Like "The Lord of the Rings," this movie is a good tribute to the Narnia Series

Rating: 9/10 (12 December 2005)

There are many things in life that are risky. It could be argued there are few things more risky than to take a classic novel and turn it into a screenplay. We saw this with Lord of the Rings. There was a lot of excitement surrounding the news of not one, but three movies being made for this trilogy, but it was coupled with apprehension. Questions were being asked. Are these movies going to stand up to the novel? Are the changes that were made going to adversely affect the story? If you can't fit the whole novel in the movie, what are they going to leave out? All fears were gone after The Fellowship of the Ring was released. Peter Jackson did a superb job and gave a fine example on how a classic novel should be translated to film.
Fans of the Chronicles of Narnia went through the same experience and should find themselves with the same result. The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, the first book of the series, sets the bar for the other six. And it can be said with confidence, the bar is set pretty high.
Like LOTR, there is some license taken in the screenplay, which is by Ann Peacock, some of which, was needed to add to the story. For example, the first 10 minutes of the film aren't even in the book, but could be extrapolated from the first few pages of the novel. And, it was needed to give us the reason why the four children were being shipped off to the countryside to live with a recluse professor and a housekeeper desperately in need of anger management classes.
The story is about four children who discover a magical world hidden by a wardrobe that seems to be forgotten in a spare room. This land has been taken over by an evil witch and they find out their destiny involves the liberation of this fantastic country. We meet all sorts of fantasy creatures; fauns, talking beavers, minotaurs, centaurs, etc., as the story unfolds.
There is only one actor I could really recognize. That was Liam Neeson, who voiced Aslan, the true king of Narnia and a very large, hardly safe, but good lion. All of the others were relatively unknown, but did a very good job. The four children felt like siblings. The White Witch was great. She was evil, cruel, treacherous. Mr. Tumnus, the dwarfs, all of the human actors were very believable.
The animals, both natural, like the beavers and the wolves, along with the imaginary (fauns, griffins, minotaurs, etc.) were all CGI. To sum up how they looked in a word, especially Aslan, would have to be "wow." There was maybe one spot in the entire film where the CGI betrayed itself, and that was only for a half second. The human voices, mixed with the animals natural growls, barks, chirps, etc, were as important as the CGI itself. Both elements were a great mix to bring life and believability to each character. I believe there was a collaborative work between ILM and Weta Workshop on the creation of these characters, especially the centaurs, minotaurs, etc.
As most of those who "read" this know, this is an allegory. C.S. Lewis, the writer of the The Chronicles series, wore his faith on his shirt sleeve and it influenced all of his writings from the point of his conversion on. However, those who don't consider themselves Christians would still enjoy this film because, as with any good allegory, the parallels are left unsaid. But more importantly, it is a good movie. Cinematography, acting, plot, special affects, all elements of movie making are used to tell the story and it is told well.
From what I can tell, this is the first live action movie directed by Andrew Adamson. He has two funny movies under his belt, Shrek and Shrek 2, but this is his debut in a serious, live-action movie. And he did a very impressive job. If the rest of the book series is supposed to be made into movies, he has set a very impressive precedent. And, given how he did on this one, I hope he will be brought on board for the rest.
If one were to scale this, I think it would be fair to rate it a 9 out of 10. I found myself getting impatient with the story only once while I was waiting for Aslan to first appear. But a good story was made into a good movie that could be viewed more than once without risking boredom.