The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion The Witch And The Wardrobe
Filed Under: Film, Reviews | Article Tags : DVD review
By: The Dweeb
April 2006
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Now that we are finished raiding Tolkien’s closet for film material (for now), Hollywood has moved on to translating his fellow author and buddy C.S. Lewis to the big screen. British fantasy has never been better, take that Harry Potter! Again, like the Lord of The Rings, prepare to be dazzled as you are immersed into a rich vibrant fairy tale world where its the classic good versus evil. The storyline is not as complicated as Rings, or as serious in tone, but it is obvious there are many similarities between the two tales. No surprise there really, as Tolkien and Lewis were part of the same writing group back in the day.
Narnia is however rooted into the real world, and the wardrobe portal serves as an escape from the London Blitz for the children during World War Two. Whether or not the events depicted in the story actually happened to the kids or they just made it up inside is up to you to decide. But everyone can agree that this is a story based on the rite of passage into adulthood for the children, by the end all them have ‘grown up’ in some way and have bonded. The challenges that they overcome allow them to get closer, and the bickering virtually stops.
The four children each have distinct personalities, and each actor portraying them does a stupendous job. A lot of children cast in movies cannot act most of the time (think a young Anakin Skywalker), but director Andrew Adamson really knows how to pick em. Especially young Lucy, played by Georgie Henley. I think she stands out the most of the children, I look forward to seeing her in more films. Lets not forget about the White Witch (Tilda Swinton) who I think stole the show every scene she was in. They dispensed with the typical evil female lead and created the coldest hearted woman I’ve seen in a long time. Wow, she doesn’t even have any qualms about beating on kids! Brutal and icy cold, mmmmm now that’s some good ole fashioned evil right there. Thank goodness they decided not to go down the path of cheesiness with this role.
Visually Chronicles is a stunning film, relying on a lot of CGI to create the world of Narnia. I thought the characters looked fantastic, especially Aslan (voiced by Liam Neeson) the lion. The melding of real human actors to animal bodies like the Centaurs was seamless, yet somehow the backdrops and long shots of scenes didn’t look quite convincing enough. The choice was probably on purpose, but I have gotten used to seeing computer generated landscapes that looked real in so many Star Wars and Rings films I’ve been spoiled. But at least a lot of that was kept to a minimum, and instead they chose to use real footage from New Zealand instead, which visually gives it the same look as The Lord of the Rings. You can never grow tired of looking at those mountains down there.
Disney decided to release this film on two versions of DVD giving the choice as to how much Narnia you can handle. They both have the same feature set as the first disc with the movie, but with the additional second disc, its Narnia overload! As usual the folks over in Burbank came up with hours upon hours of extra material to sift through. From how they made the film to the background on the books and mythology behind it, its for the true C.S. Lewis fan. Even if you are a casual observer, the second disc is good for a glance. Entertaining to the last drop, I can’t wait for the other books to be made into films, as long as they don’t manage to screw it up of course.
Reviewer’s Opinion: BUY IT!!
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