The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe

****

i'm almost embarrassed to admit how much i enjoyed this. a preamble is due i think.

in terms of the message of the narnia books, i'm completely of the Philip Pullman school of thought. that it spreads a very world hating view. It wrongly condemns a child's innate wish to grow up, and the answers that it gives, aka, that the best things that could happen to the children after all this adventure was death and going to heaven, that answer is a very scary one which no parent in their right mind should be promoting to their kids. That aside, i've always wanted to marry Mr. Tumnus, and always always loved the Ice Queen story by Hans Christian Anderson which Lewis unashamedly ripped off for Jadis. and being the child at heart i fell into Narnia as eagerly as Lucy did.

anyone who's being through year 7 with me would know that little itch i've always had about the BBC version of the series. the bucktoothed lucy, made the whole damn thing so annoying. and so i was really worried, the parts demanded much of the children and if the kids sucked well, goodbye sequels and it's subsequent millions (though look at the harry potter kids, i mean judging by that first one.....) But i didn't have to worry at all! i mean ok there was a little overacting by lucy but she was so damn cute she got away with it. Susan was aptly annoying, i hated Edmund just as much i was supposed to. and Peter. ok this is going to sound very wrong considering he's 18 but boy, he's really somethin' (hey that wasn't as bad as the emma watson worshippers). i think this is stemming more from my need for a big brother figure all my life though. that and the absolute horror in his face when he thought he'd lost lucy, oh and the fact that he looks like he could be a prince you know, a little like a younger william.

ok that's enough of the little ones.

Tilda Swinton. She scares me. I hated her in Orlando (i blame the director). and pretty much everything else she's being in. But she's always brilliant. Her face has this otherworldly quality about it. she truly looks alien. and yet she was in Thumbsucker pulling off the bored suburban american house wife. HOW DOES THAT WORK?! in a word, she was perfect.

and Mr. Tumnus. who would've thought that the annoying little brother in Wimbleton would make such a good faun. and he was good wasn't he? all darty eyed and lowered heads. and the scarf. That image, the image that supposedly started the whole series has always been my favourite image, of anything, ever. The snow, the lamp, the faun with the red red scarf and the brown paper packages tied up with strings (these are a few of my favourite things.....). And they kept it perfect, and lingered on it, and my heart soared, melted, and plummeted accordingly. i was quite happy being manipulated in this way.

and while we're on images, boy were there some impressive ones. even of the wardrobe while lucy was pulling the sheet off. it was perfectly majestic and dwarfed her so completely. (can you tell that i really loved this film yet?)

it's not without it's faults though. With all the digital wizardry, i don't get why do they still look like cardboard cut outs when the kids were looking over the frozen lake. and the end when Aslan defeated Jadis (what did happen there by the way?) and everything moved around Peter as he witnessed it, the foot soldiers who travelled passed peter were sped up digitally and...looked like...they were...skipping... When i saw it in Hoytts the screen was a tad dark for the night scenes to pop and the sound were also a tad soft for it's manipulative purposes. and of course, much corny lines which really is to be expected. I was surprised at just how much humour was in it though.

honestly, i can't wait for the next one. i sound really pathetic and it's a little sad that the movie i've given out the highest mark for so far was this...but i don't care. i loved it, and that's what these reviews are about right? making me happy?