The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
OK, so I have been debating internally whether or not to watch “The Lion….” as it was my favourite book growing up and I know how often a film just doesn’t live up to expectations. However, David resolved this debate for me and last night we watched the Narnia film.
It was obviously lacking in areas - a two and a half hour film cannot do full justice - but overall I was impressed. Lucy was fabulous, I really warmed to her but it quite upset me wondering how much grief an eight year old was expected to go through! My other favourite was Mr Tumnus, just perfect casting and I was very intrigued as to how they made him walk. Naturally Ray Winstone and Dawn French were excellent as Mr and Mrs Beaver (loved the suit of armour Mr Beaver!). Quite how the white witch walked around in that dress I will never know. She was seriously scary and was wonderful casting - she was exactly how my six year old imagination thought she would be. All those memories of reading the Narnia books for the first time came flooding back to me.
The other interesting thing to me is that since the film came out there has been a debate raging about the books and Christianity. There have been some interesting articles on the bbc website oftentimes with reader comments. What does appear clear is that JRR Tolkien, one of CS Lewis’ friends - and author of another of my favourite series of books - did not like the Narnia books. Perhaps he was envious that it only took Lewis three months to write “The Lion…”! I have to confess that as a child reading the Narnia books, the last thing on my mind were theological themes - I just loved the fantasy aspect of the stories.
Finally, the other thing that irritates me is the ordering of the series. Naturally, “The Lion…” tends to be the first book that anyone reads in the Narnia series - of course it is the first film to be made as it has such great impact. The order in which perhaps the books should be read is considered here, although naturally no conclusion is drawn. For me, having read the books many times, I read them in the chronological order rather than the publication order. If you are a Narnia virgin, I urge you to read the books - no matter which you read first, “The Magician’s Nephew” or “The Lion…” - just read them!
Add comment January 8th, 2006