Have your kids read the books when they're 10 instead...

Rating: 7/10 (11 April 2006)

Finally got around to renting this. My thoughts, not necessarily in order:
The Good
Great production values, beautiful scenery, effects. The acting is, by and large, fabulous. The kids hit all the right notes, Liam is perfect as Aslan, Mike Madsen is perfect as a wolf as well. Very good adaptation, very true to the novel.
The Bad
The soundtrack is awful. Couldn't they have come up with something better than that terrible moaning at inappropriate moments? It's actually really jarring in places. Possibly because of the novel, the pacing is horrible. It really is a boring movie in some parts.
The Disappointing
I remember reading these books lovingly as a ten year old kid. Watching them on the screen as an adult sadly disappoints I think, in part, because the sense of wonder is drowned by the heavy handedness of the material that a ten year old would likely not pick up (or ignore in favor of Lewis' wonderful sense of imagination). When Aslan said "It is finished," I nearly fell out of my chair laughing.
The movie also suffers in comparison to the "Lord of the Rings." Once you've seen an army of Uruk-Hai and goblins, armies of minotaurs and tigers just look, well, silly.
Bottom line: Rent it. It's worth seeing once for the kid actors and the spectacle but don't expect it to re-create the sense of wonder you felt as a kid.