The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
From AwardAnnals
| This creative work has a long or truncated description. Please review the creative work guidelines concerning descriptions and edit down or replace the description. |
 | |
| Director(s) | Andrew Adamson |
|---|---|
| Subtitle | The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe |
| Distributor | Walt Disney Video |
| Honors | |
| 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… | |
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!
Honors
Reviews
Amazon.com
C.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 arent 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
Barnes and Noble
There is a magical Oz-like moment near the beginning of The Chronicles of Narnia when Lucy Pevensie (Georgie Henley), the youngest of four siblings evacuated from war-torn London to a house in the country, enters a wardrobe during a game of hide-and-seek and exits out the back into a winter wonderland. According to “The Children’s Magical Journey,” just one of the items that comprise the ten hours of bonus features on this two-disc edition, this effect was delightfully achieved by blindfolding the actress until the cameras rolled, so that she got her first glimpse of the Narnia backwoods at the same time her character did. Actually, “wonderland” might be overstating things. There are enchanted fauns and accommodating talking beavers (wittily voiced by Ray Winstone and Dawn French), as well as the noble lion Aslan (regally voiced by Liam Neeson). But there are also menacing wolves, an army of hideous creatures, and the very evil White Witch (Tilda Swinton in a performance that is the stuff of nightmares). The White Witch dominates Narnia and intends to use Lucy’s sullen brother Edmund (Skandar Keynes) in a plot against Aslan, who stands in the way of her absolute rule. The Pevensie children, including eldest brother Peter (William Moseley) and older sister Susan (Anna Popplewell), are a believable quartet, which is essential given the fantasy trappings that surround them. The four must learn to stop bickering long enough fulfill the heroic destiny put upon them by Narnia’s talking critters. Winner of the Academy Award for Best Makeup, Narnia is more family friendly than the Lord of the Rings films, and the players in its good-vs.-evil battle are more clearly defined. Still, with intense battle scenes, menacing encounters with the witch and her minions, and the seemingly fatal injuries suffered by major characters, it seems that the film pushes its PG rating to the limits. Donald Liebenson
Find this film
Related works
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: Original Score
Not to be confused with the collection Songs Inspired by the Chronicles of Narnia, this album is Harry Gregson-Williams’s instrumental score for the movie. Marking the composer’s third collaboration with director Andrew Adamson (after both Shrek flicks), this score also is one of the more mature offerings from Gregson-Williams, best known for his work on family films. The music is lush and assured, if a bit predictable. Indeed, it fits squarely in the current style popular for big epics—even using (on a few tracks) the vocals of Lisbeth Scott, which…
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: Book 2 of the Chronicles of Narnia
Narnia…the land beyond the wardrobe, the secret country known only to Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy … the place where adventure begins. Lucy is the first to find the secret wardrobe in the professor’s mysterious old house. At first, no one believes her when she tells of her adventures in the land of Narnia. But soon Edmund and then Peter and Susan discover the Magic and meet Aslan, the Great Lion, for themselves. In blink of an eye, their lives are changed forever. Enter this enchanted world countless times in The Chronicles of Narnia.
