Movie Thoughts: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005)

• Released: 9 December 2005
• Directed by:  Andrew Adamson
• Running time: 2 h 23 min
• Rating 5/5

Synopsis

Four children discover a magical realm in a wardrobe where they are the prophesied heroes said to be the ones to aid in the defeat of the White Witch.

My Thoughts

This movie just awesome. Yes, it has its bad points, but I simply don’t care. This is one of the first movies to introduce me to fantasy other than The Golden Compass and Harry Potter, and I’ll always love it for that. I love fantasy and since this movie literally had the children discovering this high-fantasy realm from the real world, it made for a great introduction for me.

The animation and story hold up surprisingly well, and despite its long runtime, it really uses its time well. It never felt like it was over 2 hours long to me. I just love the CGI designs of the animals here. They’re realistic enough for them to look like they fit into this realistic-esque fantasy world, but they still look unique (no same-face syndrome on the beavers for example) and emote really well. This isn’t like The Lion King 2019 where, despite how much I love the movie, it was a tad too realistic for its own good.

Narnia is a bit of a generic fantasy realm by today’s standards, but it still works perfectly for me. When I saw this when I was like twelve I just loved seeing this world where all these fantastical creatures + talking animals came together. The magic and how everything works is never explained beyond the deep magic, but it honestly doesn’t have to be. I don’t need complex magic building for this movie, it just needs to tell its story and we accept it for how it is.

My favorite character just has to be Maugrim. I love CGI wolves, and he looks really good plus has a cool voice. Talking animals already sold me on this world, but Maugrim made it for me.

I guess I could point out the whole religious aspect and how it feels a bit weird to have Santa Claus in here, but honestly, I don’t care. I’m not a christian and to me this movie is not a religious experience. It’s just two hours of escapism to this pretty standard yet still awesome fantasy realm.