Beyond the Wardrobe: The Chronicles of Narnia Saga

When I first heard about Narnia, I was expecting Lord of the Rings Jr. And to a point it is with the talking animals and children as our heroes. But is so much more than that.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is the first film by Disney-Walden Media. As our heroes delve deeper in Narnia, the more we learn. You have Aslan, who is essentially the messiah and the White Witch who is the devil.

It opens up a new world that is very similar to Middle-Earth, but in many way different providing for a new adventure in a new world.

 

I can't tell you how skeptical I was of Tilda Swinton when I heard that she was going to be cast as the White Witch. I absolutely hated her as Gabriel in Constantine and thought the best White Witch would be Cate Blanchett who marvelled as Galadriel in LOTR.

She definitely carries that evil presence.

 

I've seen Narnia twice now and I absolutely love it. The graphics are fantastic (well, except that the Beavers looked sort of fake to me), as is the acting and it stays much closer to the book than anyother book-based movie I've seen. I love the casting for the four Pevensies (they really do look like brothers and sisters) and Liam Neeson is, in my opinion, the perfect voice for Aslan. The music is brilliant -- I'm listening to the soundtrack right now. It's beautiful and articulate and perfectly matches the land of Narnia.

I thought Tilda Swinton was pretty good as the White Witch.

 

I LOVE those books. I haven't seen the film yet, but according to the trailer, it has to be awesome.

 

It is. They really hold true to the books. Except some things they change and tweak a bit -- but that's to be expected, as film and books are two completely different medias.

 

I still think Narnia does feel like LOTR-lite, but I must agree with you on how Swinton nailed The White Witch. She was rarely playing pure evil, more like a complex and contented affinity with her role in Narnia. She just is what she is, a part of Narnia, and so doesn't feel the need to be constantly shoving her 'evil' credentials down everyone's throats. Which funnily enough, is a problem I have with film. Perhaps to pander to the less demanding widespread cinema audience, the film didn't spend much time working on the basis upon which Narnia is built - instead we get a good long battle (overlong). The balance of good and evil, that sort of thing. Now I'll freely admit it's been a while since I read the book, so I can't remember how much time Lewis himself gave over to Narnia's subtler side, but I know I felt we needed a little more history and / or lore to set events in their place.

EDIT: Oh and with Aslan, all I could see was Liam Neeson. Same goes for Mrs. Beaver. Dawn French was all I saw when she was on screen. I really really wish famous voices would become less the thing to do.

 

Save the history for The Magician's Nephew. Though it is hinted that Digory Kirke the professor knows all about Narnia and was there to witness creation.

 

Hmmm. Not creation explicitly. Just a bit more to chew on.

 

I've seen the movie twice so far and absolutely loved it. Who ever cast the children did an excellent job.

I think I've heard that they're planning to make the rest of the series and I'm curious as to which one they'll make next since the kids are going to obviously get older and the fact that they get a bit older from book to book.

 

I heard that it's Prince Caspian and then, if they make them all, Dawn Treader, Silver Chair, Last Battle and somewhere between that lot Magician's Nephew and The Horse and His Boy.

 

The one thing that worries me about Magician's Nephew so late is making Jim Broadbant's character so young. Magician's Nephew is a prequel to LWW. Also making Jadis younger too. Tilda Swinton's going to age as well. At least there's no problems with Aslan for TMN

 

Well, I think there's really no way to escape having to have a much younger Kirke. And as for Jadis... I never really imagined her as aging or being younger. To me, she always seemed to be, for a lack of a better term, ageless.

 

I found the movie horribly dissapointing, he added a few scenes and took out some important things. I found much of it unbelievable. (they fell into an alternate world and first thing they did was have a snowball fight?) and while I didn't think it was bad I think it did not measure up to its source material.

Also, alot of tiny-things irritated me throughout the movie. They switched the "Once a king in Narnia always a King in Narnia" lines. They had Edmund riding a talking horse and Peter a unicorn. They had Peter go from a complete novice to TEACHING swordsmanship in a matter of days, and Lucy is somehow a ninja warrior with deadly knife-throwing prowess?

And the bullet-time sequence. Meh, overall dissapointing but not bad.

-The Scummy-

 

According to the books, "Narnian air" or something to that effect has a strange effect on Earth humans...

The armour and weapons were predictably awesome, and I'm looking forward to The Last Battle, in about seven years now.

 

Last Battle in 7 years? I think they may go every other year unfortunately. There's no way they can have Caspian out by Christmas and if it's released Summer 07, it'll be against Spider-Man, Shrek and OOTP.

 

I heard it was Winter '07 for Caspian, not Summer.

 

It gives them more vigor and strengh but not skills. It did that in Caspian but that's because they already knew them from there last visit.

 

I loved the movie. i thought it was a perfect recreation of the book for the big screen.
and i was plesantly surprised by how closely they followed the plot of the book...

(I am re-reading the chronichles now at age 25, last time i read them i was probablly 12...I had never gotten beyond Dawn Treader before as I could never get into the Silver Chair...However, i am readign it and liking it now, so i hope to complete all seven...From what it sounds, i am most looking forward to Magicians Nephew and the Last Battle...)

Anyways, I thought everything looked great, and the acting was great.

There was one minor thing i wanted more of...
In the final battle, i wanted to see more of the White Witch dominating the battlefield by turning people/narnians, into stone.
Like i said i just read it, and it seems the film tries to build upon the edmond and peter bond, forcing edmond to go after the witch, where in the novel, i felt Edmond saw the queen owning the battlefield, and sacraficed himself to go after her and break the wand...
I guess, i wanted to see, more of her turing folks to stone...

One of my favorite parts, for soem reason, was actaully the very very end, after the credits role, and then they go back, and show Lucy at the Wardrobe, and professor says, "you cant get back in that way..."
i just thought it was so cool, and telling us, there is more narnia to come

 

I just finished Book 1 The Magician's Nephew. I really loved it and enjoyed seeing where Narnia, the Professor, the house in the country, the Witch, and the Wardrobe came from. As much as I liked it, it hardly seems like "Major Motion Picture" material. It's just not as huge a story as LW&W.

 

I really liked the film. It's made me want to go back an re-read the books. My only disappointment was that while watching it, I couldn't help but feel that it was really a "kids" movie, but I suppose it is, for the most part. I understood why they wussed out on the blood and fighting a bit.

Except in the Stone Table sequence. That was wonderful.

Anyone seen the 80's BBC version? I grew up with that one and couldn't help but compare the two while I was in the theatre.

 

I think its out on DVD now

 

I remember seeing the.. Dawn Treader one, I think, a really, really long time ago. I must have been very little. I barely remember it, so I guess that doesn't count.


Except in the Stone Table sequence. That was wonderful.

I agree. It was brilliant.

 

I've definately seen those BBC adaptations. I used to rent them from the Library when i was a kid.
I just remeber Reepicheep looking really funny in Treader...

 

i hadn't read the books, and listening to all the negative publicity (jonathan ross etc) and vague memories of the bbc version really didn't inspire me to go watch narnia. i got dragged along against my better judgement and absolutely loved it. i have seen it twice now (we took the kids to see it the second time) and it gets better with each viewing. i can't wait for the dvd to come out!

now to find a copy of the books.............

 

Here's the Narnia 1-Disc and 2-Disc DVD colors

Standard 1-Disc Edition
[image=http://www.davisdvd.com/images/covers_big/narnia.jpg]

2-Disc Collector's Edition
[image=http://www.davisdvd.com/images/covers_big/narnia2.jpg]

I'll be getting that 2-disc for sure. Looks a lot like the 2-disc soundtrack, recently released.