THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE (2005) ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
D: Andrew Adamson
Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes, William Moseley,
Anna Popplewell, Tilda Swinton, James McAvoy,
Jim Broadbent, Kiran Shah, James Cosmo
The Disney version of the much-loved C.S. Lewis tale about four kids who find the doorway to an ice-bound fantasyland in a wardrobe full of old fur coats. This hasn't got the obsessive craftsmanship Peter Jackson brought to the "Lord of the Rings" movies, but on the level of a children's story it hooks you just the way the book did, and Tilda Swinton as the coldly psychotic White Witch rates a spot next to Margaret Hamilton in the Wicked Witch Hall of Fame. The Christian symbolism can be heavy-handed (it goes with the territory), but it's worth noting that in the final confrontation with the White Witch, the Christ figure, Aslan, doesn't turn the other cheek. He rips her face off.
