Jan 30, 2006 08:12 PM
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(Updated Jan 30, 2006 08:12 PM)
CHRONICLES OF NARNIA:
THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE
CS Lewis’ epic fantasy comes to life through the skills and crafts of Andrew Adamson who gave us Shrek 1&2. Maybe Disney didn’t want to be left out in the trend of fantasy epics after New Line’s LOTR trilogy and then the Harry Potter series but it took this gamble and it did pay off well.
The book itself from which the movie is adapted, is basically a children’s book. Not much scope for philosophy, depth, characterization, drama, intensity and gruesome action that we witnessed in the epic Lord Of the Rings. But nevertheless, it has its fair share of entertainment in terms of the story of good v/s evil (yet again) and a fantasyland, Narnia, where creatures speak and because of a nefarious witch, “it’s always winter but never Christmas”.
Four siblings are sent to the countryside home of the Old Professor during the world war and there while playing hide n seek in the mansion, little Lucy finds a wardrobe that takes her into the magical kingdom of Narnia where she meets a hospitable Fawn. Nobody believes her when she returns but soon enough, all of them are on the other side of the wardrobe and the adventure begins. They discover the dilapidated house of the Fawn and bump into the Beaver couple (ohh so cute!) and discover that the witch wants them killed so that she can continue her reign on Narnia. Then comes Aslan, the Lion- the King of all the worlds who returns to save the helpless Narnians (half the animal kingdom that we know and others from Narnia itself) and together, they venture to battle the witch and her deadly servants that include dwarves, giants, wolves and some other ugly, deformed and demented creatures.
The story is simple enough and the most appealing part is the family bonding among the 4 children which has been nicely portrayed. Adamson succeeds in depicting the creatures just as they were described in the book. The centaurs, the dwarves, the leopards, the bears, beavers, wolves, fawns, unicorns and even the Lion for that matter. Although the talking animals may seem to be a silly idea, the adaptation from the book has been brilliantly executed on screen and you are yourself become involved in this magical world.
The casting is just apt and this is further bolstered by the wonderful performances by the children and Swinton who plays the witch. The background score is outstanding and so is the dubbing of all the voices of the animals.
Cinematography is par excellence and New Zealand, yet again, has been stunningly depicted. Visual effects of all the animals and the battle sequences are brilliant as well and also convincing enough in the fantasy world.
It can be concluded that Adamson succeeded in transforming every page of the book onto the celluloid but there were a few tiny things that could’ve made the film even better. For instance, the beginning of the movie, where it takes 15 mins just to reach the English countryside from London without much relevance to the actual story.
Also, it would’ve been better to add in a brief narrative about the first book (The Magician’s nephew) in the beginning in order to introduce the world of Narnia and show how it all began. The battle scene, which was barely a page or two in the book, turns into a spectacular showdown in the movie with a lot of innovative inputs from the director which do add to the thrill and excitement so one mustn’t complain.
Nevertheless, it’s a fine adaptation of a Fantastic epic and full credit to the director and the technical team. Performances are brilliant and the film itself is entertaining and fun filled throughout.
Kids will surely love it but its Hollywood- Remember? Therefore, even adults will enjoy it.
So go ahead and transcend into the magical world of Narnia……. It’s just the beginning you know….
- 9.017 on a scale of 1-10.
