The Chronicles of Narnia:
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Directed by Andrew Adamson, 2005
Cast: Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes, William Moseley,
Anna Popplewell, Tilda Stilton, James McAvoy

By Kathryn Atwood

SPOILER ALERT: The following review reveals key plot details.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe opens a door into a visually stunning fantasy world, a cinematic masterpiece that leaves all other previous Narnian book-to-film attempts in the dusty mothballs of the wardrobe. The film remains largely true to C.S. Lewis' original story, fleshing out the tale by expanding angles of the story that its author merely touched on, while shifting emphases in such a way that, depending on your point of view, either add a welcome depth to the story or take it in an entirely different direction.

For instance, there's the real world setting. In the second sentence of his tale, Lewis explains that the Narnian adventures of the four Pevensie children, Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy, began "when they were sent away from London during the war because of the air raids." After that, the real war ravaging England isn't mentioned and doesn't have much effect on choices of the characters or the outcome of the story.

However, when director Andrew Adamson opens the film with a gray London sky highlighted with searchlights, and the camera pans momentarily to the inside of a Nazi bomber, it's clear that the war is going to figure very significantly into this retelling. It has a particularly key role in expanding the tale's key conflict between brothers Edmund and Peter.

In the book, this is caused simply by diametric personalities: younger Edmund has a nasty streak that, at one point, completely angers the more upright Peter, who chides his brother for being a "poisonous little beast."

This conflict helps lead Edmund into the witch's sleigh, where he gorges himself on her enchanted candy and leads him to lie, thus becoming a traitor to all that is good in Narnia, including his own siblings.

This clash is deepened substantially in the film by connecting it to the war in Europe, making Edmund a more complex, sympathetic and believable character than his original characterization. During the film's opening air raid, when Edmund runs from the safety of the bomb shelter into his about-to-be-bombed London house to retrieve a photo of their soldier father, Peter chides him loudly for taking such a foolish risk. Edmund, who obviously misses his father, absolutely refuses to accept Peter's repeated attempts to take on a paternal role among the children, ultimately leading Edmund to another — albeit treacherous — authority figure.

The subject of personal choice, expanded significantly in the film, is also tightly connected to the war in Europe. Peter, given specific instructions by his mother to "look after the others" in the early, tearful train station scene, takes his role quite seriously, which not only causes friction with Edmund, but also a reluctance with all the children to get involved in the Narnian battle. Although Lewis' Peter had no problem accepting his role as the leader of Aslan's armies and future high king of Narnia, the film's Peter is constantly battling self-doubt ("Aslan, I'm not who you think I am") which is increased by the thoughts of real war-related responsibility flying around in his head, echoed by the always-wet blanket Susan. Lewis most definitely gave her that character, but screenwriter Ann Peacock pulls out all the stops with this line, "just because some man in a red coat [Narnia's 'Father Christmas'] gave you a sword, it doesn't make you a hero," she calls out, encouraging Peter to surrender to the witch's wolves instead of fighting them with his new weapon. That's some wet blanket! Thankfully, Peter doesn't listen to her but instead uses his sword to hold fast to piece of ice, thus saving both himself and his sisters from the wolves' clutches and death by drowning, as the frozen river they are standing on — and all Narnia — is becoming released from the witch's eternal winter by the spring-inducing presence of Aslan.

This ice flow shot — not part of the original story and filmed in a grand total of four different countries — would be quite easy for a literature purist to dismiss as a completely gratuitous action scene. But aside from being really, really cool (I never said I was completely immune to gratuitous action scenes), it provides Peter's character with an obvious chance for growth. Instead of killing the wolves with his sword right there, he takes a smaller — albeit visually dramatic — step in the direction the story is taking him. This interim choice makes him seem a more realistic character and makes his ultimate triumph over the wolf, the forces of the witch and his own self-doubt more believable than Lewis' original high king, who, as has been pointed out, seemed to have no problem taking the gargantuan step from English school boy to royal military leader.

After Edmund is rescued from the witch and the children must decide whether or not to provide leadership for the Narnia armies, Peter finally decides that he must go on alone in Narnia while the others return to the relative safety of the English countryside, telling them: "I promised Mum I'd keep you three safe." When the four of them resolve, of course, to battle the forces of evil together on the Narnian side of the wardrobe, Edmund completely heals the fraternal rift while sweeping away the last vestiges of Peter's self-doubt with this great Ann Peacock line: "Aslan believed in you... and so do I."

Thus united, the two brothers go out to lead a battle that was descriptively breezed over by Lewis but is given the royal treatment by Adamson. It's obvious that the Weta Workshop of The Lord of the Rings fame (among nine other special effects companies) had a hand in the dazzling visual effects of this sequence, but while the battles scenes in the LOTR films had a duskiness to them, this battle, serious and climactic though it is, is rendered in stunning living color, making it look very much like what it is: the climactic battle of a children's story. Yes, good guys die and heads roll, but for the most part, they're done in by being turned from flesh and blood to stone by the witch's wand, so that the vivid colors of the battle are limited to the bright standards and armor of Aslan's army and the shiny hues of the summer day in which it takes place.

From the moment the mail-clad Peter gives the signal to charge until Aslan demolishes the witch (off camera, of course), this is the most visually stunning sequence of the film and alone is worth the price of a ticket (or a DVD for that matter).

The film, has, in my opinion, only one major misstep, and that would be in the delineation of Aslan's character. His presence is supposed to be awe-inspiring, as Lewis' Mrs. Beaver explains to the children upon their entering Narnia: "If there's anyone that can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they're either braver than most or else just plain silly." He possesses an innate moral authority that makes witches cower and good children hesitate. Peacock's Aslan, although visually gorgeous and fairly well-voiced by Liam Neeson (although I often found myself expecting him to initiate a discussion of midichlorians), inspires fear in no one. The children, instead of wavering upon their first meeting with him (as Lewis' Pevensies did), walk right up to him and, instead of tentatively asking him his bidding, boldly ask him for help.

The talented Tilda Swinton gives a fine portrayal of the winter-hearted witch, but there are some major missteps in the delineation of her relationship with Aslan which make the authority issue of the tale quite lopsided. She is supposed to nearly die of fright upon seeing her resurrected enemy suddenly appear on the battlefield, but at this point in the film, Swinton merely glances at Aslan and momentarily expresses some surprise before determinedly continuing her sword fight with Peter.

When Aslan is standing on top of her, she is finally forced to drop her sword, but as she looks up into her enemy's face, her own features don't register an iota of fear, which is really quite unbelievable, even for a fantasy.

Her film character possesses more authority and inspires much more fearful respect among the other characters than the supposedly daunting lion. He ultimately defeats her only because he's bigger and has teeth and claws.

Apparently, there was some real fear among the film's creators that giving Aslan as much moral authority as Lewis originally intended might offend potential audiences who weren't too keen on the book's obvious Christian outlook. Lewis readily admitted than Aslan was a Christ figure, so much so that he repeatedly resisted filmic renderings of his books, calling the idea "blasphemous." Aside from the self-sacrifice and resurrection of Aslan, the Christ-like qualities Lewis gave him are virtually absent from this film. His character is not central here as it is in the story; rather, the screenplay has shifted the focus from the great lion to the choices of the other characters. This makes it a more inspiring story in some respects but at the same time, an opportunity to cinematically portray a great character of children's literature has been lost, or at the very least, significantly watered down. (The poor cousins of this film, the 1979 cartoon and the 1988 live-action version, because they both were very true to the book, are very accurate in their characterization of Aslan, but in the former, the great lion is a Saturday morning cartoon character and in the latter, a very clumsy puppet whose words don't sync with his mouth.)

Anyone well familiar with J.R.R. Tolkien's characters knows that Andrew Adamson is not the first director guilty of this kind of character rewriting but after all, Adamson and Peter Jackson were both trying, first and foremost, to make profitable films, not necessarily pure literary adaptations.

Those not intimately familiar with the original story or characters, however, will find little cause for disappointment in this gorgeous film.

It has succeeded in making the beauties of Narnia come to life in a way that has never before been seen on film. The most cynical movie-goers will no doubt find themselves, after the show, searching through old wardrobes for a glimpse of that magical land called Narnia.