Chronicles of Narnia

Rating: 7/10 (5 January 2006)

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe By: Tanner Phillips
The Nazi Blitzkrieg rages over London and the Pevensie children  Lucy (Georgie Henley), Edmund (Skandar Keynes), Peter (William Moseley) and Susan (Anna Popplewell)  like many, are being shipped to the country for safety. The kids arrive at the manor of solitary Professor Kirk (Jim Broadbent), an old bachelor under the attentive care of his housekeeper, Mrs. MacReady (Elizabeth Hawthorne). Bad weather keeps the children inside, bored, and Lucy convinces her older brothers and sister to play a game of hide and seek. She finds a near empty room with an old wardrobe at one end and decides to hide there. This begins the magic of "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe"
I was excited to see this movie from the time I saw the preview about 4 months ago. I was literally giddy every time I thought about it. I had the ultimate expectations for this film and couldn't believe I had to wait such a long time to finally see it. I had seen the old cartoon about 100 times and remember loving it very much. I have never read the books but I figured the cartoon movie would suffice.
I think that might be why I was a bit let down as the end credits rolled past. I had expected so much and I felt as though I had been a little bit misled. The previews made the movie look fantastic, but the end product made the movie simply mediocre. I am not saying I didn't enjoy the movie at all. I enjoyed it very much. I thought it was cleverly done with some very good CGI, and some brilliantly mastered makeup/costume design. The same makeup artists that did Lord of the Rings were called in for this extravagant feature film. The hefty production cost just didn't seem to go that far for such a film. I thought to myself that they must have spent a lot less on this movie than they did on LOTR. However, I was surprised to find out that they in fact spent more on this production than they did on LOTR. I could be mistaken, and please feel free to correct me if that is not correct. It just didn't seem that way. As much time as they spent on building up to the story, I felt like they still didn't do an excellent job of actually building the character audience relationship. I wasn't connected to the characters as you usually can become with movies such as this. I think this is not the case however with all the characters. For example the beavers that help the Pevensies are an absolute hoot throughout the movie. You are instantly connected to them, and you love them from moment one. Mrs. Beaver is always concerned with how she looks, as her husband complains about her cooking while giving her compliments and expressions of love and affection. I think the beavers were excellently done, and a huge part in the enjoyment I felt while watching the movie.
Another one of my favorite parts of the movie were the Christian symbolisms that were so clearly included. I have always considered C.S. Lewis to be one of the greatest Christian authors that has ever lived. He was a brilliant man with a creative mind full of ideas and spirituality for all to partake of. It is not hard to catch the symbolisms all over the place in the movie, and I love that. It goes far beyond having Aslan the great Lion come back to life in an obvious symbolism of resurrection. It goes as far as small comments made throughout the entire movie. Such as, "Why won't you just do as you're told?" and "What has happened is in the past." I enjoyed this side of the movie very much and I wish there were more movies like it. I thought that the symbolisms in this movie were far more apparent than in Lord of The Rings. I'm glad that the director was true to the books of C.S. Lewis and was able to honor his symbolic idea's that lye within his own little world of Narnia.
All in all, I thought the movie was well worth my time and money. I am critical yes, only because that's my job to be. However, if you were to ask me if I liked Narnia, I would say "Yes, I liked it." I don't know that I can say I loved it though. Who says we have to love every movie anyway? I would even see this movie again. It was great, and I think everyone should see it, regardless of the shortcomings that it might have. Because all in all, they aren't large enough to draw away from the fact that if anything, it will entertain you for a few hours. It might even touch your spiritual senses a bit. See it.
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