The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe ( 2005 ) PG | Four kids travel through a wardrobe to the land of Narnia and learn of their destiny to free it with the guidance of a mystical lion.

Director: From $2.99 (SD) on Amazon Video ON DISC a list of 37 titles created 13 Apr 2011 a list of 31 titles created 25 Jul 2012 a list of 32 titles created 28 Feb 2013 a list of 35 titles created 23 Oct 2013 a list of 21 titles created 21 Dec 2015 Title: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) 6.9/10 Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Won 1 Oscar. Another 14 wins & 44 nominations. See more awards » Videos The Pevensie siblings return to Narnia, where they are enlisted to once again help ward off an evil king and restore the rightful heir to the land's throne, Prince Caspian.

Director: Andrew Adamson 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.3/10 X Lucy and Edmund Pevensie return to Narnia with their cousin Eustace where they meet up with Prince Caspian for a trip across the sea aboard the royal ship The Dawn Treader. Along the way they encounter dragons, dwarves, merfolk, and a band of lost warriors before reaching the edge of the world. Director: Michael Apted A young boy wins a tour through the most magnificent chocolate factory in the world, led by the world's most unusual candy maker. Director: Tim Burton A newly recruited night security guard at the Museum of Natural History discovers that an ancient curse causes the animals and exhibits on display to come to life and wreak havoc. Director: Shawn Levy As Harry Potter begins his sixth year at Hogwarts, he discovers an old book marked as "the property of the Half-Blood Prince" and begins to learn more about Lord Voldemort's dark past. Director: David Yates As Harry races against time and evil to destroy the Horcruxes, he uncovers the existence of three most powerful objects in the wizarding world: the Deathly Hallows.

Director: David Yates With their warning about Lord Voldemort's return scoffed at, Harry and Dumbledore are targeted by the Wizard authorities as an authoritarian bureaucrat slowly seizes power at Hogwarts. Director: David Yates It's Harry's third year at Hogwarts; not only does he have a new "Defense Against the Dark Arts" teacher, but there is also trouble brewing. Convicted murderer Sirius Black has escaped the Wizards' Prison and is coming after Harry. Director: Alfonso Cuarón Harry finds himself mysteriously selected as an under-aged competitor in a dangerous tournament between three schools of magic. Director: Mike Newell Harry ignores warnings not to return to Hogwarts, only to find the school plagued by a series of mysterious attacks and a strange voice haunting him. Director: Chris Columbus Rescued from the outrageous neglect of his aunt and uncle, a young boy with a great destiny proves his worth while attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Director: Chris Columbus After his swamp is filled with magical creatures, Shrek agrees to rescue Princess Fiona for a villainous lord in order to get his land back.

Directors: Andrew Adamson, Vicky Jenson Stars: Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz Edit Storyline Four children from the same family have to leave their town because of the bombings of WWII. A women and a professor take the children to their house. While playing a game of hide-and-seek, the youngest member of the family, Lucy, finds a wardrobe to hide in. She travels back and back into the wardrobe and finds a place named Narnia. After going in twice, the four children go in together for the last time. They battle wolves, meet talking animals, encounter an evil white witch and meet a magnificent lion named Aslan. Will this be the end of their journey to Narnia or will they stay? Written by John ewart There are many stories of Narnia. The first is about to be told.

See more » Genres: Rated PG for battle sequences and frightening moments | See all certifications » Parents Guide: 9 December 2005 (USA) See more » Also Known As: Las crónicas de Narnia - El león, la bruja y el ropero See more » Filming Locations: £8,884,111 (UK) (9 December 2005) Gross: Did You Know? Trivia The inscription on the blade of Peter's sword reads, "When Aslan shakes his mane, Narnia shall know spring again." See more » Goofs When entering the camp there are two long shots of the three, in the first shot Susan has knee socks on, in the second of the shots it looks as if she had no knee socks. See more » Quotes Mrs. Pevensie : Edmund! Get away from there! Peter!

[to Edmund] See more » Crazy Credits In the opening credits the Title "The Lion, the Witch, and Wardrobe" comes down as snow after we see "The Chronicles of Narnia" See more » Connections a must see for all ages 4 December 2005 | by Grant (United States) – See all my reviews I was fortunate enough to attend an advanced screening and was magnificently surprised. The film was beautifully made. The acting/voices were all wonderful, including the young talent. I think all ages will be entertained. The story contains important lessons for children, but also relevant reminders for adults. I also think attempts to compare the film to Lord of the Rings and/or Harry Potter would be unfortunate for all parties. They are each uniquely wonderful. Make sure you see this! By the way, make sure you stay through the end credits to hear a beautiful song Alanis Morisette wrote especially for the film. 221 of 361 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you?

Yes Super Reviewer ½ Powerful, epic, and suitably touching, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe deftly balances Christian themes with humor, family issues, and intense, well-executed action sequences. Overall, a must-see, well-done fantasy film that can be watched over and over. Matthew Samuel Mirliani Super Reviewer With an appeal to both adults and children, the British author C. S. Lewis wrote seven books in his Chronicles of Narnia series. The stories are rich in mythology and religious symbolism, drawing upon archetypes from the Norse, Greco-Roman, Persian, medieval chivalric, and Judeo-Christian traditions. Now comes this wonderful film of the first chronicle, "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe." The beautiful cinematography and the terrific performances of the children make this film outstanding for family viewing. As integrated with the live actors, the colorful animal characters, especially the Lion (Jesus), reveal brilliant technical film-making as well. Lewis's books are not overtly allegorical. Rather, the symbols and the messages are subtle.

The four children in the story (Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy) were inspired by the actual children evacuated from London during World War II, who spent time in Lewis's home. Lewis wanted his books to be enjoyed by young people who would later in their lives draw the spiritual meanings from the stories. In this area, the film is enormously faithful to the original book and would have made the author extremely proud. 4 Stars 12-29-06 (Updated) Bruce Bruce The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) - Decent Films Decent Films The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) B+ Note: This review refers to important, even climactic plot points in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, both as regards Lewis’s original story and Adamson’s film. SDG One of the most magical effects in Andrew Adamson’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe isn’t rippling computer-generated fur, ice castles, or battle scenes.

It’s the wide-eyed wonder and delight on the face of young Lucy Pevensie (Georgie Henley) as she passes beyond the wardrobe for the first time into the winter wonderland of the Narnian wood. Directed by Andrew Adamson. Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes, William Moseley, Anna Popplewell, Tilda Swinton, James McAvoy, Jim Broadbent. Voice of Aslan: Liam Neeson. Walden/Disney. Artistic/Entertainment Value PG Caveat Spectator Recurring fantasy action and violence and some menace to children, including a basically bloodless but intense battle sequence. About These Ratings Based on the beloved first volume of C. S. Lewis’s faith-inflected fairy-tale series The Chronicles of Narnia, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe tells the story of four children swept up into a war of good and evil in a magical fairy-land, with the great Lion Aslan (voiced by Liam Neeson) versus the evil White Witch (Tilda Swinton), whose magic holds Narnia in the thrall of a hundred-year winter and whose house is full of stone statues that were once her enemies.

The arrival of LWW on the big screen is a cultural milestone of sorts, in some ways a crossroads of The Lord of the Rings , Harry Potter , and The Passion of the Christ . As a tale of a war of good versus evil in a fantasy land with mythic creatures, LWW recalls Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings films, minus the obligatory large-scale story compression and PG-13 battlefield mayhem. As an ensemble story of 20th-century British schoolchildren caught up in a world of magic and danger, it evokes the Harry Potter stories, though without the moral debates about witchcraft and rule-breaking and the like. And with its central motif of a divine being who faces down a chilling icon of evil and brings salvation by laying down his life before triumphing over death and evil, it recalls The Passion of the Christ, but without the troubling arguments about antisemitism or the almost unbearable brutality. At the same time, Adamson’s film — the director’s first solo effort and first live-action film (Adamson’s only prior credits are co-directing Shrek and Shrek 2 ) — is neither as daring nor as visionary as Jackson’s or Gibson’s films.

Nor is the screenplay, by Adamson and three credited co-writers (none with any notable credits), as faithful to the source material as the Harry Potter films (at least before the books broke 500 pages). Nevertheless, the film brings Lewis’s story to life with sufficient fidelity and movie magic to make it one of the best and brightest family films in some time. Take the interactions of Lucy and Tumnus the faun (James McAvoy), and of Swinton’s White Witch and Lucy’s older brother Edmund (Skandar Keynes). Either scene is fraught with danger: The prospect of a little girl meeting a strange male in the woods at night and going home with him could easily take on creepy overtones, while the White Witch, though she must be creepy, must not be so repellent that any child would only shrink in terror from her, since Edmund must be at least somewhat able to endure her. Happily, the actors are more than up to the challenge. McAvoy brings just the right naivete and otherworldliness needed to put viewers at ease with his spontaneous friendship with Lucy, while Swinton’s disconcertingly aloof White Witch is at once chilling and strangely compelling.

The atmosphere of these scenes, if not always the dialogue, is nearly perfect. Aslan himself is another triumph. An astounding digital creation, he doesn’t exactly look like a real lion — he’s somehow too perfect for that — yet he doesn’t look like a hokey special effect either. He’s more like the quintessence of lion-ness than an ordinary lion, which is perhaps exactly right. As the voice of Aslan, Neeson hasn’t got the growly basso profundo I’ve always imagined (and tried to emulate for my children reading the books aloud), but he actually fits the bill surprisingly well, with just a hint of digital tweaking. Listening to him, it occurs to me that I might be able to accept Neeson as the voice of Jesus in an animated life-of-Christ film (like Ralph Fiennes in The Miracle Maker ); and Aslan, of course, is Jesus’ Narnian alter ego. The film follows the basic plot and structure of the book, and its most important themes — guilt and expiation, sacrifice and redemption, death and resurrection, the triumph of good over evil — are preserved.

Yet widespread reports of the film’s “slavish” or “religious” fidelity to the book are just flat wrong. This is perhaps somewhat surprising, because education-oriented Walden Media has a track record of ultra-faithful adaptations, from Holes to Because of Winn-Dixie . Yet the facts speak for themselves, and the truth is that the filmmakers have taken significant liberties — some good, some bad, some indifferent. Change in itself isn’t necessarily a bad thing; some of the film’s departures from the book honor or even enhance the story while adapting it to the needs of the screen. Some of the filmmakers’ better ideas include an unexpected glimpse of Aslan’s power in an early scene which provides a moment of grace for Lucy (and Tumnus), additional insight into why Edmund tells a particular lie in a way that makes perfect emotional and narrative sense, and a twist on a case of briefly mistaken identity which is merely suspenseful in the book but exciting in the film. Purists will object to a number of added action scenes where Lewis had only an uneventful forced march, though in themselves these don’t harm the essence of the story.

On the whole, though, the filmmakers are safest sticking close to Lewis’s story, and tend to go awry when they depart from it, which they do more often and more seriously than they should. Take the depiction of Peter Pevensie, the eldest sibling, whom Lewis depicts as a natural leader who intuitively grasps the obligations the siblings have to Tumnus and to Narnia. In the film, Peter becomes a reluctant participant who is always trying to back out of Narnian affairs and get his siblings safely back to England. It’s the Aragorn Complex; the only good leader, Hollywood is sure, is a reluctant leader (cf. also Moses in The Prince of Egypt ). Even in the climactic battle, as Aslan’s army clash with the forces of the Witch, Peter continues to be preoccupied with getting Edmund and the girls to abandon the conflict and return home to England. This characterization makes no sense, dramatically or thematically. It makes no sense thematically because by now it’s been well established that the defeat of the Witch and the triumph of good requires all four children — two Sons of Adam and two Daughters of Eve — to be enthroned at Cair Paravel.

If three of them go home prematurely, the prophecy won’t be fulfilled. The filmmakers seem not to notice this conflict; even Mr. Beaver seems ready to go along with Peter’s plan to divide the children, even though he’s the one who taught them the prophecy. Peter’s diffidence makes even less dramatic sense because he’s supposed to be the leader — Aslan himself has said so — and certainly by the end of the story, if not sooner, any leader worth his salt should be leading his followers in the right direction. If the filmmakers had wanted to show Peter growing into leadership, a natural turning point would have been the scene in which Aslan knights him after he kills the wolf. Yet they miss even this opportunity, depicting Peter continuing to “lead” in the wrong direction right up to the climax. Other changes are even more ill-advised, and sap Lewis’s story of much of its underlying meaning and thematic richness. Most seriously, Aslan, the great and terrible Lion, is robbed of much of his awe-inspiring majesty — not by inherent limitations in translating the story to the screen, but by specific alterations in the screenplay that consistently eliminate references to Aslan’s power and his effect on others.

No longer do the children and the Beavers speak tremulously at the Beaver lodge about how intimidating it will be to meet a Lion, or hang back at Aslan’s camp before approaching him, nudging one another and trying not to be the first to step forward. No longer does Mr. Beaver utter what is arguably the single greatest, most resonant line in the entire book: “Safe? Who said anything about safe? ’Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the king, I tell you.” (The “But he’s good” bit is revisited at the end in connection with Tumnus’s line about Aslan not being “like a tame lion,” but the crucial notion of Aslan not being “safe” has been jettisoned.) No longer does the Witch find the mere mention of Aslan’s name unendurable and threaten to kill anyone who uses it. Nor do Aslan’s enemies repeatedly balk in terror before venturing to bind, muzzle and shave him at the Stone Table. The screenplay systematically elevates the role of the children and the Witch herself at Aslan’s expense.

In the book, when Father Christmas arrived, he said, “She has kept me out for a long time, but I have got in at last. Aslan is on the move. The Witch’s magic is weakening.” In the film, a curiously un-festive, brown-clad Father Christmas (James Cosmo) offers a contrary explanation, attributing his arrival to the Pevensies rather than to Aslan: “The hope brought by Your Majesties is starting to weaken the Witch’s power.” Perhaps the single gravest change to the story is one that greatly empowers the Witch at Aslan’s expense. It is simply the eradication of the whole motif of the Witch’s overt fear of Aslan. This is absolutely crucial to the book’s emphasis on the utter lack of parity between the omnipotent Aslan and the powerful but limited Witch. The whole vision of good and evil at work in the story turns on the fact that the Witch is never even close to being a rival or threat to Aslan, any more than Lucifer to Christ himself.

The filmmakers, perhaps motivated by a misguided dramatic notion of needing the villain to be a credible threat to the hero, eliminate practically every indication of the Witch’s fear of Aslan from the story — in the process jettisoning much of the point Lewis was making about the nature and relationship of good and evil. Not that Lewis’s point is lost entirely. By the end, certainly, it’s unambiguously clear that Aslan’s power and understanding are far beyond the Witch’s. Lewis’s point is thus ultimately affirmed, though it isn’t clear throughout the story as Lewis intended it to be. The problem of the apparent parity of Aslan and the Witch is nowhere more glaring than in the parley or summit meeting, which the film begins and ends very differently from the book. In the book, Lewis makes a point of having the Witch send her Dwarf to beg safe conduct from Aslan before she will dare to approach him. In the film, by contrast, we’re told that the Witch has “demanded” an audience with Aslan, with no mention of safe conduct requested or granted.

In fact, the film depicts her fearlessly entering Aslan’s camp on a royal litter with her dwarf acting as herald proclaiming her arrival, rather than as emissary begging safe conduct. The end of the parley scene, a highlight of the book, is even more glaringly changed. In the book, when the Witch expresses doubt whether Aslan will keep his word, he lets out a terrible roar, striking the Witch’s dumb with terror and causing her to flee abjectly for her life. In the film, since the Witch has come in a litter, she can’t very well pick up her skirts and head for the hills, as Lewis had it; instead, she merely looks a bit shaken and sits down kind of hard before being carried off. Lame. Even during the parley, the film subtly undermines Aslan’s control of the situation. In the book, when the Witch brings up the Deep Magic, Aslan remains supremely calm, even toying with the Witch (“Let us say I have forgotten it. Tell us of this Deep Magic”), causing her to begin shrieking angrily about the Stone Table, the sceptre of Aslan’s father, the Emperor-Beyond-the-Sea, and the World Ash Tree.

In the film, on the other hand, it’s Aslan who gets angry, snarling, “Don’t tell me about the Deep Magic! I was there when it was written!” This is an interesting line, but Aslan now seems merely indignantly assertive, rather than supremely in control. (In interviews, Tilda Swinton has spoken of not wanting to portray the Witch getting angry and “hot under the collar,” which she felt would only diminish her character. Ironically, no one seems to have noticed or cared that Aslan was diminished in precisely this way.) Visually, Adamson has obviously been influenced by Jackson’s trend-setting work in LOTR. As a storyteller, though, Adamson lacks the poetic and dramatic sensibilities that made Jackson’s films so effective. The visual and emotional impact of some of the most important sequences, which a more gifted or experienced storyteller would have played for maximum impact, has been muted or lost. Take the transition from the Witch’s winter to Aslan’s spring, a major motif in the book.

It wouldn’t be going too far to say that the changing of the seasons — a process of profound mythological significance — is one of the central organizing principles of the book; that in a word LWW is precisely a Christian mythopoeia of the end of winter (representing the fallen state of the world) and the coming of spring (representing redemption and the new creation). Lewis devotes pages and pages to melting snow, running water, the appearance of various varieties of flowers, and so on. The film, however, has no time for all this, and gets it out of the way with an action scene, a few brief effects shots, and a quick transition. Or take Aslan’s agony-in-the-garden via-dolorosa walk to the Stone Table. In the book, the omnipotent Lion alarmingly stumbles, moans, and confesses to being sad and lonely, even asking Susan and Lucy to comfort him (as the angels did in Gethsemane) by placing their hands on his mane so he can feel them. A filmmaker like Peter Jackson would have zeroed in on the emotional impact of this scene like a heat-seeking missile.

Alas, here Aslan seems merely somber as he walks to the Stone Table; of the pathos and the passion of Lewis’s scene, there is no hint. Why? Having diminished Aslan in so many other ways, why cheat on the one scene in which Lewis actually allows him to be emotionally vulnerable? Perhaps most inexplicable is the film’s half-hearted approach to the reanimation of the enchanted statues in the Witch’s courtyard. So vividly does Lewis describe this scene that the last time I read the book to my kids, I actually had to interrupt the reading to take them outside and set fire to some crinkled-up newspaper to show them what it looked like (to see why, see this review of the 1988 BBC version of the story, which quotes the relevant passage). This is precisely the kind of scene for which God created special effects. One can hardly imagine a filmmaker coming across that scene and not yearning to linger over all those statues gradually coming to life. Why, then, does Adamson give us only one token onscreen reanimation, and consign the rest to off-camera action? What was he thinking? These aren’t the objections of a purist unwilling to accept departures from the text.

The problem is not the filmmakers’ depatures from the letter of the book, but their insensitivity to its spirit, not to mention the sometimes slapdash quality of their storytelling even on its own terms. I don’t mind early scenes establishing Lucy’s apprehension regarding the unseen Professor at whose country estate the children are staying. Yet, having established that dramatic tension, shouldn’t the film have somewhere to go with it? Didn’t anyone notice that it makes no sense to introduce the Professor by having Lucy actually cling to him for comfort during a quarrel with her siblings? All these missteps add up to the difference between what could easily have been one of the greatest family films of all time, and what is, instead, merely a good one. Though the film misses greatness, even in this diminished form Lewis’s story is still well worth seeing, and the film adds enough to the experience to keep things fresh. All four Pevensies are ideally cast. Henley particularly shines as Lucy, but Keynes makes Edmund human without undercutting his nasty streak. William Moseley’s Peter manages to project compassion for Edmund even as he scolds him, and Anna Popplewell’s Susan is self-possessed and cool-headed.

Like Peter Jackson’s Middle-earth, Adamson’s Narnia has been scouted or created in New Zealand, yet the Narnian forests and plains feel more intimate and less expansive than Jackson’s immense vistas and endless mountain ranges. (At times Narnia actually seems a bit too cozy; the Witch’s house seems just around the corner from the Beaver lodge, so we miss out on Edmund’s miserable trek in the snow.) Though the child-empowerment theme has its drawbacks, it offers some creative bits as well. I particularly like a clever line from a fox (Rupert Everett) who is part of the Narnian resistance. And for all the downplaying of the religious themes, at least one touch, a strategically deployed echo of the sixth of Christ’s seven words from the cross, suggests a deliberate nod to the story’s redemptive meaning. For family audiences, LWW is a minor treasure in a holiday season — sorry, a Christmas season! — with few alternatives beyond tired family-sitcom remakes (Yours, Mine and Ours; Cheaper by the Dozen 2).

Particularly for those who’ve never read the books, or who remember them only dimly, the taste of Lewis’s story and themes afforded by the film may well be a revelation, and they may wish to seek out the books after seeing the film. Viewers who know the books, too, will return to them after seeing the film, grateful to the film for what it adds to them, and to the books for what the film leaves out. Tags: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (film) | The Chronicles of Narnia Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (film) 787pages on Share "Could you believe me if I said I'd been right out of the world--outside this world--last summer?" This article is Out of Universe: it covers a subject that does not exist in the world of Narnia.

(See the WikiNarnia Format for more information.) Official Poster The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is a 2005 epic fantasy film made by Disney and Walden Media, based on the original C.S. Lewis novel . It opened in theaters on December 8, in the United Kingdom and on December 9 in the United States. It was released on DVD, and had an Extended Edition version with flubs, etc, which was distributed until January 31, 2007. It added two new characters; Otmin the Minotaur general of the White Witch's army, and Oreius the loyal Centaur general of Aslan's army. Its sequel, Prince Caspian , was released in theaters on May 16, 2008. Contents [ show ] Plot Set in 1940 during the Blitz, the Pevensie children- Peter , Susan , Edmund , and Lucy -were evacuated from their home in Finchley, London after German bombers almost destroyed their house. The children are sent by train into the English countryside where they are picked up at a station by Mrs. Macready . Mrs.

Macready then takes them to the country home of Digory Kirke , a professor. One rainy day while they were playing Hide and Seek, Lucy discovered a wardrobe and, through it, entered a world called Narnia . She spent several hours in the home of the faun , Mr. Tumnus , who explained that the White Witch cursed Narnia, and it had been winter for a century. In accordance with her orders, if a human is ever encountered, a Narnian must bring them to her. However, Tumnus liked Lucy and regretted his plan, so he sent her out of the Wardrobe. When she returned, hardly any time had passed in the normal world during her stay. She made the other children check the Wardrobe, but the portal was gone. Later, Edmund follows Lucy at night into Narnia, and met the White Witch, who offered him Turkish delight, as well as the prospect of becoming king. She asked Edmund to bring his siblings to meet her. After she departed, Edmund and Lucy meet and they returned to tell the others.

Edmund did not confirm Narnia's existence to Peter and Susan, saying he was merely playing with Lucy, causing distress in Lucy, who ran out and bumped into Professor Kirke. The Professor has a private talk with Peter and Susan; he did not understand why the others did not believe Lucy's story and presented to them the use of logic (which Susan is very fond of) in the situation: when they are given three choices for an explanation of Lucy's behavior--insanity, dishonesty, and sincerity--the others know she is neither mad nor dishonest, so "logically" she must be telling the truth. On another day, while hiding from the housekeeper Mrs. Macready in the wardrobe after they broke a window, the four siblings stepped into Narnia. Peter and Susan apologized for their earlier disbelief and Peter threatened Edmund until he apologized to Lucy. The siblings then go to to Mr. Tumnus's home wher they discovered that Mr. Tumnus had been taken by the Witch's secret police, led by captain Maugrim . They then meet two talking beavers that told them about Aslan . According to them, Aslan was on the move to take the control of Narnia from the White Witch.

The four siblings had to help Aslan and his followers; it had been prophesied that when two sons of Adam and two daughters of Eve sat in the four thrones, the Witch's reign would come to an end. Edmund goes to the White Witch. Edmund sneaked off and visited the Witch alone. When he arrived at her castle, she was angry that he did not bring her his brother and sisters. Then the White Witch sent a pack of wolves led by Maugrim to hunt down the other children and the beavers, who barely escaped with the aid of a fox. Meanwhile, Edmund was chained in the witch's dungeon were he met Mr. Tumnus in an adjacent cell. The Witch came down and demanded that Edmund tell her where his family was because her police couldn't find them; Edmund told her some information, but hesitated when Tumnus looked at him, warningly (he also tried to tell the witch that Edmund didn't know anything, but was injured by Ginarrbrik ). The witch saw that Tumnus was hindering the information, so she had him "released" and brought over to her. After she told Mr.

Tumnus that it was Edmund's fault that she knew about his involvement, Mr. Tumnus was dragged upstairs and turned into stone, as Edmund saw with horror when he was brought up. While Peter, Lucy, Susan, and the beavers were traveling to the Stone Table, they saw what they believed to be the White Witch in her sleigh chasing after them, so they ran and hid--fortunately, it was really Father Christmas . He gave Lucy a bottle of the juice of the fire-flowers and a dagger; Susan a bow and arrow and a magical horn; and Peter a sword and shield. Father Christmas informed them that winter would soon be over. Unfortunately, this meant that the rivers were thawing, and the arrival of Maugrim and several other wolves made the passage even more perilous. But with their weapons, the group managed to safely cross the river, leaving the Witch no real way to reach them by sleigh. Aslan. Arriving at Aslan's army encampment, they encountered Aslan , who was revealed as a huge and noble lion. Aslan promised to help Edmund in any way he could. They were reluctant to participate in a war after fleeing from London. However, they had to save Edmund and Mr.

Tumnus. Peter joined Aslan's army. A little later, two wolves ambushed Lucy and Susan while they were frolicking by the river. When Peter intervened, Maugrim attacked him, and Peter killed him with his sword. Some of Aslan's troops followed the other wolf back to the witch's camp and rescued Edmund. Going to the Witch's Castle . Aslan had a "private talk" with Edmund. When he was done, Aslan told the other children to forget Edmund's previous actions and they reconciled. The White Witch then arrived and claimed that Edmund was her property, based on the "Deep Magic" of Narnia; it said that traitors belonged to her as lawful prey and that she must kill them at the stone table. Aslan "negotiated" with the White Witch, who agreed to leave Edmund alone. In return, Aslan sacrificed himself and surrendered to the witch. As Susan and Lucy watched in hiding, Aslan was humiliated and stabbed to death. However, he was resurrected because "there is a magic deeper still the Witch does not know." Aslan took Susan and Lucy to the Witch's house where he freed the prisoners of the White Witch, forming an army for battle.

The Battle of Beruna. Meanwhile, Edmund persuaded Peter to join battle with the Witch's host. At first quite sucessful, Peter's army soon began to lose the fight, and Edmund was badly injured when he had managed to destroy the White Witch's staff, her most effective weapon. She was doing battle with Peter when Aslan arrived with reinforcements. She took advantage of this distraction and disarmed him. She was about to stab him when Aslan jumped on her, knocking her to the other side of the cliff and killing her. He then returned to Peter and told him that "it is finished". Susan used her bow to kill Ginarrbrik who attempted to finish Edmund off before there was a chance to save him. Lucy revived Edmund and many others with the fire-flower cordial given to her by Father Christmas, while Aslan freed more victims of the White Witch's stone-turning spell. The Pevensies became Kings and Queens and stayed in Narnia for fifteen years. While chasing a white stag to receive wishes, they found the lampost and the wardrobe and returned to England. The Professor then tossed them the ball used to break the window and instructed them to tell him the story.

Later, at the end, Lucy attempted to go back to Narnia, but the Professor told her that she (and the others) will probably get back to Narnia when they least expected it. Director Super Reviewer ½ Powerful, epic, and suitably touching, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe deftly balances Christian themes with humor, family issues, and intense, well-executed action sequences. Overall, a must-see, well-done fantasy film that can be watched over and over. Matthew Samuel Mirliani Super Reviewer With an appeal to both adults and children, the British author C. S. Lewis wrote seven books in his Chronicles of Narnia series. The stories are rich in mythology and religious symbolism, drawing upon archetypes from the Norse, Greco-Roman, Persian, medieval chivalric, and Judeo-Christian traditions. Now comes this wonderful film of the first chronicle, "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe." The beautiful cinematography and the terrific performances of the children make this film outstanding for family viewing. As integrated with the live actors, the colorful animal characters, especially the Lion (Jesus), reveal brilliant technical film-making as well.

Lewis's books are not overtly allegorical. Rather, the symbols and the messages are subtle. The four children in the story (Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy) were inspired by the actual children evacuated from London during World War II, who spent time in Lewis's home. Lewis wanted his books to be enjoyed by young people who would later in their lives draw the spiritual meanings from the stories. In this area, the film is enormously faithful to the original book and would have made the author extremely proud. 4 Stars 12-29-06 (Updated) Bruce Bruce The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Movie Review (2005) | Roger Ebert Tweet C. S. Lewis, who wrote the Narnia books, and J.R.R. Tolkien, who wrote the Ring trilogy, were friends who taught at Oxford at the same time, were pipe-smokers, drank in the same pub, took Christianity seriously, but although Lewis loved Tolkein’s universe, the affection was not returned. Well, no wonder. When you’ve created your own universe, how do you feel when, in the words of a poem by e. e.

cummings:: "Listen: there's a hell/of a good universe next door; let's go." Advertisement Tolkien's universe was in unspecified Middle Earth, but Lewis' really was next door. In the opening scenes of "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," two brothers and two sisters from the Pevensie family are evacuated from London and sent to live in a vast country house where they will be safe from the nightly Nazi air raids. Playing hide-and-seek, Lucy, the youngest, ventures into a wardrobe that opens directly onto a snowy landscape where before long Mr. Tumnus is explaining to her that he is a faun. Fauns, like leprechauns, are creatures in the public domain, unlike Hobbits, who are under copyright. There are mythological creatures in Narnia, but most of the speaking roles go to humans like the White Witch (if indeed she is human) and animals who would be right at home in the zoo (if indeed they are animals). The kids are from a tradition which requires that British children be polite and well-spoken, no doubt because Lewis preferred them that way.

What is remarkable is that this bookish bachelor who did not marry until he was nearly 60 would create four children so filled with life and pluck. That's the charm of the Narnia stories: They contain magic and myth, but their mysteries are resolved not by the kinds of rabbits that Tolkien pulls out of his hat, but by the determination and resolve of the Pevensie kids -- who have a good deal of help, to be sure, from Aslan the Lion. For those who read the Lewis books as a Christian parable, Aslan fills the role of Christ because he is resurrected from the dead. I don't know if that makes the White Witch into Satan, but Tilda Swinton plays the role as if she has not ruled out the possibility. Advertisement The adventures that Lucy has in Narnia, at first by herself, then with her brother Edmund and finally with the older Peter and Susan, are the sorts of things that might happen in any British forest, always assuming fauns, lions and witches can be found there, as I am sure they can. Only toward the end of this film do the special effects ramp up into spectacular extravaganzas that might have caused Lewis to snap his pipe stem.

It is the witch who has kept Narnia in frigid cold for a century, no doubt because she is descended from Aberdeen landladies. Under the rules, Tumnus ( James McAvoy ) is supposed to deliver Lucy ( Georgie Henley ) to the witch forthwith, but fauns are not heavy hitters, and he takes mercy. Lucy returns to the country house and pops out of the wardrobe, where no time at all has passed and no one will believe her story. Edmund ( Skandar Keynes ) follows her into the wardrobe that evening and is gob-smacked by the White Witch, who proposes to make him a prince. But Peter ( William Moseley ) and Susan ( Anna Popplewell ) don’t believe Lucy until all four children tumble through the wardrobe into Narnia. They meet the first of the movie's CGI-generated characters, Mr. and Mrs. Beaver (voices by Ray Winstone and Dawn French ), who invite them into their home, which is delightfully cozy for being made of largish sticks. The Beavers explain the Narnian situation to them, just before an attack by computerized wolves whose dripping fangs reach hungrily through the twigs.

Advertisement Edmund by now has gone off on his own and gotten himself taken hostage, and the Beavers hold out hope that perhaps the legendary Aslan (voice by Liam Neeson ) can save him. This involves Aslan dying for Edmund's sins, much as Christ died for ours. Aslan's eventual resurrection leads into an apocalyptic climax that may be inspired by Revelation. Since there are six more books in the Narnia chronicles, however, we reach the end of the movie while still far from the Last Days. These events, fantastical as they sound, take place on a more human, or at least more earthly, scale than those in "Lord of the Rings." The personalities and character traits of the children have something to do with the outcome, which is not being decided by wizards on another level of reality but will be duked out right here in Narnia. That the battle owes something to Lewis' thoughts about the first two world wars is likely, although nothing in Narnia is as horrible as the trench warfare of the first or the Nazis of the second.

The film has been directed by Andrew Adamson , who directed both of the " Shrek " movies and supervised the special effects on both of Joel Schumacher's " Batman " movies. He knows his way around both comedy and action, and here combines them in a way that makes Narnia a charming place with fearsome interludes. We suspect that the Beavers are living on temporary reprieve and that wolves have dined on their relatives, but this is not the kind of movie where you bring up things like that. Advertisement C.S. Lewis famously said he never wanted the Narnia books to be filmed because he feared the animals would "turn into buffoonery or nightmare." But he said that in 1959, when he might have been thinking of a man wearing a lion suit, or puppets.

The effects in this movie are so skillful that the animals look about as real as any of the other characters, and the critic Emanuel Levy explains the secret: "Aslan speaks in a natural, organic manner (which meant mapping the movement of his speech unto the whole musculature of the animal, not just his mouth)." Aslan is neither as frankly animated as the Lion King or as real as the cheetah in " Duma ," but halfway in between, as if an animal were inhabited by an archbishop. This is a film situated precisely on the dividing line between traditional family entertainment and the newer action-oriented family films. It is charming and scary in about equal measure, and confident for the first two acts that it can be wonderful without having to hammer us into enjoying it, or else. Then it starts hammering. Some of the scenes toward the end push the edge of the PG envelope, and like the "Harry Potter" series, the Narnia stories may eventually tilt over into R. But it's remarkable, isn't it, that the Brits have produced Narnia, the Ring, Hogwarts, Gormenghast, James Bond, Alice and Pooh, and what have we produced for them in return?

I was going to say "the cuckoo clock," but for that you would require a three-way Google of Italy, Switzerland and Harry Lime. Advertisement The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe | Disney Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe 40,859pages on The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Directed by Mark Johnson and Phillip Steuer Written by [Source] The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is a 2005 fantasy adventure film directed by Andrew Adamson and based on The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the first published and second chronological novel in C. S. Lewis's children's epic fantasy series, The Chronicles of Narnia. It was co-produced by Walden Media and Walt Disney Pictures and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. William Moseley , Anna Popplewell , Georgie Henley and Skandar Keynes play Peter , Susan , Lucy and Edmund , four British children evacuated during the Blitz to the countryside, who find a wardrobe that leads to the fantasy world of Narnia.

There they ally with the Lion Aslan (voiced by Liam Neeson ) against the forces of Jadis, the White Witch (Tilda Swinton). The screenplay based on the novel by C. S. Lewis was written by Stephen McFeely and Christopher Markus. The film was released on December 9, 2005, in both Europe and North America to positive reviews and was highly successful at the box office. It won the 2005 Academy Award for Best Makeup and various other awards and is the first film in the series of films based on the books. An Extended Edition was released on December 12, 2006, and was only made available on DVD until January 31, 2007, when it was discontinued. It was the best selling DVD in North America in 2006 taking in $332.7 million that year. Contents [ show ] Plot In 1940, in the London suburb of Finchley, the Pevensie children, Peter , Susan , Edmund and Lucy , are endangered by an attack of numerous German Heinkel He 111 bombers.

When running to the shelter, Edmund runs back to the house to get a photograph of his father for which Peter scolds him. The next morning, they are evacuated to the country home of Professor Digory Kirke, who is not accustomed to having children in his house, as Ms. Macready, the strict housekeeper, explains. While the Pevensies are getting used to the house and playing hide-and-seek out of boredom, Lucy discovers a wardrobe and, to her surprise, she enters a wintry fantasy world called Narnia . Lucy shortly encounters and befriends the faun, Mr. Tumnus, who explains about the land she has just entered and invites her back to his home to which she accepts. There, he puts Lucy to sleep by playing a Narnian Lullaby on his flute. However, when she wakes up, Lucy finds Tumnus grieving, and he explains that Jadis, the White Witch , has cursed Narnia, and it has been winter for one hundred years. If a human is ever encountered, they were to be brought to her. Tumnus takes a huge liking to Lucy and cannot bring himself to kidnap her, so he sends her home.

When she returns, hardly any time has passed in the normal world, and her siblings do not believe her story since that when they look in the wardrobe, it has a normal wooden back. Peter then scolds Edmund when he jokes about believing Lucy, to which Edmund responds by yelling at Peter and storms out of the room, believing that Peter is trying to be a father figure (presumably showing us that Edmund's bad behavior began when his father was forced to fight in the war). One night, Edmund follows Lucy into the wardrobe, presumably to tease her about the country he thinks she has made up. However, he enters Narnia as well, and shortly after searching for Lucy, he meets the White Witch who claims to be "The Queen of Narnia" and her dwarf Ginarrbrik. She offers him Turkish Delight as well as the prospect of becoming king and having power over his siblings if he brings them to her house. After she departs, Edmund and Lucy meet again and return; Lucy tells Peter and Susan about the experience, but Edmund lies about it.

The Professor talks with Peter and Susan; he does not understand why they do not believe Lucy's story and gives them three possible logical explanations of Lucy's behaviour — madness, dishonesty and sincerity — the others know she is neither mad nor dishonest, so she must be telling the truth. However, they are still not convinced. While running away from Ms. Macready after accidentally breaking a window while playing cricket, the four siblings retreat to the wardrobe and enter Narnia. There, they apologize to Lucy. They discover Mr. Tumnus has been taken by the Witch's secret police, and meet Mr. and Mrs. Beaver, who tell them about Aslan . According to the beavers, Aslan is on the move to take control of Narnia from the Witch. The four must help Aslan and his supporters; it has been prophesied that if two sons of Adam and two daughters of Eve sit in the four thrones, the White Witch's reign would end. Edmund sneaks off to visit the Witch, where Mr. Beaver explains the witch's motive and that the siblings now must resort to reaching Aslan to save him. When he arrives at her castle, she is angry that he did not deliver his siblings.

The Witch sends wolves to hunt down the children and the beavers, who barely escape with the help of a fox. Edmund is chained in the Witch's dungeon where he meets Tumnus. The Witch demands that Edmund reveal where his siblings are because her police could not find them; Edmund then tells her about Aslan and the witch demands to know where Aslan is. Edmund hesitates when Tumnus claims that Edmund does not know anything and Edmund tells the Witch that he heard no further information regarding Aslan. Seeing that Tumnus is hindering the information, the Witch tells Mr. Tumnus that Edmund betrayed him (by talking about him at Edmund's first visit), then turns Tumnus to stone. While Peter, Lucy, Susan and the beavers travel to the Stone Table , they see what they believe to be the White Witch chasing after them, so they hide. It is really Father Christmas , a sign that the Witch's reign is ending. Father Christmas gives Lucy a healing cordial and a dagger to defend herself with. Susan, a bow and arrows and a magical horn that will summon help when blown, and Peter a sword and shield.

Pursued by wolves led by Maugrim , the group crosses a thawing river, leaving the Witch unable to reach them. The Witch's wolves who then appear had captured the fox that helped the Pevensies escape. The Witch then demands that the fox reveals the Pevensies destination. After the fox refuses to comply, the Witch is about to turn him to stone when Edmund reveals that the Pevensies are heading to the Stone Table and that Aslan is already assembling his army. The Witch however still turns the fox to stone and slaps Edmund in the face for hiding information from her. Arriving at Aslan's camp, the group encounters Aslan, who is revealed as a huge and noble lion. Aslan promises to help Edmund in any way he can. Later, two wolves ambush Lucy and Susan while they are frolicking by the river. When Peter intervenes, Maugrim attacks him, and Peter kills him with his sword. After some of Aslan's troops follow the other wolf to the witch's camp and rescue Edmund, Peter is knighted by Aslan.

After Edmund and his siblings reunite, The White Witch journeys to Aslan's camp and asserts her claim to the traitor Edmund, but Aslan secretly offers to sacrifice himself instead. That night, as Lucy and Susan covertly watch, Aslan is killed by the White Witch at the Stone Table with a crowd of creatures watching. In the morning he is resurrected because "there is a magic deeper still the Witch does not know". Aslan takes Susan and Lucy to the Witch's castle, where he frees the prisoners that the White Witch turned to stone, forming reinforcements for Aslan's army. Edmund persuades Peter to lead Aslan's army to fight the White Witch's forces. Though Aslan's army begins to have a winning streak, the White Witch's huge army is much larger than Aslan's (that is, Peter's), so it soon begins to lose. To stop the Witch from attacking and killing Peter, Edmund attacks the White Witch and destroys her wand, but is gravely wounded by the Witch in return. Peter, angered at what the Witch did, fights her. As the Witch fights Peter, Aslan arrives with reinforcements and kills her.

After Edmund is revived by Lucy's cordial, the Pevensies become Kings and Queens, staying in Narnia until they are adults. Fifteen years later, while chasing a white stag through the forest, they come to the same forest clearing where there is a lamppost that Lucy saw on her first trip to Narnia. Lucy begins to remember, and with Edmund, Susan and Peter following, fights through the trees, where they begin to tumble through the coats and finally out of the wardrobe and return to England, becoming children again. The Professor enters the room and asks what they were doing. Peter replies, "You wouldn't believe us if we told you, sir." The Professor tosses him the ball that broke the window and replies, "Try me." Lucy later attempts to return to Narnia via the wardrobe, but the Professor tells her he has been trying for many years, and they will probably return to Narnia when they least expect to return. Cast Georgie Henley as Lucy Pevensie , the youngest of the four Pevensie children.

Tilda Swinton as Jadis, the White Witch , the main antagonist of the film who holds Narnia under an eternal winter without Christmas or Spring or Summer. Liam Neeson as the voice of Aslan , the great lion who was responsible for creating Narnia. James McAvoy as Mr. Tumnus , a faun who at first works for the White Witch, but befriends Lucy Pevensie and joins Aslan's forces. Ray Winstone voices Mr. Beaver, a beaver who helps lead the children to Aslan. Dawn French voices Mrs. Beaver, a beaver who helps lead the children to Aslan. Kiran Shah as Ginarrbrik, the White Witch's servant dwarf. Jim Broadbent as Professor Digory Kirke, an old professor. He lets the children stay at his country estate during the war. Elizabeth Hawthorne as Mrs. Macready, Kirke's strict housekeeper. James Cosmo as Father Christmas . He gives Peter, Susan, and Lucy their Christmas gifts. Michael Madsen as the voice of Maugrim , a wolf who is captain of the White Witch's secret police.

Patrick Kake as Oreius , a centaur who is second-in-command of Aslan's army. Shane Rangi as General Otmin, a minotaur who is second-in-command of the White Witch's army. Morris Cupton as Train Guard, the guard of the train Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy ride. Judy McIntosh as Helen Pevensie, the mother of the four Pevensie children. Rupert Everett as the voice of a fox who helps the children along their way to Aslan. Cameron Rhodes as the voice of a Gryphon who helps Peter in the war. Noah Huntley as the adult Peter Pevensie, who has grown up as a king in Narnia. Sophie Winkleman as the adult Susan Pevensie, who has grown up as a queen in Narnia. Mark Wells as the adult Edmund Pevensie, who has grown up as a king in Narnia. Rachael Henley as the adult Lucy Pevensie, who has grown up as a queen in Narnia. Producer Philip Steuer voices Phillip, Edmund's talking horse.

The radio-announcer that Peter listens to on the rainy day near the beginning of the film is played by Douglas Gresham, co-producer of the movie and C. S. Lewis's stepson. Keynes' voice broke during filming, so some of his voice track had to be re-looped by his sister Soumaya. Mr. Pevensie is only glimpsed in a photo which Edmund tries to retrieve during the bombing, which is of Sim-Evan Jones' father. With the exception of Tilda Swinton, who was the first choice to play Jadis, the White Witch, casting was a long process. Beginning in 2002, Adamson went through 2500 audition tapes, met 1800 children and workshopped 400 before coming down to the final four actors for the Pevensies. Moseley and Popplewell came from the very start of casting, whilst Henley and Keynes were cast relatively late. Moseley was cast because casting director Pippa Hall remembered she cast him as an extra in a 1998 dramatization of Cider with Rosie.

He quit school to learn all his lines and beat 3000 boys to the role of Peter. Aslan's voice was a contention point. Brian Cox was originally cast in the role on December 9, 2004, but Adamson changed his mind. Liam Neeson sought out the role, and was announced as the voice on July 17, 2005. Production Pre-production During the early 1990s, producers Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy were planning a film version. They could not find a space in Britain to shoot the film during 1996, and their plans to set the film in modern times made Douglas Gresham oppose the film, in addition to his feeling that technology had yet to catch up. Perry Moore began negotiations with the C. S. Lewis Estate in 2000. On December 7, 2001, Walden Media announced that they had acquired the rights to The Chronicles of Narnia. The success of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone prompted the producers to feel they could make a faithful adaptation of the novel set in Britain.

"Harry Potter came along, and all those cultural or geographical lines were broken," Mark Johnson explained. "When The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe was being developed at Paramount, the imperative was to set it in the U.S., and it just doesn't hold. [...] It's not the book." Guillermo del Toro turned down the offer to direct due to his commitment on Pan's Labyrinth. Following his Academy Award win for Shrek, director Andrew Adamson began adapting the source material with a 20-page treatment based on his memories of the book. As such the film begins with the Luftwaffe bombing and concludes with an enormous battle, although they do not take up as much time in the novel. In the novel, the battle is never seen until Aslan, Susan, Lucy and their reinforcements arrive. This was changed in the movie because Adamson said he could vividly remember a huge battle, an example of how Lewis left a lot to the readers' imagination. Other small changes include the reason all four children come to Narnia, in that an accident breaks a window and forces them to hide. Tumnus also never meets Edmund until the end in the novel.

Minor details were added to the Pevensies, such as their mother's name, Helen, being the actual first name of Georgie Henley's mother. Finchley as the home of the Pevensies was inspired by Anna Popplewell, who actually is from Finchley. Adamson also changed the circumstances in which Lucy first comes into Narnia. He felt it was more natural that she first see the wardrobe while looking for a hide-and-seek hiding place, rather than just chance upon it exploring the house. The film also hints at Professor Kirke's role in The Magician's Nephew, such as the engravings on the wardrobe, when it is a simple one in the novel, and the Professor's surprise and intrigue when Peter and Susan mention Lucy's discovery in the wardrobe. When Lewis wrote the novel, it was the first of the series and the back-story later outlined by the subsequent books in the series did not exist. Additionally in the novel, the father of the Pevensie children is in London with their mother, but in the film, their father is fighting in the war as Lucy states to Mr. Tumnus when they first meet in Narnia.

Weta Workshop head Richard Taylor cited Hieronymus Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights as an inspiration on the film. He felt Narnia had to be less dark and gritty than their depiction of Middle-earth in The Lord of the Rings because it is a new world. Many of Weta's creature designs were designed for digital creation, so when Howard Berger and KNB FX inherited the practical effects work, they had to spend three months retooling approved designs for animatronics. Berger's children would comment and advise upon his designs; they suggested the White Witch's hair be changed from black to blonde, which Berger concurred with as he realized Swinton's wig looked too Gothic. Filming Principal photography began on June 28, 2004, shooting in primarily chronological order. Adamson did this in order to naturally create a sense of mature development from his young actors, which mirrored their real life development. Georgie Henley and Skandar Keynes were never shown the set before filming scenes of their characters entering Narnia, nor had Henley seen James McAvoy in his Mr. Tumnus costume before shooting their scenes together.

The first scene shot was at the disused Hobsonville Air Base for the railway scene. Afterwards, they shot the Blitz scene, which Adamson called their first formal day of shooting. The filmmakers asked permission to bring in twelve reindeer to New Zealand to pull the Ice Queen's sled. The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry denied, citing the potentially deadly Q fever from which the North American reindeer population suffers as the reason. However, ten wolves and wolf hybrids were allowed in for filming in Auckland. To replace the denied live reindeer Mark Rappaport's Creature Effects, Inc. created four animatronic reindeer that were used in shots where the deer were standing in place. The reindeer were designed with replaceable skins to get the most usage; brown for Father Christmas's and white for the those of the White Witch. The cast and crew spent their time in New Zealand in Auckland before moving in November to the South Island. The castle scene was filmed in Purakaunui Bay, not far from the most southern point in NZ. They filmed in the Czech Republic (Prague and National Park České Švýcarsko), Slovenia and Poland after the Christmas break, before wrapping in February.

Music Main article: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (soundtrack) The soundtrack was composed by Harry Gregson-Williams. Gregson-Williams had previously worked with Adamson on Shrek (2001) and Shrek 2 (2004). In addition there are three original songs in the film; Can't Take It In by Imogen Heap, Wunderkind by Alanis Morissette and Winter Light by Tim Finn. Evanescence lead singer Amy Lee also wrote a song entitled Good Enough for the film, but it was not included in the soundtrack. Good Enough was later included in the band's album entitled The Open Door in 2007. The soundtrack was recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London , England, and in Los Angeles, CA. Gregson-Williams employed the 75-piece Hollywood Studio Symphony Orchestra, along with a 140-member choir (mostly members of The Bach Choir) and numerous other solo musicians such as electric violinist Hugh Marsh and vocalist Lisbeth Scott (at his Wavecrest Studio).

He composed the original score and then spent late September through early November 2005 conducting the Hollywood Orchestra and overseeing the recording of the English choir. For "colour", he employed instruments used in ancient folk music, and to underscore critical dramatic moments, he added choral textures and, occasionally, a solo voice. The score includes instances of electronic music. The soundtrack received two Golden Globe Award nominations: "Best Original Score" and "Best Original Song" (for "Wunderkind"). EMI also released a compilation soundtrack entitled Music Inspired by The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was released on September 2005. The album features songs by Contemporary Christian music artists, such as Bethany Dillon, Kutless, and Nichole Nordeman. It released Waiting For The World To Fall by Jars of Clay as a single. The album went on to win the Special Event Album of the Year at the GMA Music Awards. Release On December 7, 2005, the film premiered in London, going on general release the following day.

The film was released December 8, 2005, in the United Kingdom and December 9, 2005, in North America and the rest of Europe. Box office Worldwide, Narnia earned $745,013,115 marking it the 49th highest-grossing film of all-time worldwide. It had a worldwide opening of $107.1 million, marking Disney 's fifth largest opening worldwide (at the time it was the largest). It is the third-largest movie worldwide among those released in 2005 and it currently still remains the highest grossing movie of the Narnia franchise worldwide, and separately in North America and overseas. Finally, it the largest film of Walden Media worldwide. United States and Canada The film opened with $23,006,856 in 3,616 theatres on its opening day (Friday, December 9, 2005), averaging $6,363 per location.

The film took in a total of $65,556,312 on its opening weekend (December 9–11, 2005), the 24th best opening weekend at the time (now 54th). It was also Disney's third largest opening weekend at the time (now the 8th largest) as well as the second biggest December opening, behind The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. It is now fourth following the 2012 opening of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, the 2007 release of I Am Legend, and the 2009 release of Avatar as well. Additionally, it made the third largest opening weekend of 2005. It grossed $291,710,957 in total becoming the second highest grossing film of 2005 behind Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. It surpassed the gross of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by only $1.7 million, although the latter grossed $895.9 million worldwide, ahead of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

It is the highest-grossing film of the 2005 holiday period, the second highest grossing Christian film, the 6th largest family - children's book adaptation, the 9th highest-grossing fantasy - live action film and the 10th highest-grossing film overall in Disney company history. Finally, it is the largest film of Walden Media worldwide. Awards received The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe won several awards including the Academy Award for Makeup; the BeliefNet Film Award for Best Spiritual film; the Movieguide Faith & Values Awards: Most Inspiring Movie of 2005 and Best Family Movie of 2005; and the CAMIE (Character and Morality In Entertainment) Award.

Others include the British Academy Film Awards for Makeup and Hair and Orange Rising Star ( James McAvoy ); Outstanding Motion Picture, Animated or Mixed Media; the Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Performance by a Youth in a Lead or Supporting Role ( Georgie Henley , Female); the Costume Designers Guild Award for Excellence in Fantasy Film (Isis Mussenden); and the Saturn Award for Costumes (Isis Mussenden) and Make-up (Howard Berger, Greg Nicotero, and Nikki Gooley). Georgie Henley , in her performance as Lucy Pevensie earned critical acclaim for her performance. She won several awards, including the Phoenix Film Critics Society award for Best Actress in a Leading Role and Best Performance by a Youth. She also won another awards either for Best Young Performance or Best Actress in a Leading Role. The film was nominated for AFI's Top 10 Fantasy Films list. Year For the song "Can't Take It In" Nominated Reception The film received positive reviews from critics, with a 75% "certified fresh" on Rotten Tomatoes and 157 of the listed 208 reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.9/10.

Metacritic gives the movie a 75 out of 100, based on 39 reviews. Respected critic Roger Ebert also gave the film 3 out of 4 stars. Ebert and Roeper gave the movie "Two Thumbs Up". Movie critic Leonard Maltin gave the film 3 out of four stars, calling it, "an impressive and worthwhile family film," though he also said, "it does go on a bit and the special effects are extremely variable." Duane Dudak of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel gave the movie 3 out of 4 stars. Stuart Klawans of The Nation said, "All ticket buyers will get their money's worth." Elizabeth Weitzman of New York Daily News gave it 4 out of 4 stars and said: "A generation-spanning journey that feels both comfortingly familiar and excitingly original." Critic Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle listed it as the second best film of the year. Kit Bowen ( Hollywood.com ) gives this film 3 out of 4 stars.

However, John Anderson from Newsday, reacted negatively to the film, stating, "…there's a deliberateness, a fastidiousness and a lack of daring and vision that marks the entire operation." DVD and Blu-ray release The DVD for The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe was released on April 4, 2006. It is available in a standard one-disc set (with separate fullscreen and widescreen editions), and a deluxe widescreen two-disc boxed set with additional artwork and other materials from Disney and Walden Media. The DVD sold four million copies on its first day of release and overtook Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire to become the top selling DVD in North America for 2006. As of December 2008 it has grossed $353.5 million in DVD sales, equivalent to 12,458,637 units sold. Disney later issued a four-disc extended cut of the film on DVD. It was released on December 12, 2006, and was available commercially until January 31, 2007, after which Disney put the DVD on moratorium.

The extended cut of the film runs approximately 150 minutes. The set includes all of the features previously released on the two-disc special edition. The two additional discs include a segment called "The Dreamer of Narnia", a previously unreleased feature length film about C. S. Lewis, and additional production featurettes. Most of the extended footage, besides the extended battle sequence, is longer establishing shots of Narnia and footage of the Pevensies walking in Narnia. The high-definition Blu-ray Disc version was released on May 13, 2008, in the United States, and on June 16, 2008, in the United Kingdom, delayed from the original planned release date in late 2007. Gallery

Question: What was the name of the lion in "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe", a 2005 film based on the "Narnia" books by C S Lewis?
Answer: Aslan