Narnia

Yesterday evening our family...Raf and I, Christi and her children, Carolyn and Beth, and John and Laurie all went to see The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Upon exiting the theatre, the young man who was in charge asked me how I liked it. I told him, "Read the book."

While the movie was fairly faithful to Lewis' theme of Christian allegory, much of the action and dialogue was changed, and that certainly did not enhance it! All-in-all, I did not feel the movie portrayed the Lewis characters and theme, as a children's fantasy, nearly as well as the previous movie done in 1988.

Although the book has been made into two animated movies, The Chronicles of Narnia were turned into a series of successful BBC television miniseries in 1988–1990. Only The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and The Silver Chair were filmed. The Magician's Nephew, The Horse and His Boy, and The Last Battle were not filmed. The four miniseries were later edited into three feature-length films (combining "Prince Caspian" and "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader") and released on DVD.

This earlier version, directed by Marilyn Fox, with the cast of Richard Dempsey (Peter), Sophie Cook (Susan), Jonathan R. Scott (Edmund), Sophie Wilcox (Lucy), Barbara Kellermann (The White Witch), Ronald Pickup (voice of Aslan), Martin Stone (Maugrim), Bert Parnaby (Father Christmas), premiered on November 13, 1988. In my opinion, this version kept closer to Lewis' book in character, dialogue, and intent.

But, more than anything, I suggest you READ THE BOOK. In it you will come to "see" the true character of Narnia, the true spirit of the book, and through it you may glean who Lewis was...the greatest Christian apologist of the 20th century.