The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (2005, PG)

I have mixed feelings about The Chronicles of Narnia films as a whole.  There are points where they absolutely shine and, in my opinion, improve on some of the black-and-whiteness of the books, but I also feel they have a tendency to keep drifting back toward something toothless, bloodless, and a little sterile.  Too much studio interference maybe?  It’s frustrating, because rewatching them, I do get the feeling that they might have been something really wonderful if they’d had the chance to (a few plot spoilers.)

Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy are four siblings evacuated from London during World War II.  Sent to live in the country with an odd but kindly professor, the children are shaken from what they expect to be a dreary, rather lonely stay when Lucy makes an unbelievable discovery:  the ornate wardrobe in the spare room serves as a gateway to another world.  In the land of Narnia, she (and later her siblings) learn that they may in fact be the very saviors prophesied to rid Narnia of the tyrannical White Witch, who has cursed the land with an eternal winter.  They are aided by the friends they meet there in the Narnian resistance, who, in addition to having waited many years for the prophecy to come to pass, have also pinned their hopes on the long-awaited return of Aslan, the Great Lion.

Of the three Narnia films, I think The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe might be the most inconsistent for me.  It has some of the best individual elements, but on the whole, it’s the one that most comes across as being a “safe” adaptation, with fewer risks taken and a slightly manufactured feel.  On the whole, the production design, CGI, and casting are all very good.  As with any film franchise of a beloved book series starring children, I think all four young actors improve as they go, but each does do a pretty good job of capturing the essence of their character from the start, especially the charming Georgie Henley as Lucy.  Iconic images from the book, like the lamppost, the Beavers’ lodge, the Stone Table, and the White Witch’s castle are all stunningly realized, and while the realistic-looking animals who talk look a bit silly in this year of pre-Jungle Book technology, it’s respectable enough for the time in which it was made.  On the latter front, the film is helped along by able voice-acting from the likes of Ray Winstone, Dawn French, Rupert Everett, and of course, Liam Neeson as Aslan.

For me, the film’s strongest points are easily James McAvoy’s Mr. Tumnus and the Tilda Swinton’s White Witch.  Both characters succeed so strongly on every level, looking and feeling as if they stepped right out of the pages of the book and conveying the clearest sense of truly being from another world (side note – this was the first movie I saw James McAvoy in, and his performance as Mr. Tumnus still remains one of my favorites of his.)  I love the warmth of Lucy’s scenes with Mr. Tumnus – the two of them shaking hands is just ludicrously adorable – and the White Witch exudes this seductive lure of power every second she’s onscreen; even though she’s blatantly capital-E Evil from the first moment she appears, you kind of understand the snakelike way she’s able to draw Edmund in.

Perhaps because it’s the first film in the franchise, perhaps because it’s the most iconic of the books, the movie is hindered by an unfortunate by-the-numbers feel.  As excellent as many of its individual parts are, they don’t always seem to come together into a compelling whole.  I have nothing but my own (biased) suspicions to base this on, but I have a feeling screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, the duo behind the Captain America films and Agent Carter, were given increasingly freer reign with the story as the franchise progressed.  While I think Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader both benefit from the richer themes they found to explore with additions to the story, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe feels more tied to the source material.  There are a few interesting threads tugged at here – the whole idea of the underground resistance movement feels a little more fleshed out, and the movie tries to lay a bit more groundwork for Edmund’s betrayal – but it never ventures too far from the established plot.

Warnings

Scary moments for kids, thematic elements, and some very Disneyfied violence.