DVD Review: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe
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::Movie review
Oh, how the times have changed.
Throughout the history of cinema, the defining difference between a book and movie was that one could write the line, "the lion speaks," and in a book it became the unquestioned truth, while in a movie...well, it was a bit more complicated.
This is no longer the case and technology has finally caught up to our imaginations. Even a decade ago, the thought of a talking lion that could seem as convincingly real as any lion behind glass at the zoo would have been unthinkable. Now, we have Aslan, the title creature of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.
It seems astonishing that elements of C. S. Lewis' tale could be brought to the big screen with such startling realism. However, what is even more astonishing is that the art of filmmaking has matured to the level where such achievements don't dominate the story. Don't get me wrong, almost everything you see in Narnia is a visual effect of some sort, but the point is that there is never a sense that the filmmakers valued the splendors of technology over the story. Compare Narnia, for example, to Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace and you'll see the difference between rich characters, both real and unreal, and a video game that we're watching someone else play.
The Chronicles of Narnia begins firmly grounded in the horrors of World War II and the bombing of Britain . The air raid sirens go off and those in the Pevensie household scramble to the bomb shelter. With Britain no longer safe, the Pevensie children are shipped off to the country to live with the family friend, Professor Kirke (Job Broadbent). Shortly after arriving on the country mansion, little Lucy Pevensie (Georgie Henley) hides in a wardrobe during a game of hide and seek, and she quickly stumbles into an alternate world filled with mythical creatures.
Naturally, here brothers and sister don't believe her, but later one of her brothers, Edmund (Skandar Keynes), follows Lucy into the wardrobe and discovers that she has been telling the truth. Edmund meets up with the White Witch (Tilda Swinton), who promises him that he's a rightful heir of this magical land, called Narnia, and that with her help, he can have all of the riches and respect that he desires.
Eventually, all four of the Pevensie children, Lucy, Edmund, Peter (William Moseley), and Susan (Anna Popplewell), wind up in Narnia and learn that the land is in the midst of a 100 year winter. Narnia has been awaiting the arrival of, coincidentally enough, two boys and two girls who will restore the land to its former glory. This doesn't suit the White Witch, who prefers things just as they are. He hopes to trick Edmund into luring his siblings into her clutches so she can kill them all. To the White Witch's advantage is the fact that the Pevensie children often spend more time fighting with one another than looking out for danger.
Standing ready to oppose the White Witch is the lion, Aslan (voiced by Liam Neeson), who is obviously computer generated, and yet displays such a range of emotion that we are effortlessly able to suspend our disbelief.
What makes The Chronicles of Narnia such an involving story is that the children are not given passive roles in the conflict. In fact, everything hinges upon their participation. Narnia is a world borne of the imagination and it requires these human children to help shape and guide it. Aslan has assembled an army to fight against that of the White Witch, but Aslan's army requires Peter to lead it into battle.
We are able to believe that Peter can become a great warrior as soon as he's handed his sword because Narnia is ruled by the same logic that allows every kid to become Superman the minute he ties a blanket around his neck. The children initially doubt their roles and abilities, but soon the power and magic of Narnia becomes apparent to them.
The entire story leads up to a final, climactic battle between massive armies centaurs and minotaurs, fauns and ogres, and children and a witch. The battle is intense and spectacular on a scale that nearly tops those in the Lord of the Rings films. However, where the battles in Lord of the Rings were intended to be epic in scope, the final confrontation in Narnia is much more personal. The Pevensie's have adopted this land as their own, while at the same time, they have learned to rely on each other as a family.
I could easily see how this film could have gotten away from the filmmakers and become more about the impressive visual effects than about the story. Perhaps it helps that Narnia was directed by Andrew Adamson, who previously directed the two Shrek films. Working against the incredibly high bar set by the Pixar team, Adamson had to be particularly mindful of the characters and stories in the completely computer generated Shrek films if he wanted to be successful. Likely it is that experience that allowed him to not take the computer characters in Narnia for granted.
Word has it that Lewis' entire Narnia catalog has been optioned for the big screen and that the next book is already in pre-production. If The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe is any indication, then this franchise is off to a good start.
::Video
The Chronicles of Narnia is a long movie. Way too long to justify a bevy of special features on the same disc as the feature. Having said that, the picture quality isn't bad. However, I also think it could have been just a touch better without all of the materials crammed onto the first disc.
First of all, what is right: Colors are rich and vibrant and there are excellent contrasts throughout. I detected no artificial edge enhancement.
On the downside, I did notice some noise in a few instances, and while I can't say for sure that it was from the source material, it did accompany a very slight amount of artifacting. I don't want to give the impression that there are severe problems with this transfer, but there is a lot of material fighting for bit rates here.
::Audio
Included are both a 5.1 Dolby Digital and DTS sound mix and both are amazingly lively and offer not only plenty of sonic punch, but also very good use of surround sound speakers. As is usual, the DTS track sounds just a touch cleaner, with better separation and tighter bass, but only the really picky audiophiles will really pick up on it.
::Special Features
This 2-disc special edition is loaded with a ton of special features.
Starting things off on disc 1 are two feature length audio commentaries. The first is with director Andrew Adamson and the 4 kids playing the Pevensies. The second track features Adamson and production designer Roger Ford and producer Mark Johnson. As you might expect, the track featuring the kids is much more lively and light-hearted, while the second track is more down-to-business.
You can also enable a Discover Narnia Fun Facts feature that pops up trivia about the movie and the books as the film plays. The frequency with which these facts pop up make this feature a little boring by itself, but not so bad when activated with one of the commentaries.
Rounding things out on disc 1 is a series of outtakes and bloopers that, once again, creates a bit of an "I guess you had to be there" feeling that makes this feature useless on nearly every DVD release.
Disc 2 starts out rather unassuming, with essentially 2 choices: Creating Narnia, and Creatures, Land and Legends. It's only after you start clicking around that you come to realize just how much material is on this disc.
Unfortunately, if I went through each and every feature in-depth, it would take you more time to read than it would take you to sit down and watch this film (and between you and me, I think the second option is better way to spend your time). Suffice it to say, that I found much of the material to be rather interesting and thankfully slight on "promotional fluff."
There are a couple of specifics about the extras that I would like to point out:
First, is a timeline feature that is really very handy. It outlines the sequence of events as they occur both in the "real" world and in Narnia, and even goes so far as to fill in a few gaps that the film simply didn't have time to explore (for instance, those who haven't read the books might not know why the "kids" were pursuing the white stag near the end of the film).
The second thing I wanted to point out is the very cool menu feature that involves clicking on the "wardrobe" icon. When you do so, the menu background changes and so do the functions of the menu links. It's a subtle thing, but very appropriate to for maintaining the feeling of the world of Narnia.
::Bottom Line
C. S. Lewis was famously against the filming of his Narnia stories for the simple reason that he couldn't conceive of the technology to do them justice. Even as soon as 5 years ago, his fears would have been justified, because although the technology might have been good enough (or close to it), I'm not quite sure filmmakers were mature enough to place the emotion above the CGI effects. I think if Lewis had been around to see this version, that he would have been so astonished and caught up in the magic that he just might have forgotten he was watching his own story come to life.
The Chroncles of Narnia, the film, will inevitably be compared to the Lord of the Rings films, in the same way that that Lewis' books were always compared to Tolkien's. But it also holds true, just as with the books, that Narnia is much more accessible and a lot more fun.
Buy The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe at Amazon.com
| Movie |  |
5 / 5 |
| Video | |
4 / 5 |
| Audio | |
4.5 / 5 |
| Extras | |
5 / 5 |
| Family Friendly | |
4 / 5 |
| The only thing really stopping me from rating this higher in the Family Friendly category is the fact that there is a lot of intense action in Narnia. Although the blood and gore is kept almost completely absent, the younger viewers may still be rather intimidated and frightened by many scenes in the film. | ||
| Overall | |
4.5 / 5 |
- Robert Wurth, ©2006
::Technical Specs
Studio:
Buena Vista Home Entertainment
Year of Theatrical Release:
2005
Disc Format:
2 single-sided, Dual Layer
Image Format:
Anamorphic Widescreen
Aspect Ratio:
2.35:1
Region Encoding:
1 (North America)
Sound Format:
Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS
Running Time:
135 minutes
Director:
Andrew Adamson
Stars:
Georgie Henley, Skandar Keyes, William Moseley, Anna Popplewell, Tilda Swinton
MPAA Rating:
PG
Disc Supplements:
- Commentary with director Andrew Adamson and the kids of Narnia.
- Commentary with director Anderew Adamnson and production designer Roger Ford and Producer Mark Johnson.
- Fun Facts trivia feature.
- Bloopers and outtakes.
- Chronicles of a Director featurette.
- The Children's Magical Journey featurette.
- Evolution of an Epic featurette.
- From One Man's Mind featurette.
- Cinematic Storytellers featurette.
- Creating Creatures featurette.
- Anatomy of a Scene: The Melting River featurette.
- Creatures of the World featurette.
- Explore Narnia feature.
- Legends in Time feature.
