Better Than I Remember – The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Review)

“The beloved masterpiece comes to life.

Siblings Lucy, Edmund, Susan and Peter step through a magical wardrobe and find the land of Narnia. There, they discover a charming, once peaceful kingdom that has been plunged into eternal winter by the evil White Witch, Jadis. Aided by the wise and magnificent lion, Aslan, the children lead Narnia into a spectacular, climactic battle to be free of the Witch’s glacial powers forever.” – Letterboxd Synopis

Somehow, I ended up watching Narnia during Thanksgiving. And I wasn’t going to review this initially because I thought I would be too hungry and then too tired to pay attention to it, but pretty early on in the movie, it just grabbed everyone’s attention and really never let go. I remember watching bits and pieces of this movie as a kid, but finally sitting down to watch this whole film as an adult, it holds up pretty well.

I had totally forgotten the framing of this movie. Set during WW2, these four orphans are forced to stay with their estranged uncle in the countryside. This really adds to that feeling of escapism that’s very similar to a story/movie like Pan’s Labyrinth. It’s always interesting to see the juxtaposition between the things going on in the real world vs what’s going on in the fantasy one of Narnia. Seeing them have to navigate their reality and then their so-called destiny in Narnia, and fulfilling a prophecy. While it is a little quick, that shift does happen where they go from treating Narnia as fiction to treating it as real and taking things seriously.

I love how the siblings are portrayed. The two oldest (Lucy and Peter) have to act kind of like parents. The middle child (Edmund) is too young to be up there with them and feels like he’s too old to indulge his little sister. And the youngest (Lucy) is just the sweetest thing with a giant imagination. These actors are great. The middle one does a good job of acting like a little shit, and the sense of wonder they all end up having once they reach Narnia really radiates off the screen. Their relationship was believable, their friction was, and so were their story arcs individually and together as a family.

I got two words for you, Tilda Swinton and Liam Neeson. What great performances from these two. I loved Tilda’s almost cartoonishly vindictive and villainous portrayal of the witch. She really reminded me of a character straight out of a Disney movie. The faces she would make and her mannerisms were just great. Same with Liam Neeson as Aslan. He was kind, yet always able to command a room. This movie does have some religious imaginary, and that’s strongest with his character (beyond the name). But every scene with both of these characters was great. James McAvoy was fun as Mr. Tummus too.

Visually, this movie holds up surprisingly well. The sets and wardrobe are amazing. From the mansion, to the snowy areas, to the plains. Everything was really well done. The CGI still looked pretty solid, too. I think Aslan looked great, more than anything else, but the other stuff was solid.

So yeah, this movie was a welcome surprise and a fun watch on Thanksgiving. It was a lot better than I remember it being. The idea of Narnia is neat. The main characters were great. They had great chemistry and dynamics and some surprising character development. The way this movie ended reminded me of the premise of the sequel and that has me very intrigued. I’ll probably get around to that sometime next year.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe – 7/10

Notes – Going through the trailer uploaded on YouTube to get screen caps for this movie was wild. I forgot this movie came from an era where movie trailers literally showed the entire movie. it’s crazy.