To Sum This Film Up In One Word.....Awesome!!!!!

Rating: 10/10 (3 January 2006)

The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe is awesome! This movie is one of the ten best of 2005, plain and simple. Don't believe me? See it for yourself. This film caters to not only fans of fantasy but just to fans who love good film making as well. It has a great story, good acting and mind blowing CGI. Directed by Andrew Adomson (Shrek and Shrek 2) The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe is actually the second part in a seven part series of novels the tell the story of four kids Lucy (Georgie Henly, Edmund (Skandar Adama), Peter (William Mosley), and Susan (Anna Poppelwell) who enter the world of Narnia, a world that's beautiful, magical, strange, mysterious, and scary all at once. There have been several adaptations of C.S. Lewis's beloved novel, the best known (till now that is) is the animated two hour made for TV film from the '70's. The plot is still the same as the novel. The four children, living in war torn Englad at the beginning of World War II are sent to live, as evacuees after their home is bombed by Germany, with a professor in his mansion. The problem is there are rules such as no touching things, no running, etc. etc. Basically no having fun. One day during a rainy day, the kids being kids break the rules and play hide and seek. Little Lucy finds a wardrobe that she decides to hide in, what she doesn't know is that the wardrobe is the gateway to the world of Narnia. Lucy manages to get her brothers and sister to come back with her and the four are then, unknowing to them, are caught up in the middle of a war between good and evil. Narnia is a land that has been cursed by The White Witch (Tilda Swinton, who seemed like she was channeling Emperor Plapatine from Return Of The Jedi and Revenge Of The Sith. The witch has made it winter for 100 years with no sign of having it stop. Them she meets Edmund, and she realizes that the prophecy of Narnia is true. The prophecy says that four humans will come to Narnia and aid Aslan, the true king of Narnia, in defeating the witch. This makes her panic. Soon The children meet Aslan, The Lion (voiced perfectly by Liam Neeson) and the war between good and evil begins. Narnia is great and Disney has what should be a pretty successful franchise on their hands. Adomason, who does such a good job with this film has signed on to do two more. Disney has announced that they will not be adapting all seven books but just three, all that has been announced was parts two and seven (The Final Battle). Now fans of The Lord Of The Rings trilogy that have this series pegged as the nest LOTR might be a little disappointed. Narnia plays more like a Harry Potter film than a LOTR film (This isn't bad thing by the way). The CGI is great, not LOTR great but then again it's not The Hulk either. The other thing that makes this a good movie (other than the CGI) is the acting. Usually i hate kid actors. I mean Jake Loyd was half the reason The Phantom Menace sucked, and while he wowed me in The Sixth Sense Haley Joel Osmet hasn't done anything to impress me since (A,.I.? come on). These kids are great as great as the kids from the Harry Potter films. Just like them these kids have studied the roles very well. Now for parents thinking this should be a 100% kid friendly film because it's under the Disney banner and rated PG, think again. The final battle is pretty damn violent and the meeting between Aslan and The Witch is very disturbing and could frighten young children, it's also a very sad scene. Like I'm sure most people do I ignored all the Christian references and just enjoyed the film as it was, a great movie. On a scale of 10 I give The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe a 10. One of the best films of the year.