Beautiful and Involving Adaptation of a Classic

Rating: 9/10 (17 December 2005)

The visual success of "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" is made possible by the innovations in special effects that were developed for "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy. While some of the settings and monsters seem a bit recycled from that epic, the magical creations of the novel are recreated believably and beautifully.
The opening of the story marvelously retains the setting of war time Britain during the blitz, complete with an Andrews Sisters song and war reports on the radio, setting the film in a reality where good was clearly fighting evil and evil was ruthlessly attacking civilians (just a bit of imagination is needed to jolt us to contemporary comparisons on either perceived side of several current struggles). While most of today's audience will not know about the evacuation of London's children to the safer countryside and their knowledge of train stations is probably from "Harry Potter," the embarkation farewell is almost as much a tearjerker as Dumbo being separated from his mother.
Adding to the verisimilitude are the excellent child stars. Georgie Henley's "Lucy Pevensie" could be the granddaughter of "Scout" in "To Kill A Mockingbird" for capturing wide-eyed innocence and curiosity without any cloying sweetness. William Moseley would get my pre-teen heart beating faster and he seems destined to play Jude Law's son, though without seeing him play with toy soldiers I wonder how "Peter" suddenly gains expertise in military strategy and tactics other than instinctively rising to the white man's burden. Anna Popplewell's "Susan" is not faint of heart as she combines femininity and tomboy action quite fetchingly. "Skandar Keynes" as "Edmund" well captures the temptation of sibling rivalry. Too bad they will too quickly age out for the sequels.
As twinkly as James McAvoy is as "Mr. Tumnus" the faun, Tilda Swinton is is so charismatic as the White Witch self-declared Queen of Narnia, that not only does she immediately get my vote in the MTV Movie Awards as Villain of the Year, even over Palpatine in "Revenge of the Sith," but I thought she was more effective than bland, Liam Neeson-talking lion Aslan, even as she was very Saddam-like using informers, committing torture, imprisonment, habitat destruction and offering candy as bribery (good lesson here about not taking candy from pretty strangers, let alone tattling on your siblings). Too bad her costumes were a bit awkward, but her hair design was both regal and woman warrior.
Twenty years ago when I was first introduced to this book by reading it to my sons, I was completely oblivious to the Christian imagery, and could do so with this adaptation as well. Then as now I saw the gifts from Father Christmas as much a benign representation of the positive aspects of the Winter Solstice rather than eternal winter, as Christmas is at Hogwarts. Because the scene of Aslan's confrontation with the Witch is bloodless so as not to frighten children, it seemed more about emasculation to me than sacrifice, though having it take place in a Stonehenge setting seemed too specifically pagan (and that was constructed to celebrate summer any way). The battles are far less violent in clash and final results than in "The Rings" saga, which they otherwise imitate.
The talking animals are marvelously English, without any contemporarization or mugging that American animation inserts. Particularly fine are Ray Winstone as the voice of "Mr. Beaver" and Rupert Everett as the voice of "Fox." The wolves are quite the scariest things in the movie, as well as the exhilarating chase scenes, so much so that I don't know if the "wolf trainer" credit was literal or animatronic. A warning not to leave your seats immediately after the human participants are identified in the credits: the film continues to set up for the sequel. I didn't even recognize Jim Broadbent at first as "The Professor," while the housekeepers' accent seemed a bit out of place. The centaur wasn't particularly memorable.
The closing songs by Alanis Morrissette and Tim Finn were lovely. The score was fairly pedestrian action-adventure, coming to life during the chase scenes and too bombastic during the battles.
The dozen or so special effects teams listed in the credits demonstrated the globalization of the movie business these days -- from New Zealand to Guatamala to the Czech Republic and Poland to ILM and Los Angeles.
The film is long, but the small children in the audience were only restless during the early set up scenes and were quite involved once the thrilling action started.