The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

Four young adventurers playing hide-and-seek in the country home of an old professor stumble upon an enchanted wardrobe that will take them places they never dreamed. Stepping through the wardrobe door, they are whisked out of World War II London into the spectacular parallel universe known as Narnia--a fairy-tale realm of magical proportions where woodland animals talk and mythological creatures roam the hills. But Narnia has fallen under the icy spell of a mad sorceress, cursed to suffer through a winter that never ends by the White Witch Jadis. Now, aided by Narnia's rightful leader, the wise and mystical lion Aslan, the four Pevensie children will discover their own strength and lead Narnia into a spectacular battle to be free of the Witch's glacial enslavement forever.

I read the Chronicles of Narnia books as a child and remember that the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe was one of the more boring books of the series. As I told my wife that as we left the movie, she said "well, then they did a really good job with it". Indeed they did. Few times will I ever say that a movie translation of a book adds to the story or makes it better, but in this case I feel it does. Everything about this movie is incredible, from the bombing of London at the beginning to the final battle at the end. This movie will give Harry Potter a run for its money in capturing the hearts and minds of children as well as rival Lord of the Rings in quality and scope of story. I was skeptical in how the talking animals would be portrayed. I didn't want to see anything too cartoony and I wasn't disappointed. They were perfect. Liam Neeson does great as Aslan. Tilda Swinton, however, was absolutely incredible as the White Witch. What a perfect movie to have as an option for families during the holiday season.

Disney made sure to keep the movie fairly tame to appeal to parents of younger children. However, there are some creatures and scenes that may be a bit too intense for very young children. Nothing as scary as the orcs or Uruk-Hai in Lord of the Rings, but some scary creatures nonetheless. Parents should also be aware that some last minute cuts had to be made to this film to make the violence level at the PG level rather than PG-13 so be aware that the violence, while neither gory nor graphic, is at the ceiling of the PG rating.

I tried hard to find something wrong with this movie. The only thing I could think of was it did drag a bit while the children were playing around the mansion. Also I even found the kids a bit annoying, but they will grow on you throughout the film. This is a perfect film for families with children (or anyone of any age) to see this holiday season. What I'm most excited about, however, is if this book was translated so well to screen, how awesome will The Voyage of the Dawn Treader or The Silver Chair be? Disney did it right this time.

4.9 out of 5