The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was followed by Prince Caspian in 2008 and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader in 2010. The three films have grossed a total of $1.5 billion worldwide.
During a game of hide-and-seek, Lucy discovers a wardrobe and hides inside, only to find that she has entered a magical winter world. She encounters a faun named Mr. Tumnus, who tells her she is in Narnia. Tumnus puts Lucy to sleep by playing a flute lullaby; when she wakes up, he explains that the White Witch has cursed Narnia to eternally experience winter and never Christmas; any humans encountered are to be brought to her. Unable to hand over Lucy, Tumnus quickly sends her back home, where she finds that hardly any time has passed in the real world.
Lucy later returns through the wardrobe, followed by Edmund. Edmund meets the White Witch and tells her about Tumnus. The Witch offers him Turkish delight and kingship if he brings his siblings to her. In the real world, Lucy informs Peter and Susan, but Edmund betrays her by lying out of spite. Professor Kirke, however, suggests Lucy is telling the truth.
While fleeing the housekeeper after accidentally breaking a window, the siblings retreat to the wardrobe and enter Narnia. Peter angrily snaps at Edmund for lying to Lucy and forces him to apologize to her. They discover that the Witch has taken Tumnus, and meet talking beavers, who say Aslan plans to return and regain control of Narnia, and that there is a prophecy that when two sons of Adam and two daughters of Eve sit on the thrones of Cair Paravel, the Witch's reign will end.
Edmund sneaks off to visit the Witch, but she is furious that he came without his siblings. She sends wolves to find the children, and Edmund is imprisoned, where he meets Tumnus. The children and beavers escape, and the Witch turns Tumnus to stone.
Peter, Lucy, Susan, and the beavers encounter Father Christmas a sign that the Witch's power is weakening. He gives them tools to defend themselves — Lucy receives a cordial that can heal any injury and a dagger; Susan a magical horn, and a bow and quiver of arrows; and Peter a sword and shield. After evading Maugrim's wolves, the group reaches Aslan's camp, where he is revealed to be a lion. Two wolves ambush Lucy and Susan, but Peter kills Maugrim. Aslan's troops chase the fleeing scout wolf, and rescue Edmund.
The Witch journeys to Aslan's camp to claim Edmund, but Aslan secretly offers himself instead. That night, Lucy and Susan see the Witch kill Aslan at the Stone Table and deploy an army to slaughter his troops. Edmund encourages Peter to take command. In the morning, both armies clash in battle. Aslan is resurrected, citing magic beyond the Witch's understanding, and takes Susan and Lucy to the Witch's castle to free the petrified prisoners. Edmund is mortally wounded after breaking the witch's wand with his sword while saving Peter, but reinforcements arrive and Aslan kills the Witch. Edmund is healed by Lucy's cordial, and the Pevensies are crowned King Peter the Magnificent, Queen Susan the Gentle, King Edmund the Just, and Queen Lucy the Valiant.
Fifteen years later, the siblings, now adults, pursue a white stag. They encounter the lamppost that Lucy first saw when she entered Narnia. They cross back through the wardrobe, and since hardly any time in their world has passed since they left, they become children again. Professor Kirke asks why they were in the wardrobe. Peter says he wouldn't believe them, and he responds, "Try me."
In a mid-credit scene, Lucy attempts to use the wardrobe again, but Professor Kirke tells her he has also tried, and they will probably return to Narnia when they least expect it.
Morris Cupton as Train Guard, the guard of the train Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy ride.
Judy McIntosh as Helen Pevensie, the mother of the four Pevensie children.
Rupert Everett as the voice of Mr. Fox, a fox who helps the children along their way to Aslan.
Producer Philip Steuer voices Phillip, Edmund's talking horse.
The radio-announcer that Peter listens to on the rainy day near the beginning of the film is played by Douglas Gresham, co-producer of the movie and C. S. Lewis's stepson.[5] Keynes' voice broke during filming, so some of his voice track had to be re-looped by his sister Soumaya.[5] Mr. Pevensie is only glimpsed in a photo which Edmund tries to retrieve during the bombing, which is of Sim-Evan Jones's father.[6]
With the exception of Tilda Swinton, who was the first choice to play Jadis, the White Witch,[7] casting was a long process. Beginning in 2002,[8] Adamson went through 2,500 audition tapes, met 1,800 children and workshopped 400 before coming down to the final four actors for the Pevensies. Moseley and Popplewell came from the very start of casting, whilst Henley and Keynes were cast relatively late.[9] Moseley was cast because casting director Pippa Hall remembered she cast him as an extra in Cider with Rosie (1998). He beat 3,000 boys to the role of Peter and quit school to learn all his lines.[10]
Aslan's voice was a contention point. Brian Cox was originally cast in the role on 9 December 2004,[11] but Adamson changed his mind.[12]Liam Neeson sought out the role,[8] and was announced as the voice on 17 July 2005.[13]
Production
Pre-production
During the early 1990s, producers Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy were planning a film version.[14] They could not find a space in Britain to shoot the film during 1996,[15] and their plans to set the film in modern times[16] made Douglas Gresham oppose the film,[17] in addition to his feeling that technology had yet to catch up.[16]Perry Moore began negotiations with the C. S. Lewis estate in 2000.[18] On 7 December 2001, Walden Media announced that they had acquired the rights to The Chronicles of Narnia.[19]
The success of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone prompted the producers to feel they could make a faithful adaptation of the novel set in Britain. "Harry Potter came along, and all those cultural or geographical lines were broken," Mark Johnson explained. "When The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe was being developed at Paramount, the imperative was to set it in the U.S., and it just doesn't hold. [...] It's not the book."[20]Guillermo del Toro turned down the offer to direct due to his commitment on Pan's Labyrinth.[21] Following an Academy Award win for Shrek, director Andrew Adamson began adapting the source material with a 20-page treatment based on his memories of the book.[7] As such the film begins with the Luftwaffe bombing and concludes with an enormous battle, although they do not take up as much time in the novel.[18]
In the novel, the battle is not seen until Aslan, Susan, Lucy and their reinforcements arrive. This was changed in the movie because Adamson said he could vividly remember a huge battle,[9] an example of how Lewis left a lot to the readers' imagination. Other small changes include the reason all four children come to Narnia, in that an accident breaks a window and forces them to hide. Tumnus also never meets Edmund until the end of the novel. Minor details were added to the Pevensies, such as their mother's name, Helen, being the actual first name of Georgie Henley's mother.[5]Finchley as the home of the Pevensies was inspired by Anna Popplewell, who actually is from Finchley.[22] Adamson also changed the circumstances in which Lucy first comes into Narnia. He felt it was more natural that she first see the wardrobe while looking for a hide-and-seek hiding place, rather than just chance upon it exploring the house.[9] The film also hints at Professor Kirke's role in The Magician's Nephew, such as the engravings on the wardrobe, when it is a simple one in the novel, and the Professor's surprise and intrigue when Peter and Susan mention Lucy's discovery in the wardrobe. When Lewis wrote the novel, it was the first of the series, and the back-story later outlined by the subsequent books in the series did not exist. Additionally, in the novel, the father of the Pevensie children is in London with their mother, but in the film, their father is fighting in the war as Lucy states to Mr. Tumnus when they first meet in Narnia.
Weta Workshop head Richard Taylor cited Hieronymus Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights as an inspiration on the film. He felt Narnia had to be less dark and gritty than their depiction of Middle-earth in The Lord of the Rings because it is a new world.[23] Many of Weta's creature designs were designed for digital creation, so when Howard Berger and KNB FX inherited the practical effects work, they had to spend three months retooling approved designs for animatronics.[24] Berger's children would comment and advise upon his designs; they suggested the White Witch's hair be changed from black to blonde, which Berger concurred with as he realized Swinton's wig looked too Gothic.[25]
Filming
Principal photography began in New Zealand on 28 June 2004,[26] shooting in primarily chronological order.[6] Adamson did this in order to naturally create a sense of mature development from his young actors, which mirrored their real-life development.[17]Georgie Henley and Skandar Keynes[8] were never shown the set before filming scenes of their characters entering Narnia, nor had Henley seen James McAvoy in his Mr. Tumnus costume before shooting their scenes together.[5]
The first scene shot was at the former RNZAF Base Hobsonville for the railway scene.[27] Afterwards, they shot the Blitz scene, which Adamson called their first formal day of shooting.[9]
The filmmakers asked permission to bring in twelve reindeer to New Zealand to pull the White Witch's sled. They were denied by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, citing the potentially deadly Q fever, from which the North American reindeer population suffers, as the reason. However, ten wolves and wolf hybrids were allowed in for filming in Auckland.[28] To replace the denied live reindeer, Mark Rappaport's Creature Effects, Inc. created four animatronic reindeer that were used in shots where the deer were standing in place. The reindeer were designed with replaceable skins to get the most usage; brown for those of Father Christmas and white for those of the White Witch.[citation needed]
The cast and crew spent their time in New Zealand in Auckland before moving in November to the South Island. Shooting locations in the South Island included Flock Hill in Canterbury, the area known as Elephant Rocks near Duntroon in North Otago, which was transformed into Aslan's camp.[29] The castle scene was filmed in Purakaunui Bay, in the Catlins district, not far from the most southern point in New Zealand.[30]
The film was edited by Jim May and Sim Evan-Jones. Jones states that he really liked the problem solving that one can do with editing. According to Sim, "The way you can just take stuff and sort it out and be the keeper of the story without having to interact with actors, crew and reign" drew him to film editing.[32]
The soundtrack was recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London, England, and in Los Angeles, California. Gregson-Williams employed the 75-piece Hollywood Studio Symphony Orchestra, along with a 140-member choir (mostly members of the Bach Choir) and numerous other solo musicians such as electric violinistHugh Marsh and vocalist Lisbeth Scott (at his Wavecrest Studio).[35] He composed the original score and then spent late September through early November 2005 conducting the Hollywood Orchestra and overseeing the recording of the English choir.[35] For "colour", he employed instruments used in ancient folk music, and to underscore critical dramatic moments, he added choral textures and, occasionally, a solo voice. The score includes instances of electronic music.[36]
Another song inspired by the movie is "Lazy Sunday" (also known as "The Narnia rap") by the Lonely Island and Chris Parnell.[37][38][39] The song and its music video was released as a comedy sketch in an 2005 episode of the TV show, Saturday Night Live. The song and its video are both a spoof of hardcore rap songs.[37] In "Lazy Sunday", Parnell and Lonely Island member Andy Sambergrap about among other things, going to see The Chronicles of Narnia at an afternoon matinee.[37] The joke is that the song's lyrics are not typical for hardcore rap, which normally depicts scenes of crime and violence.[37] Samberg himself describes "Lazy Sunday" as "two guys rapping about very lame, sensitive stuff."[37] Both the song and its video became an overnight hit, surprising its creators.[37] "Lazy Sunday" is credited with helping revive Saturday Night Live which was stagnant in the years before the song's release. Several bootleg copies of "Lazy Sunday" were uploaded to the video-sharing YouTube, which had only launched earlier in the year, where they were very popular and gained a combined total of five million views (a very large number for an online video at the time).[38][39] The video's popularity brought widespread attention to YouTube and kick started the site's success, quickly becoming the most popular video website on the internet and one of the most popular websites overall, remaining so as of the early 2020s.[38][39]
Worldwide, Narnia earned $745,013,115 marking it the 55th-highest-grossing film of all time worldwide. It had a worldwide opening of $107.1 million, marking Disney's fifth-largest opening worldwide (at the time it was the largest).[41] It is the third-largest movie worldwide among those released in 2005[42] and it remains the highest-grossing movie of the Narnia franchise worldwide, and separately in North America and overseas.[43] Finally, it is also the most successful film of Walden Media worldwide.[44]
The film opened with $23,006,856 on around 6,800 screens at 3,616 theatres on its opening day (Friday, 9 December 2005), averaging $6,363 per theater or $3,383 per screen. The film took in a total of $65,556,312 on its opening weekend (9–11 December 2005),[45] the 24th-best opening weekend at the time (now 54th). It was also Disney's third-largest opening weekend at the time (now the 34th-largest)[46] as well as the second-biggest December opening, behind The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. It is now fourth following the 2012 opening of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, the 2007 release of I Am Legend, and the 2009 release of Avatar as well.[47] Additionally, it made the third-largest opening weekend of 2005.[48] It grossed $291,710,957 in total becoming the second-highest-grossing film of 2005 behind Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith.[49] It surpassed the gross of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by only $1.7 million, although the latter grossed $895.9 million worldwide, ahead of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. It is the highest-grossing film of the 2005 holiday period,[50] the second-highest-grossing Christian film,[51] the sixth-largest family–children's book adaptation,[52] the ninth-highest-grossing fantasy–live-action film[53] and the 10th-highest-grossing film overall in Disney company history.[54] Finally, it is the largest film of Walden Media worldwide. Box Office Mojo estimates that the film sold over 45 million tickets in North America.[55]
Critical reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 75% based on 217 reviews, with an average rating of 6.9/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "With first-rate special effects and compelling storytelling, this adaptation stays faithful to its source material and will please moviegoers of all ages."[56] On Metacritic the film holds an average weighted score of 75 out of 100, based on 39 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[57]CinemaScore reported that audiences gave the film a rare "A+" grade.[58]
Critic Roger Ebert gave the film 3 out of 4 stars. Ebert and Roeper gave the movie "Two Thumbs Up". Movie critic Leonard Maltin gave the film 3 out of four stars, calling it "an impressive and worthwhile family film", though he also said, "it does go on a bit and the special effects are extremely variable."[59] Duane Dudak of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel gave the movie 3 out of 4 stars. Stuart Klawans of The Nation said, "All ticket buyers will get their money's worth."[60] Elizabeth Weitzman of New York Daily News gave it 4 out of 4 stars and said: "A generation-spanning journey that feels both comfortingly familiar and excitingly original." Critic Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle listed it as the second best film of the year.[61] Kit Bowen gave the film 3 out of 4 stars.[62]
John Anderson of Newsday reacted negatively to the film, stating "there's a deliberateness, a fastidiousness and a lack of daring and vision that marks the entire operation."[63]
Georgie Henley received critical acclaim for her performance as Lucy Pevensie. She won several awards, including the Phoenix Film Critics Society award for Best Actress in a Leading Role and Best Performance by a Youth. She also won other awards either for Best Young Performance or Best Actress in a Leading Role.
Best Sound Editing in Feature Film – Dialogue and Automated Dialogue Replacement
George Watters II (supervising sound editor) Kimberly Harris (supervising adr editor) Richard Beggs (sound designer) David Bach (supervising dialogue editor) David V. Butler (dialogue editor) Laura Graham (adr editor) Michele Perrone (adr editor)
Nominated
Best Sound Editing in Feature Film – Sound Effects & Foley
Richard Beggs (supervising sound editor) George Watters II (supervising sound editor) Victoria Martin (supervising foley editor) F. Hudson Miller (sound editor) R.J. Palmer (sound editor) John Morris (sound editor) Suhail Kafity (sound editor) Chuck Michael (sound editor) Todd Toon (sound editor) Gary Wright (sound editor) Heather Gross (sound editor) Matthew Harrison (foley editor) James Likowski (foley editor) Dan O'Connell (foley artist) John T. Cucci (foley artist)
The DVD for The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was released on 4 April 2006. It is available in a standard one-disc set (with separate full-screen and widescreen editions), and a deluxe widescreen two-disc boxed set with additional artwork and other materials from Disney and Walden Media. The DVD sold four million copies on its first day of release[66] and overtook Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire to become the top-selling DVD in North America for 2006.[67] As of December 2008 it has grossed $353.5 million in DVD sales, equivalent to 12,458,637 units sold.[68][69]
Disney later issued a four-disc extended cut of the film on DVD. It was released on 12 December 2006, and was available commercially until 31 January 2007, after which Disney put the DVD on moratorium.[70] The extended cut of the film runs approximately 150 minutes. The set includes all of the features previously released on the two-disc special edition. The two additional discs include a segment called "The Dreamer of Narnia", a previously unreleased feature-length film about C. S. Lewis, and additional production featurettes.[71] Most of the extended footage, besides the extended battle sequence, is longer establishing shots of Narnia and footage of the Pevensies walking in Narnia.[72]
The high-definition Blu-ray Disc version was released on 13 May 2008, in the United States, and on 16 June 2008, in the United Kingdom.[73]
^ abcRichard Taylor, Howard Berger, Isis Mussendun, Roger Ford, Donald McAlpine, Sim-Evan Jones, Harry Gregson-Williams, Mark Johnson (2006). Cinematic Storytellers (DVD). Buena Vista.
^ abChronicles of a Director (DVD). Buena Vista. 2006.
^ abcVisualizing The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: The Complete Production Experience (DVD). Buena Vista. 2006.
^ abcdAndrew Adamson, Mark Johnson, Roger Ford (2006). Commentary (DVD). Buena Vista.
