good thing. The White Witch and her minions are being touted as an eloquent reply to J.K. Rowling's effrontery in pitching the idea in Harry Potter that there might be benign witches and wizards. And Narnia is part-financed by Walden Media, the production company set up by Republican billionaire Philip Anschutz to invest in films reflecting so-called family values.

So the politics of Fantasyland is a hot issue - one that is bound to become even hotter when Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy comes to the screen. Pullman, who won Britain's Whitbread award with his final volume in the series, is somebody else who cherishes a hearty dislike of Narnia's religious aspects. An atheist, he is against Christian proselytisers of any sort, and the complex plot of His Dark Materials is designed as a vigorous attack on organised religion.

For film-goers, all of this can only be good news. That's if the quality of the adaptations holds up. Regardless of what they have said about one another, Lewis, Tolkien, Rowling and Pullman have written magnificent stories, all displaying one overriding virtue - a reverence for the power of the imagination.

[grecopa]

Interesting....I didn't know there was a HP/Narnia battle anywhere.  I think the people who don't like HP have never read the books.  For me it's much more about friendship and the battle of good vs. evil than "learning" witchcraft of any sort.  There are plenty of witchcraft/wiccan cartoons and movies that I won't let my kids watch, but Harry Potter is not on that list.  99.9% of my friends at church feel the same way and we're Southern Baptists if that gives you any idea.  We ARE the evangelical right. I really think that the media blows out of porportion the number of Christians against the HP series.  A few loud voices get all the press, but if you ask the actual members of evangelical churches, it's a different story. 
As far as Narnia, sure, you can read the books and not get the Christian message, but I think you would have to be fairly young or not familiar with the story of Christ for it to pass over you altogether.  I don't get why some people (no one here on the boards I don't think) want to take all the Christian aspects out of the movie.  First of all you can't.  It's how C.S. Lewis meant it to be.
Anyway, watching HP won't keep you out of Heaven and watching Naria won't get you in, so I tend to watch what I want and figure out for myself if it's good or bad.
Interesting article, Jo!

[Roz]

You both raise some important points. I must be walking blindfolded but I can't say I can appreciate what the fuss is about Potter. At no point does JK bash Christians, the over-riding message is about 'goodness' and they even celebrate Christmas.

It's light hearted fantasy (with the occasional dark bit) and earthly beings dabbling in what might be described as 'God's work' (Voldie's feeble clinging to life springs to mind) I suppose, that's all.

[renrutha]

I'm a cradle christian but love Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and Narnia alike. I have even stretched to the pure fantasy of the Da Vinci Code too without being too offended. It's just fiction.