If you have read the books, you already know that the filmmakers created a pretty faithful rendition of Lewis' story when they made this film. I can't imagine a more perfect White Witch than Tilda Swinson and Liam Neeson as Aslan was pure perfection. Seeing Narnia bloom to life on the screen is a truly magical experience, especially for fans of the book. The only downside? It's a really long movie. But more on that in a bit.
The release of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe on Blu-ray couldn't come at a more perfect time. Its release is done in close time to the release of The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian on the big screen, no doubt to catch those who didn't buy it when it released on DVD some time ago. This film was just begging to be released on high-def because the CGI is simply spectacular. From the wintry forests of Narnia, to the raging, melting river, to the grand battle for Narnia's survival, every scene shines with crystal clear, high-def beauty. Not only that, but this film is a surround sound dream, with sounds cavorting around you in 360 degrees.
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe surrounds the strange adventures of siblings Peter (William Moseley), Susan (Anna Popplewell), Edmund (Skandar Keynes) and Lucy Pevensie (Georgie Henley), who are sent to stay with an old professor during the war, to protect them from German air raids in London. The house is huge and quaint and the professor mostly stays hidden away in his office, so the children find ways to amuse themselves. One day during a game of hide and seek, Lucy, the youngest of the four, slips inside of a deep wardrobe. As she presses back behind the fur coats, she stumbles into the magical, ice-covered world of Narnia. There she meets a charming faun by the name of Mr. Tumnus (James McAvoy, Becoming Jane), who is later imprisoned for fraternizing with humans. It seems that the world of Narnia is kept in a permanent state of winter's chill, with no Christmas for 100 years, under the rule of the White Witch (Tilda Swinson). The "prophecy" foretells of four human children, two sons of Adam and two daughters of Eve, who will end the Witch's rule, so she stays ever vigilant, looking for any human infiltrators.
When Lucy returns home after Tumnus reveals that she is in imminent danger, she finds that no time has passed, although she was in Narnia for many hours. Her siblings don't believe her and think she is simply spinning a wild tale. Later, when Edmund follows her into the wardrobe, he meets up with the White Witch who plys him with Turkish Delight and tricks him into agreeing to bring all of his siblings to Narnia. Eventually, the children must turn to the animal locals of Narnia for help and Aslan, the true and rightful lion king of Narnia, presents himself, hell-bent on unseating the queen and freeing Narnia from her oppressive rule.
Now, there's far more to the story than this, but it's a very involved and deep story, with tons of character-building and storytelling. This is why it's such a long movie, because it had to be. But clocking in at a little over 2.5 hours, unfortunately, one gets a little tired right around the battle scene. Geck0 and I found ourselves getting drowsy right at this pivotal point, which is a shame.
Special features are many (10+ hours) and include things like bloopers, a Blu-ray specific game called Battle for Narnia, commentary, Narnia fun facts and featurettes on everything from the creatures to the actors and everything in between. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe is a fantastic film and one which I waited years to see on the screen. It's well worth the purchase and if you don't already own it, but have a Blu-ray player, this is the version to buy. Yes its long, but worth the ride!
