Follow the exploits of the four Pevensie siblings--Lucy, Edmund, Susan and Peter--in World War II England who enter the world of Narnia through a magical wardrobe while playing a game of 'hide and seek' in the rural country home of an elderly professor. Once there, the children discover a charming, peaceful land inhabited by talking beasts, dwarfs, fauns, centaurs, and giants that has become a world cursed to eternal winter by the evil White Witch, Jadis. Under the guidance of a noble and mystical ruler, the lion Aslan, the children fight to overcome the White Witch's powerful hold over Narnia in a spectacular, climactic battle that will free Narnia from Jadis' icy spell forever.

I don’t know how many people know this but C.S. Lewis literary works were written well before that of the more famous J.R.R. Tolkien’s. And while Tolkien preferred the more adult world of fantasy and the more abstract as well Lewis’s main characters were always children and more grounded in reality as they came from our world and traveled into a more fantastic world. On the other hand Tolkien’s lord of the rings is a world in it self and completely apart from our own. I always saw Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia more like a child’s imagination with the ability to leave our world for that of a magical one and Tolkien’s as the world we dream of but can never truly step into. That’s why I think making Narnia into a series of movies is far more challenging than that of the Lord of the Rings saga as we need to believe that Narnia may just be in a wardrobe or a painting that is just waiting for us to fall into it. And for the most part the movie took the right steps in making us believe again like a child does when our imagination could take us anywhere. Sure the movie has its silly moments, talking beavers and riding unicorns into battle but that is why it is called fantasy. The movie is about overcoming cruelty and finding what we always had, family. I loved the movie not on the scale I loved the Lord of Rings movies which had far more realism in their effects but as a fanciful tale of fawns, centaurs and lions battling an evil white witch.

Another reason the movie is far more challenging than Lord of the Rings is because unlike those movie which could cast adult actors to carry the movie, Narnia has to cast four child actors which is almost always somewhat of a let down. In fact the two youngest actors Skandar Keynes who plays Edmund and Georgie Henley who plays Lucy were easily the weakest performances of the movie. Skandar Keynes is almost slimy and repulsive as a character which kinds of fits Edmund but he never escapes that feeling near the end of the movie when is to be redeemed. And Georgie Henley can be somewhat annoying as the always crying ever petulant child. But like I said for the most part they fall into the roles of the characters they are supposed to be playing because like in the books they are supposed to be children and its not hard to see them as Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy. I think they may have taken to famous of a voice for Aslan though as Liam Neeson is to recognizable and it is a little hard at times to separate him from previous roles and performances. The movie is a good family fantasy movie full of adventure, magic and imagination.

Another thing many might not know is how much religious symbols the books and movies contain. Tolkien and Lewis were friends and both taught at oxford and both were very religious Christians and while Tolkien leaves most of his beliefs out of his books Lewis’ books are chock full of bible stories and symbols. If you didn’t catch it Edmund is Judas, the White Witch is Satan tempting Judas with false promises and Aslan is Jesus Christ who sacrifices himself for Edmunds betrayal and is reborn through his sacrifice. And no that’s not a spoiler, not on a eighty year old book and something you would have caught if you had been paying close enough attention, I don’t think this ruins the movie nor the books many people can’t pick out all the political symbols in Wizard of Oz and I don’t think all the religious overtures make the movie any less of an enjoyable story. This is the third reason I thought the movie would be hard to translate from the books as I didn’t want to be bludgeoned over the head with it but they did a good job at underplaying the whole religious overtones. Go for the movie and I think it is fun to look for all the religious symbols almost like an Easter egg hunt.
4 stars out of 5