Directed by Andrew Adamson

The Walt Disney Company

2 stars



Slip behind the wardrobe, past the lamppost on the right, and you’re in the land of Narnia with the gentle voice of author C.S. Lewis as your guide. Young readers and their parents have made this journey for over 50 years.

It’s a simple path, one that has now been ruined. In adapting the universally beloved fantasy series, “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe,” Disney attempts to join the ranks of “The Lord of the Rings” and the “Harry Potter” franchises, visually stunning films that did justice to the original works.

But, unfortunately for fans of the books and the parents dragged with them, Andrew Adamson’s (“Shrek”) work fails on two counts: accurately presenting Lewis’ classic story and creating an entertaining fantasy epic film, especially in the wake of the “Rings” series.

Adamson inflates the simple, magical allegory of “The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe” into 140 minutes of unnecessary battle sequences, uninspired acting, and unrealistic graphics.

The plot of the book is fairly simple. The four Pevensie siblings—Lucy, Edmund, Susan and Peter—accidentally escape World War II England by entering a magical wardrobe into Narnia, a land in which it is perpetually winter because of the curse of the evil queen, the White Witch (Tilda Swinton). The children, under the guidance of a messianic lion, Aslan (voiced by Liam Neeson), must fulfill an ancient prophecy: Defeat the Witch and free Narnia.

Disney tries so hard to add peril to an otherwise tame children’s story—Lewis’s strengths were in his gentle bedtime story-like tone, wondrous creatures and espousal of Christian doctrine, not his action narrative. From the expository scenes of World War II London air raids to the “Alexander Nevsky”-esque ice flow chase to the overly long climatic battle—a poor imitation of “The Two Towers”—the unnecessary additions to the story do not enhance the audience’s appreciation for “Narnia” and become almost unbearable to watch.

Whether it is the fault of the cinematographer, Donald McApline (“Moulin Rouge”), or the artistic direction team (who perhaps unsurprisingly, worked on “Lord of the Rings” and “Star Wars: Episode III”) the computer-animated talking animals, fauns, and centaurs look simply unrealistic in a land that’s more Magic Kingdom than Middle-Earth.

In battle alongside these poorly animated beasts, the Pevensie children look awkward, not valiant. The obnoxious Hobbit-sized protagonists have even less acting talent than Elijah Wood and their performances are extremely grating—except for the adorable and honest young heroine, Lucy (Georgie Henley).

Lucy’s moral fiber and goodness reflects the one element of Narnia that Adamson is able to translate to film: Lewis’s grounding in Christian theology, the philosophy of agape (ultimate sacrifice and love), and the mythos of Christ’s resurrection. The film teeters on the fine line between feel-good family fare and a heavy-handed appeal to religious America. And unlike the text, in which Lewis deftly blends morality with witty narrative and dynamic character descriptions, the film is virtually humorless and Swinton’s oddly androgynous face far too static.

Adamson, the directorial mind behind “Shrek” and “Shrek 2,” is unable to carry over the wholesome, multigenerational fun of these films to “Narnia,” giving nothing to the parent dragged to the theatre or the young adult looking to recapture her youth.

One can only hope that the film—along with Disney’s marketing blitz of video games, soundtracks, and toys—flops before the filmmakers are encouraged to sully more of the fantastic land of Narnia through further Lewis adaptations.

—Staff writer Kristina M. Moore can be reached at moore2@fas.harvard.edu.