"I've Just Been to the Most Wonderful of Places!"
I saw The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe on Wednesday night at a pre-release at the Downtown Disney theatre.
Before I say anything more, I must confess that Lewis' Narnia cycle is one of my very favorite sequences in literature. The first time I read through it (as a sophomore in college) I actually wept at a few places in the story. In his fantastic world, Lewis captured some of the most true human moments. Perhaps that is why I love fantasy so much... it frees the author to talk about things we see every day, in a way which is new and refreshing.
In short, I went into the Narnia premiere on the defensive, prepared for the worst. I wondered if Disney would ruin one of my most treasured stories by totally obliterating the Christian theology which composes Narnia.
But they didn't. They left Narnia pretty much alone, and made an incredibly beautiful movie out of the source material.
I loved the LOTR trilogy, both book and movie. But there were points in the movies where the pacing waned and I got bored. This is not at all the case with Narnia. There really is no downpoint in the story. It's a 2.5 hour movie, but the pacing is very quick.
So the characters are shallow, right? Actually, no. Even though the story moves along very quickly, the characters obviously grow and have genuine depth. The child actors actually did an incredible job---especially Lucy. If I had a daughter as cute as Lucy, I think I would spoil her and make her a daddy's girl. Hm.
The scenery was incredible, the costumes appropriate, the animals well-animated, the music (for the most part) above-par, and the story (of course) engaging.
Go see it, if you haven't.
Before I say anything more, I must confess that Lewis' Narnia cycle is one of my very favorite sequences in literature. The first time I read through it (as a sophomore in college) I actually wept at a few places in the story. In his fantastic world, Lewis captured some of the most true human moments. Perhaps that is why I love fantasy so much... it frees the author to talk about things we see every day, in a way which is new and refreshing.
In short, I went into the Narnia premiere on the defensive, prepared for the worst. I wondered if Disney would ruin one of my most treasured stories by totally obliterating the Christian theology which composes Narnia.
But they didn't. They left Narnia pretty much alone, and made an incredibly beautiful movie out of the source material.
I loved the LOTR trilogy, both book and movie. But there were points in the movies where the pacing waned and I got bored. This is not at all the case with Narnia. There really is no downpoint in the story. It's a 2.5 hour movie, but the pacing is very quick.
So the characters are shallow, right? Actually, no. Even though the story moves along very quickly, the characters obviously grow and have genuine depth. The child actors actually did an incredible job---especially Lucy. If I had a daughter as cute as Lucy, I think I would spoil her and make her a daddy's girl. Hm.
The scenery was incredible, the costumes appropriate, the animals well-animated, the music (for the most part) above-par, and the story (of course) engaging.
Go see it, if you haven't.
posted by brian at
2:24 PM
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