The Chronicles of Narnia

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

If you're looking for an excellent conversion of a book into a movie, then look no further. This is one of the most faithful retellings of any story that I've seen. 

We get to see Lucy (Sophie Wilcox), Susan (Sophie Cook), Edmund (Jonathan R. Scott), and Peter (Richard Dempsey) as they go about their business in an old Professor's odd house during the War. Lucy enters a wardrobe when the children go exploring during a rainfall and finds herself in another country. While there, she meets a Fawn named Mr. Tumnus (Jeffrey S. Perry). After dining with him in his home and listening to a couple of his tales, she returns to her siblings to learn that they didn't know she was gone. 

The strange thing was that she was gone for hours. How can this be? Well, it's because the other country, known as Narnia, is basically another dimension with its own time and it's different then ours. Anyway, Lucy's siblings don't believe her and she gets all pouty. 

Well, for those of you who don't know the story, I'll just sum it up here: Edmund is a traitor and joins the antagonist (that's the White Witch), for a while before coming to his senses. They all end up in Narnia eventually and they end up defeating the Witch as well as becoming kings and queens. 

The costumes are still great. They are a little hokey, but that's okay. The effects aren't much compared with some of today's stuff, but it's still pretty good. I think the best part would probably be the message of sacrifice even unto death for others. 

What's bad about it? Well, some of the acting is lousy. And it has good magic and bad magic. There are witches, gods, spirits, and all that rot in the books and I think most, if not all, is in the movie(s) as well.

I recommend this movie for those of you who like Narnia. Or that want to find out what Narnia is all about and are too lazy to read a short book.

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This is a combination of books 2 and 3 of the Narnia series. Prince Caspian is squashed into about an hour, whereas The Voyage of the Dawn Treader manages more than an hour and a half. 

They don't do quite as good a job of telling Prince Caspian's tale. They skip a lot and just jump to the action parts of the book. At least, that was my impression. They still continue to use most of the speaking lines from the book in the movie and it still works well.

Anyway, this is a tale about Narnia that takes place many years later (in Narnia, NOT our world). In Narnia, hundreds of years have passed and Cair Paravel no longer exists. Narnia was conquered by the Telmarines (a sect of humans over some far away mountains) and is now ruled by the uncle of the true king, Prince Caspian.

Caspian ends up having to flee for his life when his uncle's wife has a child as his uncle will want the baby to be king rather then Caspian. Anyway,  the uncle doesn't like it that Caspian fled before he could kill the Prince, so he goes after him with his army. 

Caspian gets taken in by animals and ends up blowing a magic horn which brings him aid from the previous story's four heroes. 

The second story revolves around Lucy, Edmund and their bratty cousin Eustace (David Thwaites). All three of them get sucked into a painting of the "Dawn Treader" and end up helping King Caspian (he's a lot older now) (played by Samuel West) on a quest to find seven Lords of Narnia. 

They find them all by the end of the tale and Eustace learns what happens when one gets too greedy and prideful.  He is humbled by being turned into a dragon. 

In both stories, there is a mouse known as Reepicheep. This is probably one of the best characters in the show and the books. I think the reason I like it is that he's short and brave and played by who I consider to be one of the best "dwarf/midget" actors: Warwick Davis. Davis was in Return of the Jedi as Wicket.

I think this 2nd tale was kind of dull.  But Narnia fans will probably love it. 

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