The “Narnia” books of C.S. Lewis have kept millions enchanted since “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” appeared in 1950. Despite several attempts to put the stories on screen, the material has remained suited for the page in some basic way.
The biggest stab at translating Narnia into film has now been undertaken by the Walt Disney company, which could dearly use a new franchise. Results are mixed.
We begin in England during World War II. German bombs are raking London, and the city’s youth are being sent to the countryside to live with host families. The four Pevensie children are trundled off to stay with an eccentric professor (Jim Broadbent) in a rambling old house.
| “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” HH Mixed: The first book of C.S. Lewis’ beloved children’s series gets the Disney treatment, with mixed results. There’s real magic in the introduction of a magical world, but a tame approach and too many computer-animated characters fizzle things out. Rated: PG rating is for violence Now showing: tk |
In an otherwise empty room sits a wooden wardrobe, which – when peeked into at certain unpredictable moments – is a portal to a snowy, magical realm called Narnia. The littlest Pevensie sibling, 10-year-old Lucy (Georgie Henley), is first to discover this doorway.
In a delightful sequence, she comes upon a faun (wonderful performance by James McAvoy), who invites her over for tea – after he has determined that she is not “some kind of beardless dwarf,” but in fact a human child.
Narnia, it seems, is a realm under the terrible control of a witch (Tilda Swinton), whose reign has pushed aside the kindly leadership of a great lion called Aslan (voiced by Liam Neeson). The four Pevensie children, all of whom tumble through the wardrobe into the Narnian landscape, quickly become central to the political struggle in this land.
Lucy is cute and innocent, older brother Peter (William Moseley) is a natural leader, older sis Susan (Anna Popplewell) is sensible and calm. Which leaves younger boy Edmund (Skandar Keynes) to be brooding, petulant and contrary (in other words, the only kid who’s actually interesting).
A few mild adventures and some big battles ensue. The great promise of McAvoy’s faun and the eerie first impression of Swinton’s witch start to ebb about halfway through, when the goody-goody characters like Aslan come to dominate and the film fizzles away into TV-movie earnestness.
Most of the animal characters, including a pair of helpful beavers, are computer-animated. Perhaps digital characters have a magic of their own, but I found their prominence in “Narnia” a real lessening of the animals’ presence, especially Aslan.
Yes, I loved Gollum in “The Lord of the Rings,” but Gollum was fully nuanced and complex, almost palpable. The digital characters in “Narnia” don’t gain traction.
The PG approach gives a once-over-lightly quality to the action; nobody ever really seems to be in danger. There is a Disney niceness about the movie that keeps it from coming near the density of the “Lord of the Rings” pictures.
As a scholar whose Catholicism was frequently a subject for his writings, C.S. Lewis embedded a Christian allegory into the “Narnia” books. It can be safely assumed that this will fly right over the heads of most kids seeing the movie, and represents no real threat to the separation of church and multiplex.
Will there be sequels? Probably, although the child actors will soon outgrow their roles. Maybe Disney can computer animate them for future use.
TOP: Otmin the Minotaur.
ABOVE: Georgie Henley and James McAvoy.
Georgie Henley, Anna Popplewell, William Moseley andSkandar Keynes in “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.”
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