Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
It's taken more than 50 years for a live-action version of Christian author C.S. Lewis' beloved children's fantasy, "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," to finally make it to the big screen. And after viewing Disney's captivating $150 million adaptation, it's safe to say it was worth the wait.
William Moseley, with sword, Skandar Keynes and Anna Popplewell star in a scene from the movie "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe." The movie, which has a Christian theme, opens in theaters this December. (CNS photo)
First published in 1950, "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" -- the first in a seven-volume series known as "The Chronicles of Narnia" -- has had several previous renderings, including a stage production, two British television series and an Emmy Award-winning animated feature that aired on American TV in 1979.
Produced in partnership with faith-friendly Walden Media, the movie not only stays reverently true to the story and spiritual subtext of Lewis' tale, but is a cinematic work of extraordinary beauty that, much like the title's enchanted armoire, transports viewers to a wondrous world of adventure, heroism and religious symbolism.
It also proves what Lewis believed about literature -- that anything worth reading when you are 5 is worth reading when you are 50 -- is equally valid for film, though Lewis himself had strong reservations about translating his Narnia books into live-action movies.
Set in World War II-era England, the story centers on four young siblings: Peter (William Moseley), the eldest of the Pevensie brood; sensible sister Susan (Anna Popplewell); duplicitous Edmund (Skandar Keynes); and plucky little Lucy (apple-cheeked newcomer Georgie Henley). Evacuated from blitzkrieg-bombarded London, the children are left in the safekeeping of an elderly and eccentric professor (Jim Broadbent) who lives in a large house in the country.
While playing hide and seek, Lucy happens upon an old wardrobe through which she stumbles magically into Narnia -- a fairy-tale realm populated by talking animals and mythical creatures -- and she later returns along with her brothers and sister.
Their appearance foretold by an ancient Narnian prophecy, the children set out to rescue an imprisoned faun (James McAvoy) arrested for fraternizing with Lucy.
Their quest eventually leads them to fight alongside Narnia's regal lion king Aslan (voiced by Liam Neeson), against the evil White Witch, Jadis (Tilda Swinton), who holds the land under an icy spell of eternal deep freeze ("always winter, never Christmas").
From the moment Lucy first sets eyes on the snow-blanketed Narnian glade -- with its iconic, out-of-place lamppost -- fans of the book will know that they are in sure hands with director Andrew Adamson, who never allows spectacle to overshadow the story's emotional core.
He also captures both the childlike wonder and indefinable, melancholic nostalgia for a world beyond our own that underscores all seven books.
Comparisons will inevitably be made to Peter Jackson's superior "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy. Both productions involved added pressure of a fan base rabidly protective of the source material. Both films also use fairy-tale and mythic motifs to explore larger themes of good and evil, sin and redemption, and death and resurrection, far more overt here. This is best illustrated by the clearly allegorical Christ-figure of Aslan, "a willing victim ... killed in a traitor's stead" only to come back to life in glorified form. (Though gentle at times, Aslan is not "tame," but a wild and dangerous lion of Judah.)
Told with symbolic strokes, the deeply poignant sequence unmistakably traces Christ's passion from Gethsemane to his dying on Calvary, here a stone table upon which Aslan is ritualistically slain. (Adults may even feel their tear ducts swelling.) Those first to witness the "resurrected" Aslan are women, and afterward Aslan "breathes" a new spirit of life into those Narnians turned to stone by the White Witch's magic, echoing both Pentecost and the harrowing of hell.
While "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" lacks the character development and narrative depth, as well as the grander scale, of "Rings" (written by Lewis' close friend, J.R.R. Tolkien), its simple, self-contained story works to its advantage as a film.
Though a few of the processed shots are obvious, overall the special effects are impressive, including a majestic -- and amazingly realistic -- computer-rendered Aslan.
The climactic battle may be too intense for young children, as may be scenes involving a pack of vicious wolves serving as Jadis' henchmen. Hardest of all to watch is Aslan's atoning death, surrounded by hellish legions seemingly conjured from a Hieronymus Bosch painting. His apparent "defeat" is trumpeted by Jadis' victory cry, "So much for love." Some parents may feel it inappropriately upsetting for a "family film," but Lewis himself argued that it was proper not to shield children from knowledge that they are "born into a world of death, violence, wounds, adventure, heroism and cowardice, good and evil."
The performances are all superb, especially those of the adorable Georgie Henley and Swinton, who brings an understated iciness to her role, which she plays as a cross between Hans Christian Andersen's Snow Queen and Xena, warrior princess.
Unlike Lucy at the end, moviegoers won't be left wondering if they'll ever find passage back into Narnia; with six more movies planned, the door is, thankfully, left ajar!
The film contains some battlefield violence, intense scenes of child peril and menace, and several frightening sequences. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification for the PG-rated film is A-II -- adults and adolescents.
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