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

[Tania S]

Because it was written first and they are designed to be read in the order they were written. 'The Magicians Nephew' was the 7th book that CS Lewis wrote, and it was written as a prequel to explain how Narnia came to be; why the wardrobe was a way into Narnia; and how the lampost came to be there; amongst other things. It is my favourite of the series, but it wouldn't be right to film it first.

[Mr. Dyer]

opps as i posted in an older thread , i really enjoyed just a shame that the cinema was full of kiRAB i have never seen so many people get up during a film and goto the toilet .

and people on there phones also

but i recomend going to see this

[ruiz800]

According to reports Disney has announced plans for a Narnia sequel.

[irishmom91562]

I think it is great that it has been made. I'm not a Christian but it is full of Christian symblosim (C.S Lewis was a Christian writer and philosopher.)

Aslan as a representation of Jesus is magical.

The 'Deep Magic' and 'Even Deeper Magic' should have been more thoroughly covered in the film though, it's such a huge part of the story.

[LayVoa]

They should do the Magicians Nephew, which was the very first book and featured the Proffessor.

[Kumar S]

NOOO!!!!! As I said above, it may be the first book, but is meant to be read after the others. It answers a lot of questions. Therefore it should be filmed last.

It is a prequel, not the first book.

[reddevilbloodymary]

Ruby, you have said almost exactly what I thought after seeing the film tonight. The Narnia chronicles were for me too an immensely important part of my childhood and seeing it come alive on screen was quite an experience. The books are so deeply ingrained in my psyche that I can't imagine how it must be to watch the film without having read them.

I don't think I've ever seen a film that was so faithful to the book and on so many levels. Visually, the original book illustrations (who did those, by the way? was it Lewis himself?) were often followed meticulously and just leapt out out of the page/screen They even used the original drawing of the map during one of the battle scenes. On that level the little things that really struck me were the fur coats, Tumnus' cave house, the doors to the White Witch's castle and the turkish delight scene. It was just like reading the book again as a child. Just perfect.

As for Aslan....it's a funny thing. As a child I found him to be a distant presence that I could never quite warm to - it was always slightly puzzling to me why the children, and everyone in Narnia, were quite so enamoured with him. It was always just too mysterious to be interesting. I would have been happy to just fight for the beavers and for the rights of fauns to drink wine and be merry. But then, I was brought up as a strict socialist and to believe that religion was the opiate of the masses

I'm glad they played down that side of things: for example, in the book don't Susan and Lucy actually
[SPOILER]wash Aslan's body after he's sacrificed himself?[/SPOILER]

The only thing I didn't like were the creatures in the White Witch's army. They just seemed too 'Lord of the Rings' for me.

On the other hand, Tilda Swinton created a character that was even better than Lewis's version, I think. She was just magnificent.

edit: and all the child actors were just brilliant, all of them. Why does anyone have a problem with Peter (have any of you seen the Harry Potter films????).

[rexic1]

I always thought Aslan was supposed to be God, not Jesus... ?
But you may be right.
I remember hearing that Philip Pulman, author of His Dark Materials, lambasted the Narnia books as ......

just done a bit of googling to find a quote and see that he has spoken more on the topic since the film:

I remember his worRAB on the ending to the final book in the Narnia series and I have to agree with him there.
Link here by the way if anyone's interested.

[×צ.LadyJoker.¦××]

I agree with you WillowFae as it would make no sense to film the books out of order as they should be filmed as they were writen!

[Jessee A]

It was the 6th book actually...

1. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950)
2. Prince Caspian(1951)
3. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952)
4. The Silver Chair (1953)
5. The Horse and His Boy (1954)
6. The Magicians Nephew(1955)
7. The Last Battle (1956)

CS Lewis himself said he agreed with reading them chronologically.

1. The Magicians Nephew
2. The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
3. The Horse and His Boy
4. Prince Caspian
5. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
6. The Silver Chair
7. The Last Battle

Incidentally, he started writing TMN after TLTWATW but abandoned it.