The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

[Redlum]

You might need to shorten the name of the file to play it.

Looks pretty charmless to me. Too epicy.

[modage]

i like the real world scenes more than the fantasy ones.  it looks okay but i will echo sentiments expressed on AICN when i say i hope this film has its own identity because a few of those shots seem REAALLY lotr.

[Ravi]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4347226.stm

Pullman attacks Narnia film plans


Author Philip Pullman has attacked plans to turn The Chronicles of Narnia into a movie series, calling CS Lewis' books "racist" and "misogynistic".

The first film in the series - The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - is due to be released in December.

His Dark Materials author Pullman said the 1950s stories were "reactionary".

"If the Disney corporation wants to market this film as a great Christian story, they'll just have to tell lies about it," he told The Observer.

Successful adaptations

The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe is the second and best-known novel in the seven-part Narnia book series.

The £62m movie version is expected to be the first of five films, following the success of The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy and ongoing Harry Potter film adaptations.

Evangelical Christian groups in the US have backed the movie, seeing parallels between CS Lewis' tales and Bible stories.

"We believe that God will speak the gospel of Jesus Christ through this film," Lon Allison, director of Illinois' Billy Graham Centre, told the newspaper.

But Pullman said the Narnia books contained "a peevish blend of racist, misogynistic and reactionary prejudice" and "not a trace" of Christian charity.

"It's not the presence of Christian doctrine I object to so much as the absence of Christian virtue," he added.

"The highest virtue - we have on the authority of the New Testament itself - is love, and yet you find not a trace of that in the books."

Pullman's acclaimed His Dark Materials trilogy tells of a battle against the church and a fight to overthrow God.

Attacked by some Christian teachers and Catholic press as blasphemous, Pullman's trilogy is also being made into a series of movies.

[ono]

Sounds to me as if he hasn't even read them.  The whol series, especially The Last Battle, just ooze Christianity.

[RegularKarate]

did you read it?

he's not saying it's full of christian ideas, he says it's racist and it's not very "christian" to be racist.

[ono]

But it's not racist.  In fact, it's very matter-of-fact about race.  Just because a book may happen to portray situations of race and class differences doesn't mean it supports them.  It's just a reflection of a certain reality.

[Ghostboy]

It looks like a Xena/Babe hybrid.

Maybe the CGI just isn't finished.

[squints]

[Ravi]

Does anyone else cringe when they see another trailer featuring British accents and swords?

Not that this can't be good, but this had better be awesome.

[RegularKarate]

It won't be awesome.

I never thought this looked good.

Now this trailer makes me think it will suck less.  Now it looks like it has a kind of shitty Neverending Story feel to it.

[Ghostboy]

Saw it this morning.

THE GOOD: the kids that play Lucy and Edmond, the beavers, most of the animals in the battle scene

THE BAD: the talking wolves, the pacing, Aslan (he's a complete non-entity)

THE WINNER: Tilda Swinton

It made me want to go back and read the books, though.

[tpfkabi]

I've started reading the books again and am reading A Horse and His Boy now.
Not much Aslan?

[Ghostboy]

He's in it about as much as he is in the book, but the film is so much more epic in scope that his character doesn't really have a chance to come into its own. He's not as grand and majestic as he should be.

[Redlum]

I just saw this and thought I'd post to encourage others to go.

I was fairly skeptical about this in light of the trailers emphasis on the 'epicness' of it all, which is not something that I associated with this story. But 5 minutes in and all my doubts were pretty much put to rest.

The pacing of it all is exactly right, allowing the story to draw you in rather than put you on some rollercoaster ride. In fact most of the time I was wishing it would go slower, genuinely not wanting to leave Narnia. Now this is a kids film, there really arent any adult central characters, but thankfuly the film never winks at the older audience members.

The effects are actually quite brilliant. Okay, the creatures arent photorealistic but the way they're placed in their surroundings is so convincing that I had no problem in taking them seriously as characters in the story. CG wolves have got a bad reputation (The Day After Tomorrow, Brothers Grimm) but some of their shots in this film were extremely convincing.
Furthermore, unlike Lucas's ridiculous overcrowding of the backgrounds in Episode III, the "supporting creatures" are so well intergrated into shots (some, where it would have been easier to leave them out) that they have a truly immersive effect - rather than being distracting. It surprises me but this unlikely film really puts Star Wars to shame. It manages to incorporate modern technology whilst also telling an exciting story, with child actors that outperform even Ewan McGreggor. Now thats not really much of a recommendation but if you feel let down in the escapsim department this year then you should give this film a chance, I'd hate to see it buried by Kong.

Oh and Neverending Story this is not!

And if I ever hear anyone ponsing around talking about this film being a christian allegory I'll punch them in the face.

[grand theft sparrow]

And if I ever hear anyone ponsing around talking about this film being a christian allegory I'll punch them in the face.

XIXAXER ARRESTED FOR ASSAULTING DEAD AUTHOR'S CORPSE

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17458198%255E16947,00.html


Narnia a Christian chronicle

December 05, 2005
LONDON: An unpublished letter from the novelist C.S. Lewis has provided conclusive proof of the Christian message in his Narnia children's books.

In the letter, sent to a child fan in 1961, Lewis writes: "The whole Narnian story is about Christ." It has been found by Walter Hooper, literary adviser to the Lewis estate.

It emerged ahead of this week's release of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. The film, starring Tilda Swinton, cost $174million and has been at the centre of a row between Christians and secularists.

Brian Sibley, author of Shadowlands, the book which describes Lewis's marriage to Joy Gresham, said: "This is the most specific explanation of Narnia I have heard."

The film depicts one of the seven novels in Lewis's series, which tell the story of four children journeying through a wardrobe into Narnia, a world of talking animals that is plunged into endless winter by a witch. The children and animals rally to Aslan, a noble lion.

On one side church groups, backed by the film's producer, Disney, are promoting the story's message as Christian, with Jesus represented by Aslan saving a world fallen into sin.

Others say it is just an adventure story that draws on a variety of religious and folklore sources.

Douglas Gresham, Lewis's stepson, said recently: "Churches in Britain and America are promoting the film as a Christian film, but it's not ... and the Narnia books aren't Christian novels."

The letter, written from Magdalene College, Cambridge, where Lewis was a don, contradicts this. "Supposing there really was a world like Narnia ... and supposing Christ wanted to go into that world and save it (as He did ours) what might have happened?" he wrote.

"The stories are my answer. Since Narnia is a world of talking beasts, I thought he would become a talking beast there as he became a man here. I pictured him becoming a lion there because a) the lion is supposed to be the king of beasts; b) Christ is called 'the lion of Judah' in the Bible."

The text is contained in a volume of Lewis letters to be published next year.