Fun, no matter what your faith

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005)
Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media present an Andrew Adamson film, starring Georgie Henley and William Moseley. Written by Ann Peacock, Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely and Adamson. From a novel by C.S. Lewis. 140m. PG for battle sequences and frightening moments.

3.5 stars

“[Aslan] is an invention giving an imaginary answer to the question: ‘What might Christ become like if there really were a world like Narnia and He chose to be incarnate and die and rise again in that world as He actually has done in ours?’” – C.S. Lewis

“The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe” will do more to propagate Christian values than Mel Gibson could accomplish with 100 films.

The film finds a perfect resonance between “Lord of the Rings”-esque mysticism and full-fledged Christian allegory. It’s going to be a hit with both believers and secularists, and perhaps not for different reasons.

In the midst of the German blitz on Great Britain, the four Pevensie children – Lucy (Georgie Henley), 8; Edmund (Skandar Keynes), 10; Susan (Anna Poppelwell), 12; and Peter (William Moseley), 14 – are sent to live with an eccentric professor in the countryside. As they await word on their return to London, the children entertain themselves in and around the professor’s vast estate.

It’s the precocious Lucy who discovers the imposing wardrobe, which acts as both a fur coat repository and a portal to a fantasy land called Narnia. There’s a certain reverence maintained in the establishing shot of the wardrobe, as if Lucy were approaching a temple and not a wood storage closet.

Perhaps because she’s a child, Lucy is not afraid of magical worlds suddenly appearing in the rear of vast wardrobes. The land, covered in frost and the pure white snow of wintertime, is a land of possibilities for an eight-year-old child.
But it’s Mr. Tumnus (James McAvoy), a faun, who tells young Lucy that the frost is a reflection of Narnia’s enslavement to the White Witch (Tilda Swinton), who has brought winter to the land for 100 years. There is, however, an oral prophecy that foretells of the two daughters of Eve and the two sons of Adam claiming their rightful throne and ending the witch’s draconian rule.

The divination is held in the hearts of Mr. and Mrs. Beaver (voices of Ray Winstone and Dawn French), who have also heard of a great lion king, Aslan, who would help the humans regain dominion.

In a December 1959 letter to BBC producer Lance Sieveking, C.S. Lewis expressed horror at the idea of his book being turned into a television serial.

“Anthropomorphic animals, when taken out of narrative into actual visibility, always turn into buffoonery of nightmare,” he wrote.

But I think Mr. Lewis might have enjoyed the animal renderings produced by 21st century computers. The Beavers are the film’s biggest delight. The computer models are lifelike and are incorporated seamlessly amongst the humans without offering distraction.

Their world is less meticulously developed than “Lord of the Rings.” Narnia may begin dark and dreary, but as Aslan’s power grows stronger, its color palette really opens up. The countryside is more akin to the battlegrounds of “Braveheart” than anything from Middle Earth.

The children are overwhelmed by Mr. Beaver’s message, swaddling themselves in ignorance of their destiny.

“I think you’ve made a mistake,” Peter says. “We’re not heroes.”

“We’re from Finchley,” Susan chips in.

Their helpless pleas fall on deaf ears, however, because there seems to be no free will in Narnia. Individuals are governed by a deeper magic which guides destinies. Even Father Christmas (James Cosmo), who has returned for the first time in a century, provides the children with battle accoutrements instead of toys, as if he too understands what fate awaits them.

No great film is without a healthy source of conflict. Edmund, constantly maligned by his older siblings, betrays them to the White Witch. He’s been lured in by a tasty package of Turkish delight, exhibiting a naïve greed consistent with being 10 years old.

And while Edmund is perhaps the child who needs his transgressions forgiven the most, the other children are not without sin themselves. Peter is consumed with pride; his redemption is acknowledgment of that vanity. Susan is bossy and oftentimes close minded; her redemption comes when she welcomes Lucy’s input for the first time.

But it is Aslan who exhibits the virtues of Christ, offering himself to the White Witch as a trade for the traitorous Edmund. He is beaten, humiliated and scourged – sound familiar? – until he is killed in sacrifice by the Witch.
When Aslan is resurrected soon afterwards, he provides an explanation that runs parallel to Jesus’ own tale.

“Though the Witch knew the deep magic, the is a magic deeper still which she did not know. … When a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor’s stead, the table would crack and death itself would start working backward.”

For Christians, it’s a pitch-perfect representation of Christ’s resurrection. For non-believers, it’s the catalyst for a jaw-dropping battle between good and evil that serves as the film’s climax.

Children have been sadly desensitized to the perilous amounts of sex, language and graphic violence that permeate visual media forms. “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” is a long-overdue response, a film that celebrates families while disseminating honest values. The message is clear, but only if the audience wants to hear it. If you come for big fights and big fantasy, “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” isn’t going to beat its message into you. It’s not a condemnation of other faiths; it’s a celebration of one. That, I think, can be appreciated by everyone.