Sunday, December 11, 2005

Chronicles of Narnia

Saw The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe last night. 5/5! A+++++! Excellent ebayer! Would buy from again. [heh, considering how obviously they've engineered this for a six-cap, I'm sure the next movie will be up soon ;) .]

I'll be the first to admit it's been about 15 years since I made it through the famous books from C.S. Lewis. But, from limited memory, it seems to be a fairly accurate rendition of the tale. The acting was stellar from everyone involved, from the child actors that played the four siblings, to veteran Liam Neeson as the deep majestic voice of Aslan. The professor was interesting - would have almost sworn it was Jim Carey (having watched the garbage that was A Series of Unfortunate Events); except in this movie, the professor was actually played well. The CG was pretty good - perhaps not as convincing as Lord of the Rings, but as believable as a talking beaver couple ever is.

While still a children's story, definitely worth watching for any age, especially if you read the books as a kid. Watching the movie, you might find some interesting hidden parallels that you missed when you were younger.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

While its an excellent book, I do object to the story on the basis that it is, at its core, meant to teach Christian morals to children. Seems a little underhanded to disguise God/Prophets/Message as a 'fun' story to make indoctrination to Christianity easier... and that's what the story is, everyone knows that.

Regardless, I did greatly enjoy the books, and am looking forward to seeing the movie :)

Michael Jarrett said...

"Some people seem to think that I began by asking myself how I could say something about Christianity to children; then fixed on the fairy tale as an instrument, then collected information about child psychology and decided what age group I'd write for; then drew up a list of basic Christian truths and hammered out 'allegories' to embody them. This is all pure moonshine. I couldn't write in that way. It all began with images; a faun carrying an umbrella, a queen on a sledge, a magnificent lion. At first there wasn't anything Christian about them; that element pushed itself in of its own accord."
- CS Lewis

In the movie itself (it's been too long since I read the books to comment), Aslan's parallel to a well-known Christian superhero's tale is quite obvious. As is the good-vs-evil battle, though the Christians hardly get a patent on that plot device. But in general, I don't think it's a problem - it's not preachy at all, and any morals they show are pretty generic.

Later books would be perhaps a bit more difficult. A creation story? Heh. Come on!

Anonymous said...

the christianity is disguised?
damn and here i thought that the death and resurection thing was pretty damn blatently christian.

and too your quote there mike, that's what those sneaky christians want you to think...sure it wasn't a carefully constructed plan...sure..

http://objectiveministries.org/ <-check out the halloween reclaimation bit, scary stuff.

ps. i have nothing against christianity and am totally joking here, the site is pretty funny though