The Chronicles Of Narnia - The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe (Royal Edition) (Box Set) (DVD)

...fit of boredom, what with the rain and everything, I decided to escape the dreary estate I live on and transport myself to another realm. Seeing as I do not own a TARDIS I settled for 'The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe'. Maybe not as interesting as seeing the crab nebula or travelling 'round in a box with a beautiful assistant but we can't have everything can we?

I am sure by now that everyone out there ...
...never known nor cared about the story then this next bit is for you. Everyone else can skip this next paragraph.....

The film is the story of four children, Edmund, Lucy, Peter and Susan Pevensie, who are evacuated during the war and sent to live in a large house occupied by the eccentric professor Dicory Kirke and his housekeeper. During their long, boring days at the house the children pass the time by playing games and it is during ... more

In a fit of boredom, what with the rain and everything, I decided to escape the dreary estate I live on and transport myself to another realm. Seeing as I do not own a TARDIS I settled for 'The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe'. Maybe not as interesting as seeing the crab nebula or travelling 'round in a box with a beautiful assistant but we can't have everything can we?

I am sure by now that everyone out there already knows the salient points of the book and/or film but for those of you out there who have never known nor cared about the story then this next bit is for you. Everyone else can skip this next paragraph.....

The film is the story of four children, Edmund, Lucy, Peter and Susan Pevensie, who are evacuated during the war and sent to live in a large house occupied by the eccentric professor Dicory Kirke and his housekeeper. During their long, boring days at the house the children pass the time by playing games and it is during hide and seek that Lucy (the youngest of the Pevensie's) discovers an old wardrobe hidden away in an (almost) empty room. She enters it to hide but discovers that there appears to be no back to the thing and suddenly finds herself in a snow-filled land and in the company of Mr. Tumnus, a faun. There she learns that this new land, the land of Narnia, is being ruled by the evil White Queen and that she keeps the land in perpetual winter - always winter, never Christmas. A prophecy states that two 'daughters of Eve' and two 'sons of Adam' will reclaim the land back from the wintery one and, hey presto, all will be well in the kingdom of Narnia. With the help of the lion Aslan the four children must face their greatest fears and help restore Narnia back to its former glory.

In the main the actors are little known. In fact the only ones I can remember being in different productions were Tilda Swinton who plays the White Witch and was also in 'The Beach' and 'Constantine' and Jim Broadbent and James McAvoy who play the professor and the Mr. Tumnus respectively who are both well-known british actors of screen and television. That being so the acting is really well done with the children, who could easily have broken the film with their performances, coming across as believable and still retaining the child-like innocence you would expect of kids thrown into a snow-covered wardrobe land of turkish delight and talking beavers.

Once again, as in Peter Jackson's trilogy, it is the New Zealand landscape and visual effects that really bring the film to life and open out the whole scope of the books vision. With some stunning scenery and jaw-dropping special effects (especially the climactic battle) the movie truly is a joy to behold and a great testement to WETA Digital's skill and dedication. I love sci-fi and fantasy films but only if the effects take centre stage and in this production they truly do.

This was director Andrew Adamson's first feature film although he did direct the first two 'Shrek' movies and has had a hand in a fair few other films such as 'Batman and Robin' and 'Toys' working on their visual effects and on the whole I think he does a great job. It can't be easy to transfer such a classic story onto film but he manages to pull it off and, when you watch the bonus material, he does this whilst retaining his own child-like innocence and joy.

This four-disc edition is beautifully packaged in a fold-out disc holder replete with 'additional notes' booklet with each disc featuring artwork from the film which all slip into a silver outer sleeve. The only real problem with the entire 'Extended Edition' edition is that it isn't really extended at all. The LOTR trilogy had an extra two hours or so of extra material rammed into it and really helped develop the films as a whole but sadly this 'extended' version has roughly about ten minutes of additional footage - was it worth shoving it in I hear you cry? Not really. It doesn't add to the film. In fact you'd be hard pushed to spot the extra stuff.

Disc 1 - contains the extended version of the movie and two commentaries - one from the director and children and one from the film-makers. It also has a bloopers section and a great way to view the film so that, whilst your watching it, facts appear on screen giving you info on Narnia, its creation and its author.

Disc 2 - features 'Creating Narnia' which contains eight making-of featurettes and a further section, 'Creatures, Lnds and Legends' which in turn has three featurettes.

Disc 3 - is a never-before-seen documentary about the creator of the world of Narnia - one C. S. Lewis - from his life to the actual creation of his masterpiece(s).

Disc 4 - shows an in-depth look into the process and technology of adapting the book into an award-winning film along with art galleries and a detailed depiction of how the battle-scene was developed.

The film is presented in stereo and 5.1 which is great with the volume turned to eleven especially when the sh*t really does hit the fan and all-out war engulfs the land of Narnia.

This 4-disc edition is available from Amazon for an amazing £7.98 new. The used copies are going for £7.95 upwards so that rules them lot out!

There are a lot of comparisons with this story and Tolkien's tale of Orcs and Hobbits - what with an evil ruler, four children and a host of magical creatures - but don't let that spoil your enjoyment of this wonderful cinematic experience. Although both films portray an oppressed land brought back from under the fist of dictatorship the 'Narnia' chronicles are aimed more at children and in turn so is the film with its non-graphic violence and its message of hope, belief and friendship. There is even a Santa Claus thrown in for good measure. Okay the books do not hold the depth that Tolkien created but are still great works of fiction and a lot easier to transfer onto celluloid.

All in all the movie is fantastic with tonnes of bonus material giving a great insight into the whole experience of making a film of such depth. With 'The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian' in post-production and 'The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader' in pre-production as we speak this is a great way to take that tentative first step into the world beyond the wardrobe.

Also posted on Dooyoo. 

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