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

Director: Andrew Adamson
Release Date: December 09 2005

 

Cast:
Lucy Pevensie: Georgie Henley
Edmund Pevensie: Skandar Keynes
Peter Pevensie: William Moseley
Susan Pevensie: Anna Popplewell
White Witch: Tilda Swinton
Mr. Tumnus: James McAvoy
Professor Kirke: Jim Broadbent
Ginarrbrik: Kiran Shah
Father Christmas: James Cosmo
Aslan (voice): Liam Neeson

 

This is a magical tale of four children who are evacuated to the English countryside during World War 2. They end up in a large country house with an aged professor. While playing hide-and-seek one day they come across a large wardrobe in a disused room. What first one girl, and eventually all four children, discovers is an extraordinary world that is covered in ice and snow.

The film shows us a place of good and evil, a Snow Queen (ably played by a wicked Tilda Swinton) has cast a spell across the entire land. It is always winter but never Christmas. A cold and desolate place populated by animals that speak (mice, beavers, wolves and others all play their part). With the arrival of the human children the Snow Queen finds herself in a precarious position. There is a legend that four humans will reign over Narnia and (like many a monarch) the Snow Queen is loathe to surrender her position to the next in line. She does anything she can to stop them, she uses her secret police (menacingly led by Maugrim – Michael Madsen) as well as her ability to turn people to stone.

There is, naturally, a force for good to counteract all this evil. The lion Aslan is the true ruler of Narnia and he is in direct opposition to the Snow Queen. The children discover his story over time and realise that they need to find him in order to make the prophecy come true. Before they can do this though, Aslan will have to make a monumental sacrifice. There is a twist and those of you who know even the sketchiest outline of the story of Jesus will be able to see parallels here.

This charming film is an excellent adaptation and is well worth seeing. We can only hope the producers try to bring the rest of the Narnia chronicles to life.

 

 

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4. Where the Wild Things Are
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