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With the success of this film, Judge David Johnson is hoping for a big-screen Disney treatment of that other C. Lewis blockbuster: The Abolition of Man .
Our reviews of The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe (published October 16th, 2002) and The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe (Four-Disc Extended Edition) (published January 1st, 2007) are also available.
Following in the footsteps of that other massive fantasy epic produced from the fiction of a religious, caustic British icon, C. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe smashed onto screens in time for the holiday season and promptly made off with some serious Turkish Delights, propelling the film to number two on the year's box office tally. Now it has emerged from the wardrobe on a handsome two-disc collector's set.
The story of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (henceforth in this review to be referred to as LW&W ) focuses on the four young Pevensie children: Peter (William Moseley), Susan (Anna Popplewell), Edmund (Skander Keynes), and Lucy (Georgie Henley). Each child has a different personality trait that will manifest itself in greater detail as their adventures unfold; Peter is the leader, Susan, the nurturer, Edmund, the pain-in-the-butt skeptic, and Lucy the wide-eyed believer.
It's World War II, and the citizens of London huddle in their homes during the frequent Nazi air raids. The Pevensie children are among the huddlers and, fearing for their safety, their parents send them off to the countryside to live in the house of a reclusive professor. During a round of hide-and-seek in the house, Lucy finds a mysterious wardrobe, which, amazingly, leads to a snow-driven fantasy world called Narnia. There, she meets a faun named Mr. Tumnus (James McAvoy) and the two become friends. But is Narnia the winter wonderland it appears to be?
When Lucy rushes back to tell her siblings about what she found, she is met with apprehension; Edmund is especially cruel in his dismissal of her claims. Unbeknownst to everyone else, though, Edmund sneaks off to check out the wardrobe himself, and, while in Narnia, meets Jadis, the White Witch (Tilda Swinton, Constantine ), an evil sorceress who's cursed the land in eternal winter.
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