Last night Sarah and I went out with Jill & Leonard Harris to go see The Chronoicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, based on the book by C. S. Lewis. I think the last time that I read the book I was in 5th grade, but I still had a fair number of specific memories about what happens in the book. Based on my recollection of the book I think they did a pretty good job of sticking to the story, with only a few minor specifics left out.
If you’ve never gone through the mental exercise of comparing the book to Christianity then definitely do so after seeing the movie. I won’t go through the details here for those of you who haven’t read the book or seen the movie yet because I don’t want to spoil it for you. I will give you a hint though, compare the themes of the book to those in the four gospels in the New Testament (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John).
There are six other books in The Chronicles of Narnia, each of which I’d read but don’t remember as much as I did this one. I hope that they make movies out of the others at the same level as the first. There would be some question as to what order to make them in though. When I read the books The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe was the first one in the series. Looking at Amazon, now The Magician’s Nephew is the first instead. This makes sense chronologically since The Magician’s Nephew explains events that happen before The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. Fortunately someone has already taken on this question: What Order Should I Read the Narnia Books in(And Does It Matter?).
I’m obviously biased towards the published order since that was the way that I read them as a child. I can see some merit to reading them in chronological order for the sake of learning about the events in the right order. However I think the joy of surprise and discovery by reading the book in the original order are more interesting. To that end I recommend reading the books in the following (original published) order:
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)
Even though I read this book as a kid, I wouldn’t recommend bringing small children to this movie. The concluding battle at the end scene is a little rough, although no where near the level of The Lord of the Rings.
I give this movie 4 out of 5 stars.