The long awaited release of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, comes today, and the movie is likely to become a blockbuster. Opening on three thousand screens nationwide, the Narnia film is the product of a collaboration between Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media. Fans of C. S. Lewis and his most famous literary work, the seven-volume series known as The Chronicles of Narnia, have waited for the film version of this work for a very long time. Indeed, the first volume of Lewis' great fantasy work was released over a half century before the story hit the big screen.
Like many admirers of Lewis' work, I harbored deep suspicions that the movie would not be faithful to the book. After all, the movie world has robbed and pillaged many of history's greatest works of literature. Furthermore, given the unmistakable Christian allusions in Lewis' work, The Chronicles of Narnia would be particularly susceptible to cinematic subversion.
Those fears were unfounded. The film is a tour de force, combining faithfulness to Lewis' story with a wonderful cast. Watching the film is an exciting and fulfilling movie experience. I am not an expert in cinematography, nor would I pose as an expert on film technique. Still, from the vantage point of a film lover who had reservations about this adaptation, this movie has been worth the wait.
Lewis himself was very concerned about any film adaptation of his great work. He was familiar with the work of Walt Disney, and even though he admired much of Disney's work, he feared that the reduction of his story to the screen would corrupt it. In 1959, just three years after the seventh work in the series was completed, Lewis wrote: "I am absolutely opposed . . . to a TV version." He explained that animal characters, "when taken out of narrative into actual visibility, always turn into buffoonery or nightmare."
Furthermore, Lewis tied his concern directly to the powerful Christian allusions in the film. The central character of the Narnia series is Aslan, the great lion. "I am sure you understand that Aslan is a divine figure, and anything remotely approaching the comic . . . would be to me simple blasphemy," Lewis explained.
The central character of Aslan unifies the entire Narnia series. "I don't know where the Lion came from or why He came," Lewis once remarked. "But once He was there He pulled the whole story together." During his own lifetime, Lewis approved a radio version of the books, but opposed all efforts to translate the story into film. He feared that the existing technologies of animation would reduce Aslan to "a human pantomime."
What makes the movie work is the development of advanced animation technologies. In the movie, Aslan appears as a computer-generated character--not as a cartoon figure. The development of advanced computer animation allowed Aslan to appear as the formidable character he is.
The C. S. Lewis estate, now managed by Lewis' stepson, Douglas Gresham, has been fiercely protective of the Narnia project. Gresham served as one of the producers of the current film, working in collaboration with director Andrew Adamson. Walden Media, known for its previous films Because of Winn Dixie and Holes, combined with media investor Philip Anschutz to back the film.
In terms of cinematography, some have suggested that The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe falls short of the grandeur demonstrated by Peter Jackson's three-movie Lord of the Rings series. In one sense, this criticism is both true and unfair. The Lord of the Rings books are far less allegorical than The Chronicles of Narnia. Furthermore, the books are far longer and set in a very different imaginary world. The Narnia movie is beautiful and moving, and those looking for special effects will find much to appreciate.
Other criticisms have been more serious. Even before the film was released, some critics were lining up to accuse the movie of communicating a subversive message centered in the Christian gospel. Without doubt, the allusions to the story of Christ and the theme of redemption are unmistakable, but Lewis was never hesitant to make this connection himself. It is hardly fair to accuse Lewis or the makers of this movie for being subversive when the project's connections to the Christian story are well known.
