The Chronicles of Narnia

Well...Like everyone else in the world...I'm going go write a review of CoN.


The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, is a big screen adaptation of the beloved classic fiction written by C.S. Lewis. C.S. Lewis, one of the most reknowned christian philosophers, wrote an entire series of children's fiction entitled "The Chronicles of Narnia." While "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe" is the first book in the series, it is actually 3rd chronologically. Preceded by "The Magician's Nephew" and "The Horse and His Boy." The land of Narnia is a magical land filled with mythical beasts, talking animals, and other creatures. This whimsical world was created by Lewis for purposes of story telling through "supposals" (Basically allegory). They are a phenominal series of books and I highly recommend them to everyone I know.

That being said...on to the film.

This movie, overall was a great adaptation of the first book in CoN. The directors did a great job of creating, not only Narnia, but the house in which the children lived, as well as portraying them living in a war torn British Empire. All of the animation and visual effects were wonderful. The animals actually looked and felt real. Their voices were as I imagined them and they acted just like their counter-parts in the book. The movie also followed the events of the book fairly well. First, Lucy enters Narnia by accident, meets the famous Mr. Tumnus, then is followed by the less than scrupulus Edmond, who had a nack for lying. Then after getting in trouble, they all hide in the wardrobe to escape punishment from their caretaker.

Thus begins the adventure...

All the other points of CoN are excellent. The children are developed well, you know that the White Witch is evil, and the movie is highly entertaining. That being said...I was dissapointed with some aspects of the film. Aslan, a picture of Christ, is very poorly developed. In the book you are given the impression that he is a fierce and powerful lion who is not tame, but is good. Meek would be the word to describe it. Power under control. The film portrays his to be only gentle and mild. He really shows no aggression or power in the film, save a couple moments in the latter half of the movie. Being that he is really the main character of the story, this leaves the film desperately wanting. Another thing that bothered my was at the very end of the film, the children are riding horses through the woods surrounding Narnia. The book tells us that they are hunting a magical white stag, that if caught will grant them wishes(effectively). We see the, now grown, children riding after something but aren't really told what or why.

All in all, I enjoyed the movie alot. I would definetly own this film. Its a great adaptation of the book and a very well done film. Because of its lack of development on Aslan, the movie's allegory is pretty much lost. But its still a very good movie. I hope they make enought money to continue producing more films. Despite is less than stellar reviews from critics, I give this movie an B+. Very good, but could have been better.