The Film
C.S. Lewis' fantastical tale of a mysterious and magical world that lies beyond a seemingly ordinary wardrobe is one that is near and dear to many a reader's heart, including my own. It was perhaps one of the earliest fantasy books I read as a young man some 30 years ago, and helped stimulate a burgeoning interest in fantasy and science fiction that remains in me to this day. And as such a prominent work, the challenge of envisioning the story on the big screen is not one to be taken lightly.
The Chronicles of Narnia: the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe tells the tale of four troubled siblings, thrust from their home in war-torn London to an eccentric professor's country estate to escape the ravages of World War II. Playing hide and seek, the children unlock a secret door into the land of Narnia, a dangerous place in its own right where they must learn to respect and support each other in order to survive.
Like Lord of the Rings in some ways - in fact, the large battle sequence in the film is reminiscent of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy - Narnia is full of mythical beasts such as centaurs, dwarves, giants, minotaurs and fawns. But it's the familiar creatures that must have presented the greatest challenge in making the film - beavers, lions, tigers, bears (oh, my!) horses, and one magnificent lion. You see, these animals speak and, though many walk on all fours, they behave quite like humans. It's one thing to dress up a man as a beast and add CGI to make him look more beastly, but it's quite another to make a familiar animal like a lion, a fox, or a beaver speak, move with purpose and express believable emotions.
And the film-makers have done well in this regard. In some of the battle scenes, the leaping beasties do reveal slight clues of their computer-generated (or computer-enhanced) origins, but nothing so significant or jarring as to take you out of the film's milieu. These enhanced animals and beasts interact quite believably with the human characters in the film. In fact, the animal characters fairly steal the show, leaving us slightly less interested than we should be in the plight of the humans.
The young actors playing the children are just a bit lacking in the presence and charisma (and the chemistry) required to pull off their roles as successfully as I would have liked. Again, these shortcomings are fairly minor, and perhaps will improve in the future films in the series. All in all, it's an excellent effort. It's easy to believe we've been transported to the land of Narnia, and we may not be in a hurry to leave.
For an alternate take on the film see Joe Lozito's review.
The Picture
The film is presented in a widescreen aspect ratio of 2.35:1 in full 1080p, using the efficient AVC codec. With all its dependence on Computer Generated Imagery, Narnia is a very naturalistic looking film. And the transfer to Blu-ray captures this well with lush greenery, clear blue skies, and excellent shadow detail. This is a near reference quality transfer and holds up well under the scrutiny of the 92-inch diagonal image in our reference front projection system.
The Sound
The lossless multi-channel PCM soundtrack (48 Khz/16-bit) does a good job conveying the dialog of the characters - human, animal and mythical beings alike. From the opening WWII air raid bombs to moments of whispered dialog, to the cacophony of the final battle, sonic details are captured and reproduced well. They could have saved some disc space (or increased the sample size) had they gone with Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD Master Audio, but all in all, it's a clean mix.
The Extras
With all the choices these days for watching movies (DVD, Blu-ray, pay per view, downloads, etc.), it's nice to see the studios invest some effort (and money) into a Blu-ray release, fully exploting the format and setting it apart from lesser quality options. On "Narnia," Disney has raised the bar with an entire extra Blu-ray Disc full of special features including a fairly addictive BD-Java game (which unlocks a special bonus artwork gallery if you win it), and loads of feature length making-of documentaries and shorter featurettes.
There are also two audio commentary tracks, an interactive map of Narnia, fun facts, bloopers and more. It's clear from the documentaries that the film-makers were passionate about this project and the wealth of special features will definitely enhance a fan's enjoyment and appreciation of the film.
Final Thoughts
Although critics will certainly find things to pick on in some of the acting and story elements, overall the first film in the Narnia series is enjoyable with a compelling story, rich visuals and a wholly believable land of mythical creatures and sentient animals. On Blu-ray the film's colorful fantasy world is brought to life with stunning visual details, well-saturated colors and excellent audio quality. Rounding out the package is a comprehensive offering of special features and extras which make this Blu-ray Disc set an easy recommendation for purchase.
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