{"id":2088,"date":"2006-02-24T00:04:54","date_gmt":"2006-02-24T05:04:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinemacrazed.wordpress.com\/?p=2088"},"modified":"2006-02-24T00:04:54","modified_gmt":"2006-02-24T05:04:54","slug":"the-chronicles-of-narnia-the-lion-the-witch-and-the-wardrobe-2005","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2006\/02\/24\/the-chronicles-of-narnia-the-lion-the-witch-and-the-wardrobe-2005\/","title":{"rendered":"The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (2005)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Narnia--1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cNarnia\u201d is less a religious film, and more an exploration in to reluctant heroes fighting for good. I mean, let\u2019s face it here, people, if not for the prior success of the \u201cLord of the Rings\u201d trilogy and the quickly sputtering \u201cHarry Potter\u201d franchise, we wouldn\u2019t have this Narnia here with us. I mean was there a real point in making this film other than cashing in on this classic novel series? Based on C.S. Lewis\u2019 classic novel series, the first of many involves four children escaping the Nazi regime and hiding out in their uncle\u2019s mansion. While playing hide and seek one day, the youngest, Lucy wanders off in to the wardrobe. She wanders, and wanders, and enters a land called Narnia, and thus the adventure begins for these four reluctant heroes.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

As fantasy nut I was especially fond of\u00a0\u201cThe Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe\u201d because of its mixture of menace and innocence. Watching these children accidentally delve in to this foreign world, and then be forced to fight this incredible war is what fantasy is made of. Adam Anderson paints a wonderful vision of the land of Narnia, and it\u2019s an innocent place when juxtaposed to Tolkien\u2019s Middle Earth. Though I prefer the latter, Lewis\u2019 world is well fleshed out. The emotions of these children coming of age after separating from their parents is heartbreaking and once they begin blooming in to these warriors before our eyes, the progression is engrossing to watch, and there\u2019s plenty of great character development that help us identify with these individuals. Each child has their moment in the sun and their parts to play in the ensuing war, but my favorite was Peter, who became a natural leader and is forced to lead a war after circumstances beg he does.<\/p>\n

There are some simple but likable performances, especially from Georgie Henley who is utterly adorable as Lucy, the reluctant heroine who witnesses this war and engages in battle. The story is watched by four different perspectives: the unsure brother, the outcast middle child, the beyond her age realist\/cynic, and the wide-eyed optimist. The incomparable Tilda Swinton is gorgeous and menacing as the white queen, the dark force of Narnia tempting the pariah Edmund in to her allegiance. There are also plenty of utterly amazing special effects that make for some fantastic imagery children will eat up with a spoon, particularly the animals. The best of them are Aslan, the leader of the forces of good. Aslan is obviously a reference to Jesus Christ (Hence the crucifixion in the second half), but he\u2019s an idyllic hero, he\u2019s just, and does what he has to because sometimes there are demands for it.<\/p>\n

His adjustment to these children is natural and bold, and the incredibly animation paired with Liam Neeson\u2019s ace voice work make it an amazing combination. That said, I just can\u2019t see this happening for six more films mainly because the world of Narnia just isn\u2019t interesting enough to be seen for seven two hour installments. All of which will continue taking liberties with its story. I was never a proponent of religious themed films, though. Disney, after creating this film, touted this to Christian churches and even held private screenings at churches, so the genre, and the story basically alienates any of its audience of a different religion whom choose to dissect the meanings. And it\u2019s that sneakiness toward subtle allusions to the bible that kept me from really enjoying it, because I just couldn\u2019t help but think of the Jewish and Muslim kids whom wanted to see this and felt slightly out in the cold by the film revering the Christian faith.<\/p>\n

CS Lewis was a devout Christian who inserted religious themes in to his story as subtle religious propaganda. Beyond that, the world of Narnia is basically superficial comprised of typical elements that never add a sense of originality, which would explain why Tolkien\u2019s world became the zeitgeist for fantasy, and not Lewis\u2019. It\u2019s all just basic fantasy fodder. There are your talking animals, elves, dwarves, fauns, Santa Claus, minotaurs, all elements from mythology, theology, fairy tales and whatnot and not a true ounce of individuality or originality. Lewis\u2019 world was fun to look at, but nothing ever came to life and stood out. It was all just pretty underwhelming in the end, and it\u2019s a shame that this couldn\u2019t have been stronger. \u201cNarnia\u201d is fun once I ignored the none too subtle religious aspects. With fantastic special effects and an interesting story, while Lewis really doesn\u2019t achieve Tolkien\u2019s wonder or imagination, the world he draws is engrossing enough to warrant a watch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cNarnia\u201d is less a religious film, and more an exploration in to reluctant heroes fighting for good. I mean, let\u2019s face it here, people, if not for the prior success of the \u201cLord of the Rings\u201d trilogy and the quickly sputtering \u201cHarry Potter\u201d franchise, we wouldn\u2019t have this Narnia here with us. I mean was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[58,64,71,170,302,340,349,580],"class_list":["post-2088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-action","tag-adaptation","tag-adventure","tag-c","tag-drama","tag-family","tag-fantasy","tag-kids"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2088\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}