Wednesday, December 28, 2005
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (2005)
Cast: Georgie Henley (Lucy Pevensie), Skandar Keynes (Edmund Pevensie), William Moseley (Peter Pevensie), Anna Popplewell (Susan Pevensie), James McAvoy (Mr. Tumnus, the Faun), Tilda Swinton (White Witch)
For complete cast information, see IMDb's The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe page.
Like many lovers of the C. S. Lewis novel, I was very worried about another version of his series being done. I also had hope that it could be amazing if Disney bothered to spend the money to do it right. Believe it or not, that's exactly what Disney did - they did an amazing job with this movie! I re-read the entire 7-book series before the movie came out, so I would have it fresh in my mind when I saw the movie and I was still very happy with the movie.
At the end of the movie, all I could think was, "I hope this makes enough money for Disney to be happy so that they'll make the other movies." They clearly left the story open just as the book did and since The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe has made over $271.5 million (as of 1/22/06), placing it 28th on the all time box office list when it's still playing, I feel pretty confident that Disney will make the other movies and I'm thrilled about that.
The cast of mostly unknowns did a great job as the Pevensie children & all the other characters. I'm sure we'll see everyone in this movie again soon.
This movie is much better than any C. S. Lewis fan could have hoped. Go see this movie if you loved The Chronicles of Narnia and even if *gasp* you hadn't heard of these books before, go see the movie and then read the books. The hardest thing will be to wait for the other movies to come out on DVD before I buy the DVD, since there will probably be a gorgeous box set. I'll just rent the DVD's from Netflix to see the extras before then and try to make that good enough.
Grade: ALabels: 2005, action, adventure, Anna Popplewell, Disney, drama, family, fantasy, Georgie Henley, James McAvoy, movie, Narnia, Skandar Keynes, Tilda Swinton, William Moseley